Choosing a career path is one stage of human life where one makes a choice that could possibly affect the rest of his life. For many people in the present setting, such a stage occurs in secondary school, going by the Nigerian system of education. Once a student gets to SS 1, he chooses which of the three senior secondary school sections to go to, whether science, commercial, or art. At this stage, a student has already set a career agenda for himself.
The way society is structured, every profession is important. Each and every profession works together to keep society moving. Where some issues arise is when one profession is prioritized ahead of the other. This happens more in developing countries like Nigeria.
Presently, Nigeria is not a producing country. The consuming nature of the economy makes professionals in some fields jobless. Today, many engineering graduates are teaching in school as what I term accidental teachers. The same way, you can find many people working in the bank despite not having any educational backgrounds in finance or accounting. People are doing this to make a living.
In Nigeria, the only profession that has a place to a very large extent is medicine. It is hard to graduate from a medical school and be jobless. This is because the required doctor-to-citizen ratio hasn't been met. We are still far from having the required number in Nigeria.
Because of the nature of the country, people engage in multiple jobs to be able to cope with their living expenses. If the economy is developed to the point of having a place for everyone in his profession, it will be the best for rapid growth. There is a popular saying that one is a jack of all trades and a master of none. Many people engaging in multiple careers end up acting in agreement with the above statement.
I am of the opinion that each person should stick to one profession and grow in it. I was discussing this with a professor recently. We discussed his experience in the UK when he went there for research. He made mention of an analytical chemist that he met in a laboratory in the UK who has been working with gas chromatography instrument for the whole of his 30-year career. I mean a laboratory scientist focusing on only one instrument for the whole of his career. The implication is that he knew the ins and outs of any analysis involving the instrument. This is in sharp contrast with what is available in Nigeria. You see someone in a laboratory working with multiple instruments. It's possible he is above average in using each of the instruments, but he can be as efficient as someone who is dedicated to using one.
This applies to other careers as well. In a working system where one's profession affords him a standard of living, concentrating on one career path is the best.
Experience is one of the things in life that can't be bought. It is gained with time. The more you do the same thing over and over again, you tend to gain more knowledge about it and improve on it. Sticking to one career path is more favorable to such improvement.
The disadvantage that may be sighted is in the event of one losing his job. However, looking at the greater picture of what favors the growth of the system more, sticking to a profession is the best. Moreover, one can engage in multiple careers and be jobless at a point in time if the system isn't strong enough to mitigate unemployment.
In fact, each member of a broad field of profession should stick to his area of expertise. A doctor shouldn't do the job of a nurse. A builder shouldn't do the work of an architect and go on.
By mastering your career with time, you get to know how to solve a given problem better each day.