A look at elective college courses, and how even the ones you're not keen on can provide essential skills and lead you to new career paths.

1. Address:Centennial College,P.O.Box631, StationA, Toronto M1K 5E9, Ontario,Canada
Tel: 416-289-5300, Email: success@centennialcollege.ca Page 1
On Electives in College: Discover Your Passion
When leavinghigh school and picking your college program, you hopefully have a
solid idea of what you want to do as a career. But when choosing your college
courses, you may find yourself having to take mandatory electives, or courses
that seem to have little to nothing to do with your chosen profession, or else don't
cover an area of the career you're interested in doing. Basically, they're the
equivalent to that subject in high school you weren't good at, only in a post-
secondary setting. You may wonder why you haveto take them, but they shouldn't
be written off. College is all about giving you necessary job skills, so you're taking
those classes for a reason. These reasons include…
Those skills may prove useful later
Just because you're not fond of what a course teaches doesn't mean you won't
need it eventually. For example, if you're in journalism, you may be disinterested
in photography, but have to take it as part of the program. Maybe you're bad at
photography, or uninterested, and don't intend to do it as a part of your
subsequent career. But in a field that requires everyone to be multimedia savvy,
you may find yourself called on to be a photojournalist anyway, and when that
time comes, you'll be grateful to have the skills, even if they were begrudgingly
acquired. Indeed, if you're not good at the subject, it becomes even more
important that you study it, like it or not. Furthermore, not having those skills
may cause you to be locked out of the jobs you really want, so the college is simply
avoiding killing your career before it even begins.
You can keep your interests varied
Maybe you have interests outside of your chosen career path that aren't covered
in your program. Electives can be a way of keeping your interests in your life
while making them a part of your education. After all, not all of your education
has to pertain to directly advancingyour career. Your happiness is important, too,
and a course about your non-career-related interests can be a welcome breather
between your dryer academic pursuits. It may even be the key to an unknown
future path, too.

2. Address:Centennial College,P.O.Box631, StationA, Toronto M1K 5E9, Ontario,Canada
Tel: 416-289-5300, Email: success@centennialcollege.ca Page 2
You may discover your true passion
In the long run, you may discover your program of study isn't the best fit for you.
It happens, and the importantthing is knowingwhen to change tracks and choose
a program that does suit you. One method of finding that is through your
electives. If there wassomething you liked better than your main program, it may
turn out to be the career for you.
So, don't grumble about taking a few electives. Indeed, experiment a bit and
choose some odd things you have no prior experience in, and aim towards
expandingyour marketableskills. You haveno idea the strange things you'regood
at untilyou try, and you never know whatwill enhance your career, or lead you to
a new one.
Author:Jason White