JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v4i4.2368 jpsim.v4i4.2368 STUDENT CORNER Career Counseling in Pakistan-Need of the Hour Umar Muhammad Saad muhammadsaadumar1998@gmail.com * Munir Atif Rizwan Muneeba Naveed Saba Fatima Memorial College of Medicine and Dentistry, Lahore, Pakistan *Correspondence: Muhammad Saad Umar (muhammadsaadumar1998@gmail.com) 29 11 2023 2023 4 4 333 335 19 07 2023 03 09 2023 Copyright © 2023 The Author(s) 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Obective: The concept of career counseling is virtually non-existent in Pakistan. This results in lack of guidance to our youth who are reaching the pivotal stage of selecting a career for their future which is the most critical juncture in one's professional life. The aim of our study was to assess (a) the driving factors & career choice (MBBS or Dentistry) satisfaction (b) collate the views about the significance of career counselling among medical & dental students of a private sector medical & dental college (Fatima Memorial College of Medicine & Dentistry, Lahore, Pakistan).

Methodology

Student responses were collected through a statistically validated questionnaire and then analysed.

 Results

The driving factors behind career choice were predominantly personal choice. A quarter of students in the study adopted the profession under parental influence. A similar proportion were not satisfied with their career choice. Vast majority of students were familiar with the concept of career counselling and felt that formal structured career counselling could have helped them or the next generation of students at the stage of selecting a career path in context of joining Medicine/Dentistry as a career path or not.

 Conclusion

The study highlights that about one fourth of our medical and dental students are not satisfied with their career choice but most feel that a true insight and flavor of the profession in the form of career counselling at the point of their career selection could have assisted them in having some practical insights into Medicine and Dentistry.

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