Helping your teenager choose a job they will love
The Chinese philosopher, Confucius once said ‘choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’. In these recessionary times, having ‘a job you love’ may seem like a luxury to many, but for teenagers beginning to explore future career paths, it’s a good place to start. September is just around the corner and subject choices and post-secondary options have to be considered.
Parents who naturally want the best for their children, sometimes tend to encourage them to study subjects where there may be job opportunities e.g Computer Programming or Science. But if your teen really hates these subjects, they are setting themselves up for failure and frustration by taking them on. Studies show that people who work in environments or with subjects that they are interested in are more fulfilled and happier in their careers than those who don’t. For example, you may know that your teen thrives on social interaction and becomes bored stiff with routine, but have you ever thought about what implications these tendencies have for their future career path?
Helping your teen clarify what type of work they would like to do is not always straightforward. Some teenagers draw a blank whenever they think of the future. If you ask them what they want to do they typically answer, ‘I don’t know’. In my experience, it is easier to make a list of jobs or work environments they don’t like in order to find work situations they do like. Most teenagers are sure of what they hate and don’t like. They might say ‘I don’t want to be in an office’, or ‘I don’t want to work with blood’, which would rule out most medical posts; or they might say ‘I don’t want to be in one place every day’, which is a prompt to explore jobs that involve movement, travel and variety.
A contrast list is a useful tool for helping your teen discover what they do want. A contrast list allows them to compare what they like with what they don’t. Take about half an hour to complete the following exercise with your teen. Simply take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle and write ‘Contrast/Things I don’t like to do’ in one column and ‘Clarity/Things I do like to do,’ in the other. Explore with your teenager what they don’t like to do or wouldn’t like to do in terms of work. Having done this, it should be easier for them to clarify what they do or might enjoy. For example, here is the contrast list of one student:
CONTRAST/ Things I don’t like to do
Working with animals
Working with my hands
Technical stuff
Hospitals
Vet
Working in the same place all the time
Doing the same thing every day
Anything to do with blood
Maths
Being on my own
CLARITY/ Things I do like to do
Organizing events
Meeting new people
Travelling
Teaching
French and German
Reading
Getting dressed up
Driving
Travel agent
Tour guide
Encourage your teen to use the the list as a reference point for finding out more about certain careers. This student used her list to find out more about third-level courses in the travel industry, PR and language teaching. This is a simple, but very powerful exercise for helping your teen clarify what they would like to do and best of all, it engenders enthusiasm in them for the range of careers best suited to their own special and individual interests.
(2) Comments