While career selection should be done by your child, Connie K. Grier shares a few steps to make the process more youth driven.
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When it comes to life after high school, many young people find themselves in one of two categories: either they have known their career choice since infancy, or they have gone through several or even many options. As a mother of twin boys, I have experienced both scenarios. One son has wanted to be a classroom teacher forever. He will be following in my footsteps, and into the family’s career legacy, as we have many educators in our family.
My other son has hit the pause, rewind and erase buttons when it comes to settling on a career. First he wanted to be a police officer, then he became interested in becoming a chef. That was also short-lived. Finally in the past 4 years his passion, his true calling has become clear. He has set his sights on becoming a computer programmer. Sometimes I just sit back and wonder WHERE that choice came from, but in today’s technology driven society, it’s cool that he wants to solve the behind the scenes puzzles.
Many parents would like to believe that they will play a deciding role when it comes to the direction our sons choose to take on the road of life. As our sons grow, through our own actions, we provide the best examples of hard work, diligence and perseverance. We expose them to various careers to spark their interest. We may even attempt to find the coolest, youngest representative for that particular career and leave interesting articles about the career field out in plain sight…
And when we ask our teen sons where their interest lie in terms of a career field, we are nervous when we hear “I don’t know”…Suddenly, visions of wasted semesters and sky rocketing financial aid costs dance in our heads, and we prematurely panic. While career selection should be done by your child, here are a few steps to make the process more youth driven:
1.Start conversations about your career and other careers, No arm twisting just conversing.
2. Setup shadow days for them to follow you and other professionals.
3. Talk with your child about his or her interests.
4. Make sure that whatever information is shared with your child is age and aptitude appropriate to lesson confusion around terms, procedures, requirements etc.
Ultimately, we have to understand that our sons’ career choice is their decision. The last thing we want is to snuff out the excitement about their future.
Photo: CruisinBears/Flickr