Steps in Choosing a Career and Making a Career Plan – Career Opportunities (Senior 3 Entrepreneurship) | Ganzaa

Career Opportunities

Lessons

Senior 3 · Entrepreneurship

Career Opportunities

4 lessons

Lesson 4 of 4

Steps in Choosing a Career and Making a Career Plan

25 min

Three good options, one decision

Byiringiro sits the S3 national examination this year. He likes building things on his phone and has taught himself to make simple websites; he is strong at mathematics; and he cooks for his family every weekend and enjoys it. A teacher suggests software development at a TVET school; his uncle, an accountant, suggests A-level with mathematics and economics; a friend’s mother, who runs a restaurant, suggests culinary arts. All three are reasonable. How should he choose?

This lesson gives a method that turns a hard, emotional choice into a series of manageable steps, ending in a written plan. Byiringiro and all figures are illustrative.

Definition

Self-assessment: an honest look at your own interests, abilities, values and personality, to find careers that suit you.

Career plan: a written document that states a career goal and the steps, dates and resources needed to reach it.

Back-up option: a second career choice that you can follow if the first one does not work out.

Example: Byiringiro’s self-assessment shows strong interest in technology; his career plan sets out the TVET route to software development, with culinary arts as his back-up.

The steps

Know yourself. List your interests (what you enjoy), abilities (what you do well), values (what matters to you: income, helping people, independence, security) and personality (do you prefer people, things, ideas or data?).
Explore occupations that match: use the fields in Lesson 2.
Gather information on each: duties, route, cost, demand and pay, from the sources in Lesson 3.
Compare the options against the things that matter most to you. A weighted decision matrix (Worked example 1) makes the comparison fair.
Decide, and choose a back-up.
Write a plan with a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound, as you learned in S2), steps, dates and resources.
Act: apply, study, and gain experience.
Review and adjust at least once a year. New interests and new facts send you back to step 1: the dashed arrow.

A tool for step 1: six interest types

The American psychologist John L. Holland described six broad types of work interest. Most people are a mix of two or three. Tick the descriptions that sound like you.

Type	You like to …	Example occupations
Realistic	work with your hands, tools, machines, plants or animals	mechanic, electrician, farmer, mason
Investigative	observe, analyse and solve problems	laboratory technician, engineer, doctor
Artistic	create, design and express ideas	designer, musician, writer, chef
Social	help, teach and care for people	teacher, nurse, social worker
Enterprising	lead, persuade and start things	entrepreneur, sales manager, lawyer
Conventional	organise, keep records and work with data	accountant, bank clerk, administrator

Factors that influence a career choice

Group	Factors
Personal	interests, abilities, values, personality, health
Family and social	family expectations and finances, role models, friends’ choices, stereotypes about “men’s” and “women’s” work
Economic	demand for workers, pay, cost of training, chance to start a business
Access	schools and training places nearby, entry requirements, information available

Some factors help and some mislead. No occupation is only for men or only for women, and a friend’s choice is not a reason for yours.

Tip

Exam technique. Questions on “steps in choosing a career” expect the steps in order, each with a sentence of explanation. Learn the cycle as two halves: choosing (know yourself, explore, gather, compare) and planning and acting (decide, plan, act, review).

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Worked example 1: a weighted decision matrix

Byiringiro scores each option from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) on five criteria, and gives each criterion a weight for how much it matters to him. For “cost and distance”, a high score means cheap and close.

Criterion (weight)	Software development	Accounting (A-level route)	Culinary arts
Interest (×3)	5	3	4
Ability (×3)	4	5	3
Demand for workers (×2)	4	3	4
Cost and distance (×1)	3	2	4
Expected pay (×1)	4	4	3

Step 1: multiply each score by its weight and add.

Software: $5 \times 3 + 4 \times 3 + 4 \times 2 + 3 \times 1 + 4 \times 1 = 15 + 12 + 8 + 3 + 4 = 42$

Accounting: $9 + 15 + 6 + 2 + 4 = 36$

Culinary arts: $12 + 9 + 8 + 4 + 3 = 36$

Step 2: compare with the maximum, $5 \times (3 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1) = 50$ . Software development scores $\frac{42}{50} = 84\%$ .

