Doctor, the no.1 job in Malaysia

FMT Reporters

 | January 5, 2015

A survey revealed that Malaysian students would rather practice medicine than fly a plane.

PETALING JAYA: Doctor, teacher, pilot, police officer and businessman, are the top five career choices of Malaysian children, revealed a survey.

The survey conducted last year by Adecco Malaysia showed that the children, aged between seven to 14, thought that being a doctor was a “noble profession” with one eager nine-year-old hopeful at finding a cure for Ebola.

While some kids thought they could earn RM2 million a month as a doctor, others were happy to settle for a RM250 salary.

In contrast, Malaysian children chose actor or actress as their favourite job in the same survey carried out the previous year.

The recent findings indicated a shift in the childrens’ career choices, as this year’s list emphasised jobs that were more helpful and caring such as teachers, environmentalists, police officers and fire-fighters.

A total of 82 per cent children also appeared to value “spending time with their family” over “making lots of money” as they felt that money could only bring them temporary happiness whereas their family was “eternal happiness”.

The survey results also revealed that some children weren’t interested in “safe” jobs and wanted to explore more exciting careers like constructing a chocolate factory a la fictional character, Willy Wonka, or following their role model, British celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver.

Dancer, singer, actor and TV personalities remained popular choices because they provided opportunities to travel and become famous.

But the children felt that the best or coolest jobs fell in the more “serious” category of doctor, pilot and private investigator, as well as the unusual job of a ribbon producer, fireworks specialist or wildlife photographer.

While only one 12-year-old boy aspired to be the next Prime Minister of Malaysia, the rest had much to say about the first three things they would do if they were PM.

Among their answers were, “meet One Direction (a British boy band)”, “ban smoking”, “stop the use of uniforms in school”, “plant more trees”, and “protect the country from tornadoes”.

While the children responded that the top three countries to live in were Australia, US and the UK, the majority of them chose Malaysia as their country of choice.