Two careers we are forced to opt

Make you kid a doctor or engineer!

The first thought on the mind of a father whose wife has just given birth to a baby boy in the maternity hospital is: my boy will become a doctor or engineer. The little boy's fate is often sealed before the nurse cuts the umbilical cord.
I have spotted this big billboard in the bazaar. Apparently, there are only two professions- doctor or engineer - for the children in Pakistan. I have yet to see a family where the father happily allows a brilliant child to study social sciences instead of those hard core sciences.
My father, on the other hand, was very supportive when I broke the news that I am dropping out of my 4-year NUCES-FAST computer degree midway. I opted for law and never repented my dropping out decision.
One of my cousins miserably passed his eighth grade. His mother came to my house, asking me to arrange the 'brilliant' boy's admission in some good school. I asked her why she is insisting for a good school. She answered with the innocence of an Asian mother, "I and his dad want him to study science".
Our parents' wild daydreaming often make as career counselling blunders. I don't know why social sciences are not a priority for our parents when many of them miserably failed to do good in sciences.

We are career counselling disasters

No no this one!

There is this guy who does bachelors in economics from the Government College University Lahore with distinction. He shifts to Islamabad and does MBA from Quaid-e-Azam university. He gets nostalgic about Lahore and returns to do LLB from Punjab University. Lahore’s hustle and bustle starts disturbing him and he moves to Islamabad again and does LLM from the International Islamic University. He feels a little empty and does masters in criminology. After studying so much, he decides to settle in the life and appears in CSS and gets a job in Pakistan Railways.
If he wanted to do CSS, he could have opted for it right after his bachelors. He wasted eight years of his life and money on studying various disciplines.
We are ages away from career counselling. Most of the professionals around us did not opt for their professions. They accidentally landed in them. My father went to Lahore to become a primary school teacher, but somehow landed in law of which he had developed an aptitude. Right now he has a large clientele and is a successful trial lawyer by many ways.
Following my father’s 'golden' footsteps, I went to Islambad’s National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES) – commonly known as FAST - to do software engineering. After spending two years in the university, I realised that I didn't have any aptitude for computers and I quit the degree half way. I came to Lahore and started working in Daily Times and studying law. Me and my father have a slight edge over the guy as we only wasted a couple of years contrary to him wasting eight years.