Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

What career advice did you get at school?

84 replies

TazzyDrunk · 19/12/2019 21:01

I honestly don't remember getting that much just wondering how much you got?

OP posts:
museumum · 19/12/2019 21:45

We did a computer thing at school (the late 80s) which only recommended jobs you could enter straight from school. It was considered weird at my school to want to go to uni unless it was for a very specific job like medicine or law.

longearedbat · 19/12/2019 21:46

Virtually none. I am an old fart; I went to public school, it was assumed you would do a 'little job' (usually secretarial) until you married a rich mister right and had children, becoming a sahm for the rest of your life. I said I wanted to be a probation officer and was looked at very oddly for that desire. Not far off - I became a police officer (and then a civil servant and many other things). I never had children and didn't get married until I was 64, by which time I had retired anyway after a long and busy working life. Definitely zero useful advice from a very expensive school which you think would know better.

turnthebiglightoff · 19/12/2019 21:49

I did a "Kudos" test. I was most suited to work as an embalmer or an undertaker. The next week we used another programme and it suggested I work in a funeral parlour.

I work with people who are very much alive now Grin

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

General education Jobs
Velveteenfruitbowl · 19/12/2019 21:49

All I remember is
“If you don’t go to uni you’ll probably be able to find a job paying about $30k. Now I know that may seem like a lot (cue giggling and tittering) but it really isn’t when you get older and have children.”

It was a very posh girls school so I can tell you that 30k really did not seem like a lot.

Velveteenfruitbowl · 19/12/2019 21:52

*should point out that that was the minimum wage so not in pounds

stuckinthemiddlewithtwats · 19/12/2019 21:53

Did the computer test that others have mentioned.
Found the printout years later and was very surprised. Top job was archivist which I'd have loved to have done but needs a degree in Latin which I couldn't afford to do.
Next on list was civil servant which is what I've always done and suits me very well.

No help about getting on the career ladder, how to decide on a career, how to qualify further/go to uni etc.

The careers help at college was even worse than that provided by school.

NichyNoo · 19/12/2019 21:54

I'm female so was told to be a secretary or librarian. No other options for girls apparently (and this was 1996!!!). Obviously I ignored the advice, went to university, got a Masters and a great job.

redforport · 19/12/2019 22:20

I was lucky that I got on well with the home partnership officer and she got me and a few other kids a lot of opportunities to do work experience, volunteering, extra qualifications, courses.
I can almost certainly thank her for my current career.

Out with the help she gave me the only careers advice was getting told to look on My World of Work.
My school were completely uninterested in anybody that didn't want to go to uni.

Bombaybunty · 19/12/2019 22:38

You're tall, have you considered the police force?

Jupiters · 19/12/2019 22:51

Absolutely none.

BikeRunSki · 19/12/2019 22:54

I was doing physics, biology and chemistry as separate O levels (yes, I’m that old). I had one careers meeting, where it was suggested I should become a dentist. I wanted to be a vet. I became a civil engineer.

RaininSummer · 19/12/2019 22:55

You're good at English and like books. Be a librarian or an English teacher.

weebarra · 19/12/2019 22:58

I'm a careers adviser and always feel really sad when I see threads like this. I never ever "told" people that they should do a particular job. I tended to listen and to try to help people think about what might suit them.
I now manage careers advisers and work a lot with school senior leadership. I'm really glad to see that even very "academic" schools are now promoting a range of pathways and that work based learning is closer to gaining parity with academic. I'm in Scotland though, I'm aware that the careers service in England is now mainly cut beyond all recognition.

modgepodge · 19/12/2019 23:03

The computer program told me I’d make a good vicar. The fact I was an atheist was clearly not problem 😂

My maths teacher told me I should be an accurist (sp? Something in insurance) - when I asked my dad what that was he said it was a job for people who considered accountancy too exciting.

