95 January 1, 2020 83. Changing jobs The job market today is very competitive and it is best to choose a career or field of study early in order to get a good job later in life. To what extent do you agree or disagree Today’s hyper-competitive job market encourages parents and educators to push specialization at increasingly earlier ages. Although choosing a career early on is a safe option, it will not produce the best results in my opinion. The reason that opting into a career from an early age has become so prevalent is that it affords people a sense of security that is at least somewhat justified. In Vietnam, the vast majority of High School graduates are pushed early by their parents into safe fields like finance and the sciences. There area number of hard skills required for these fields such as good mathematical acumen, industriousness, and logical thinking. If students start to learn these skills at a very young age or beginning in High School then they will have ahead start on their peers that can continue through university into the job market. This is the theory that guides specialization. It is difficult to dispute the above logic, however, recent research has shown that having a breadth of knowledge and experience is a much better predictor of future success. A recent book by David Epstein titled Range debunked the commonly held belief that early specialization is safer. In fact, the majority of leaders in their fields experimented with a large number of subject areas and professions before settling on one. The early specialisers were the exceptions and are therefore a poor model to imitate. The core argument of that book is that experience in multiple fields helps you to make connections and learn a diverse range of skills that you can later bring to bear on your chosen profession. In conclusion, having a range of experience is more important than locking yourself into afield of study early in order to enhance later career options. Universities ought to make a shift to adopt some of the principles of liberal arts schools to better prepare graduates for an uncertain future world economy. Word Count 323