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Career Advise

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Mr_S
Super Contributor
I spoke to a career guidance counsellor who adivsed me to complete my entrepreneurship diploma, then take a B-tech degree in business admin, then a M-tech also in business admin. My initial plan was to take a bcom general after my entrepreneurship diploma. But then in that case i would have to complete Honors then only start my masters. My main objective at the end of the day is to be in senior management/CEO/Director/executive and non executive director etc. Any advise? cos i dont believe in only trusting one mans opinion. Kind Regards
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25 REPLIES 25
Shard
Super Contributor
Dont over qualify yourself. See qualifications and experience as two ends on your scale, you need to balance those.
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Salv
Frequent Contributor
Coudnt agree more with shard, do your honours at max, then get out and get experience. Ull realise that qualifications are only the foundation to a very complex house ur trying to build. Good luck
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john_1
Super Contributor
start your own company and you will have achieved your goals..
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Not applicable
your guidance counselor is most probably the person least qualified to provide any advice...what do they know ...where do they get their info...all third hand and anecdotal...my advice is before you do ANYTHING...go and do a shadow/internship or just offer to make the coffee for people that do what you want to do one day...
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Not applicable
In my part of the world (engineering) a BTech is considered inferior to a BEng or BSc. In my opinion, steer clear of BTech and rather do one of the degrees that have traditionally been offered at academic universities.
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Not applicable
so by doing an entrepreneurship diploma you will be shown what to do by people who are the least entrepreneurial people on the planet...u cant teach that just like you cant teach common sense...
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john_1
Super Contributor
I agree with chartist, which is why I said go do it..
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Not applicable
Also, think about what you will do before you are appointed CEO. You will inevitably start on the bottom and work your way up, so pick a route that interests you. You can always study the MBA part-time while working.
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john_1
Super Contributor
think of it this way.. while you study start a business..work 22h days and when you finished studing either you will have experince to get a decent job or you will have built an empire of your own. win win
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aaronbennett
Contributor
im doing an MBA online via the university of liverpool, this allows me to study and work, thereby getting the best of both worlds minus a social life... hahaha but yeah, its alot like stock trading, you need education for the fundamentals and trading time/experience to get used to applying them... everything in life works like that... learn + doing = master..... hopefully... hahaha
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JDT
Regular Contributor
Whatever you choose to do, make sure you are the best at what you do. When X is required, do X, Y and Z. It will improve your knowledge tremendously, you will be noticed as someone willing to pull their weight and this usually results in climbing the corporate ladder rather quickly... In my opinion there are just to many job starters that want everything handed to them without proving themselves..
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Not applicable
I smell a whiff of entitlement here...if u wanna be an entrepreneur then u dont need a job....if u want a job all you need to know is how to brown nose well...if u wanna be an entrepreneur I can put u in touch with a friend who runs the big issue....one of the best experiences for anyone wanting to be an entrepreneur is to go out and sell the big issue for a while...I suspect u are more the soft cushy corner office just doing this till i get my retirement type...
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Not applicable
Buy the degree
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Mr_S
Super Contributor
Chartist i would love to get in touch with your contact. Firstly, thanks for all the replies! I was honestly overwhelmed. OK, i see the majority of you are mentioning experience. I realised qualifications are nothing without experience a long time ago, that is why @ age 17 i started a garden maintainance and landscaping company which is still in operation, and i got invloved with the management and supervision of the family guesthouse which i mentioned to the forumites before. Yes its not very formal experience but im sure it must count for somthing rite?
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Mr_S
Super Contributor
i have tried getting mentors etc for what im planning on doing but they seem so cold lol and uninterested for some reason. so now im thinking of retirement candidates etc. I still have some thinking to do but as john mentioned earlier if i remember correctly, starting a business while studying is what i have done, and in fact im planning on starting a another one pretty soon but im worried that it will not help get me the position im looking for. The reason i took entrepreneurship chartist is because i think every business needs an entrepreneural mindset to it, regardless of what business it is, thats why its quite important to at leat have the background. I do plan to have a basket of qualifications that will excel me into my desired position.
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Shaun_Siddall
Super Contributor
Entrepreneurship can't be tought to you. You either have or you dont. Sounds like you have it so what good is the course?
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Sugar_Snap
Frequent Contributor
Agree with John, decide what you want from life ie, work in the corporate world as CEO or have your own business. If it is the latter, then the sooner you start the sooner you will get your business of the ground. There is a lot to learn in experience in running your own business, besides what they teach you in your course. 1000 days is what it takes to build a sucessful business (according to the Jews). That is true as we are busy starting up our 3rd business. You will still make money from the business in the 1000 days, but the business will be established and run smoothly after 1000 days. Good luck, difficult to choose on this one - don't study for too long as you miss out on a lot of opportunities due to your commitment to your studies. Always remember, hard work and common sense is more important than intelligence - one of Gary Player's 10 commandments of life.
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Not applicable
The entrepreneurship course could still be of some value, regardless of whether the lecturers are the greatest entrepreneurs or not. For example, one may learn basic accounting and tax law, do case studies on successful businesses, etc, and these may give one ideas to apply in one's own business. One important point that hasn't been mentioned enough is to avoid women like the plague; once one gets her claws into you, you'll have no time left for studying or tending your businesses.
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saash
Super Contributor
Timato, that's not fair. There are women out there who take pride in their men and help groom them to become good businessmen and give them focus and direct their passion! That said, lots of the top execs get their more because they know alot about building relationships, closing deals, following profitable hunches, having the bll's to back out of crp situations, negotiating strong contracts, turning businesses around from loss makers to profit generators, firing dead wood, motivating good managers ... and stuff like that. Those skills come from excelent leadership, not excelent degrees. A good all-round business degree, like a B-com - and maybe an MBA so the market that you are in takes you seriously on the board. But more than that is a waste - too many degrees may increase your "employability" - but CEO's are not employees, they're chosen cos they have a proven track record of making lots of money for shareholders.
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