I work at a girls school now and there’s a big push on STEM subjects for girls at the moment. We had an engineer come in to do a talk to them and I was amazed at what engineering included - in my head it was machines and cars and didn’t interest me at all. Turns out I only knew about mechanical engineering. Chemical engineering, biological engineering etc all really appealed to me and I wish I’d know about them when I was at school. That said, I’m very happily a teacher now so maybe it all worked out in the end!

marjoretta · 19/12/2019 23:05

I always wanted to be a teacher, and in year 9 we had a year of careers lessons exploring different careers, our priorities etc before we took our options. Did the jigcal careers program and it also recommended teaching and HR work.

But I had a shit careers officer who basically told me I was too thick to be a teacher, and so sent me to go and visit a bank to learn about doing a yts scheme to become a cashier. I very nearly did, but thankfully a friend talked me into doing my A levels.

Passed them, went to uni, spent many years teaching at a 6th form college, and am now embarking on a Doctorate in Education. Partly, I think because I was told I was too thick to be a teacher,

It was a low achieving school in the 80s.

KellyHall · 19/12/2019 23:06

Did an online test. It said I should consider a career as an undertaker or accountant. I did artsy A-Levels and every job known to man in my teens/twenties. I'm now an accountant!

Thelnebriati · 19/12/2019 23:14

He rubbished all the things I wanted to do and told me that I should be a nurse. I was really shocked and said I didn't think I had any of the right qualities to make a good nurse, and he then said that the county was short of nurses Confused

LolaSmiles · 19/12/2019 23:23

Almost nothing other than the assumption that anyone who wasn't "thick" would naturally be staying on to do A Levels and then through sixth form everyone would naturally go to university.

I don't agree with that approach by the way or the categorisation of students, but on reflection that was the approproach and rationale behind it. Vocational options were very much closed off and not spoken about unless you were the very bottom of the year academically and there wasn't much on post16 provision options.

SantaBeckett · 20/12/2019 00:10

I told my careers advisor I would like to work with animals pref dogs and horses they advised me volunteer at the local riding stables and then see and get a job there. That riding stables had shut down 3 years previously due to CPO I stop listening after that I have no idea what else they said

HarrietThePi · 20/12/2019 00:13

Did an online test which said I'd be suited to hairdressing. I was an academic student with A grades, and I can barely walk in a straight line let alone cut one.

cheeseislife8 · 20/12/2019 00:14

Pretty much none existent. I'm now getting my degree in my 30s

Flamingoose · 20/12/2019 00:28

I'm a girl so I was given the option of nurse or teacher.

JHaniver · 20/12/2019 09:50

We had a computer questionnaire that suggested I should be a florist or a funeral director. Nothing else.

Oliversmumsarmy · 20/12/2019 11:12

Dp went to a boarding school that did do some some very in-depth career tests.
The results of this test were sent home to his parents.

His parents told him the test results said he should pursue a certain very staid career

Dp is not staid in the slightest. All his friends and people we have met over the years have questioned why he pursued this career.
His personality doesn’t fit.

Dp has questioned that his career doesn’t make him happy and when he was younger he had talks with his parents about how he feels but they encouraged him to stay in the career. After all the careers test did say that was the career he should do and his classmates seemed to fit with what their test results said.

A few years ago the in-laws had a clear out and boxed up anything of his and gave the stuff to him

I then went through the boxes and came across the careers test results and recommendations.

The career Dp was recommended to pursue was salesman with a score of 88%. It said all his personality and careers tests pointed to him being an excellent salesman as he was an outstanding communicator and very persuasive in discussions.

The career his parents told him to pursue was in 2nd position with a score of 8% (solely because he was good at a particular subject)

I think how different our lives would have been if he had been allowed to pursue the career he was most suited for.

His Dm when questioned suggested it wasn’t what she wanted for her Ds to just be a salesman she described it as a down market career and what he went into holds a lot more kudos.

She just couldn’t understand that he felt so betrayed

Oliversmumsarmy · 20/12/2019 11:18

FWIW I think good careers testing and advice should be a lesson in schools.

I think if you can get children to really think about their futures and show them that random things they are good at or things they like to do can be translated into a career to be worked towards you would have a lot less trouble in schools

I think schools now concentrate too much on purely academic subjects and getting people into university when there is a huge amount of careers where university would just be a waste of time.