Step 3: decide. Software development is his first choice. Accounting and culinary arts tie at 36, so he breaks the tie on interest (4 against 3), which he decides matters most to him, although ability carries the same weight, and keeps culinary arts as his back-up. The matrix does not decide for him: it shows clearly why he chose.

Worked example 2: from decision to plan

SMART goal: “By December 2029 I will hold a TVET Certificate V in software development and have at least 6 months of internship experience, so that I can apply for junior developer posts in 2030.”

When	Step	Resources needed
2026	Sit the S3 exam; apply to a TVET school offering software development	exam results, school fees
2027 to 2029	Certificates III, IV and V; join a coding club; build three small projects	fees, a laptop, internet
2029	Internship of at least 6 months	internship.rw, a CV
2030	Apply for jobs; consider a diploma later	Kora Job Portal, references

A resource calculation: a laptop costs about Frw 450,000. To have it by the start of Certificate V, he saves from January 2027 to June 2028, which gives $12 + 6 = 18$ months, so he must save $450{,}000 \div 18 = 25{,}000$ Frw a month, perhaps from weekend cooking orders, which also keeps his back-up skill alive.

Warning

Common mistakes. (1) Skipping self-assessment and starting from a job title that sounds impressive. (2) Having no back-up option. (3) Writing a goal that is not SMART, such as “I want to be successful”. (4) Treating the plan as fixed forever: review it every year.

Using Self-Evaluation to Choose a Career, from GCFLearnFree (under 2 minutes). Watch for the questions it suggests you ask yourself, and add your answers to step 1 of your plan.

Your turn: a personal career plan

Copy and complete this plan in your exercise book. Keep it and review it at the start of S4 or your first TVET year.

Section	Your entry
My interest types (two or three)
My strongest abilities and subjects
What I value most in work
Three occupations that fit
My choice and my back-up
My SMART goal
Steps, with dates
Resources and costs
Who can advise me

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Practice

List, in order, the steps in choosing a career.
Explain what a self-assessment covers, with one example for each part.
Match each person to one of Holland’s interest types: (a) Aline loves helping younger pupils with homework; (b) Eric enjoys repairing bicycles; (c) Ange keeps her cooperative’s records neatly.
Give two personal and two economic factors that influence career choice.
Rewrite this goal as a SMART goal: “I want to work in tourism.”
Using the weights of Worked example 1, score an option rated interest 4, ability 4, demand 3, cost 5 and pay 2. What percentage of the maximum is it?
A student needs Frw 270,000 for tools and has 18 months to save. How much must she save each month?
“Parents should choose their children’s careers, because they know them best.” Evaluate this statement.

Show answersHide answers

Know yourself; explore occupations; gather information; compare the options; decide, with a back-up; write a SMART plan; act; review and adjust.
Interests (enjoys drawing), abilities (good at mathematics), values (wants to help people), personality (prefers working with things rather than people).
(a) Social; (b) Realistic; (c) Conventional.
Personal: interests, abilities (also values, personality, health). Economic: demand for workers, pay (also cost of training, chance to start a business).
For example: “By July 2030 I will hold a TVET Certificate V in tourism and have completed a 3-month internship with a tour operator, so that I can apply to work as a tour guide.”
$4 \times 3 + 4 \times 3 + 3 \times 2 + 5 \times 1 + 2 \times 1 = 12 + 12 + 6 + 5 + 2 = 37$ ; $\frac{37}{50} \times 100\% = 74\%$ .
$270{,}000 \div 18 = 15{,}000$ Frw a month.
For: parents know their child’s character and the family’s finances, and they may have experience of work. Against: the child must do the work every day, so their own interests, abilities and values matter most, and parents may not know today’s labour market. Best: the student decides, using parents, teachers and official information as advisers.

1Three good options, one decision

2The steps

3A tool for step 1: six interest types

4Factors that influence a career choice

Your turn: a personal career plan

Three good options, one decision

The steps

A tool for step 1: six interest types

Factors that influence a career choice