DC looking for a career

[Wallywobbles]

Sorry, in AIBU for traffic.

DC 17 needs to do uni applications soon and has no idea what she wants to do. She seen 3 career advisors but that's just made it worse if anything.

She is bright. Bilingual French English.

Please can you tell me what you do, how you got there and what you earn. And I guess what kind of person it suits. And a brief description.

I'll start in case it helps anyone else.

Instructional designer.
I design, write and produce online courses.
40k€ - 100k€.
WFH or office possible.
Was in HE moved across due to
Covid and discovered I loved it.
Ideally some kind of degree or experience in teaching.
Degree &/or Masters in Instructional Design.

Great job for the curious and people who love learning.

I work in a specialised project area of HR having studied French at uni. I now work for a French company earning about 75k & previously worked for management consultancies. I’m early 30s.

I’m really good at problem-solving, seeing connections with things & building relationships with people. I’m not great with data or process.

I think a business degree is a good idea as then she will have lots of options after the degree. I did a business degree followed by a masters in IT and now work in IT. Out of my uni friends who did the same degree, two are in HR, one is in events management and one is in Banking. Others have gone into teaching.

one of my uni friends has a daughter who always wanted to teach. Started a teaching degree and has dropped out part of the way through third year having done placements and decided teaching wasn’t for her. There is no back up if you decide it’s not for you. If she doesn’t know what to do, it’s definitely better to stick to a degree that keeps your options open. Can always do a masters afterwards to specialise once she has a better idea what she wants to do.

Keep law in mind. I’m not sure whether your daughter (sorry, can’t abide ‘DC’, ‘DD’, ‘DS’, ‘DDog’ etc) is intending to work in France or the UK, and it may be that the route to legal practice in France is very different. But here one can convert (one year, full-time) and your daughter’s background sounds as if it would be very interesting to law firms/barristers’ chambers. Language skills are a massive plus in law.

There’s an element of gamble in it, inevitably. But if the solicitor role would suit, there’s something for everyone: from copyright to human rights to family law to crime.

I agree with this. I did lots of philosophy as part of my degree. I've ended up as a solicitor, specialising in tax law. I did a conversion course to law after my degree and there were a lot of similarities between studying law and studying philosophy.

To a lesser extent my day to day job still involves philosophy type thinking. It does involve writing, arguing and researching other people's arguments, which are the kinds of things keen philosophy students tend to like.

I earn around £70k, and that is for a 4 day week. That's with 6 years of experience after I qualified as a solicitor.

I don't know much about qualification or pay in France, though.

A degree doesn't guarantee a person a good career
Similarly, I work with people who do not have a degree, but have experience in the ndustry instead

I also believe that soft skills are important for some jobs like; good communication, problem solving, time keeping, working to deadlines, team player, sense of humour, but these will differ depending on the type of job

Technology changes, so a job today, may be different in 10, 20 years time

Nobody can predict the future

Philosophy doesn't lead to any career other than lecturing.

How weird a thought. It's a degree with no specific career path after so I'm struggling to wonder what career a Philosophy degree leads to that she wouldn't like.

I'm mid 20s

I work in public affairs earning mid £40k bracket. I used to work on VAWG, I've done housing and public health now work on cjs, I help lobby government through policy briefs/reports etc

I did politics, philosophy and economics at uni

I work in an international logistics role. We’re a team of over 100 so there are frequent new starters. Every time that new starter is in the French office, they introduce themselves in the team call explaining that they have post graduate level study in logistics. Every time. So, I totally get where you’re coming from!

I don’t want to go into detail. My job isn’t niche, but to anyone who thinks they might know me, it would be confirmatory. But, I would say look at manufacturing and logistics - it’s not an “obvious” career path, but it’s fascinating and challenging. Honestly no two days are the same, constantly evolving projects.

She needs to take a gap year and try to do some voluntary work in areas she’s interested in.

Thanks everyone. We've both looked at all your suggestions.

We've got some ideas for options now I think, including business and law. She's a bit less worried. Or possibly she's just so bored of it all having been looking all day at options.

We have 2 of this same age and the other DC3 wants a very specific career and DC1 is studying law and has always known what she wanted to do. And DC4 is already on the path to what he wants. So she feels like the odd one out by having no path.

If she really doesn’t know then she’s better planning for a year out - get any old job, save some money and do some travelling/volunteering.
At the very least it will expand her horizons and might even give her a taste of something she wants to do eventually.

Seconding this suggestion. I got my bachelors degree (US) in General Business Administration. Like your daughter I really had no idea what I wanted to get into and if I’m honest I really didn’t care one way or another. This was the most general degree that I could find that wasn’t liberal arts or totally irrelevant.

I decided this would be a good way to learn about different areas in business which would help me figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up (Spoiler Alert:I still haven’t decided!)

So far I’ve been a licensed stock trader, data analyst, project manager, deployment manager, supply chain manager, and logistics and warehouse manager. Currently earn ~$150K per year.

I’ll admit I’ve been a reluctant supply chain professional, it’s probably the least enjoyable careers I’ve had, but it’s a stable and well paid career and I’d suggest it to anyone.

This is also the general advice I give to young people. Stop listening to advice from schools. Nothing against them but they’ve lived in the academic bubble for too long to give relevant career advice.

Tell your daughter to ask every adult she runs across what they do and what they like about it. It will open up a whole new world of possibilities to her.

Bilingual friends - English + either Dutch, German, Spanish. French etc work for international media companies- think Facebook etc, also as solicitor/barrister dealing with international clients etc. All earning well eg £75k -£200k.

One with Philosophy degree now a barrister ( having done 1 year Law Conversion plus 1 year Bar Course and then Pupillage.) Quite a number of barristers with international qualifications so can practise across Europe, the World.

Lots of opportunities with philosophy degree plus bilingualism. She should do Philosophy if that's what she's interested in.

Could she do a post grad eg Law Conversion Course in UK? Many people get qualifications in more than one country in order to practice internationally. Not sure exactly which French qualifications would be accepted. Lots of other possibilities post grad in UK eg Medicine Conversion, once graduated in any subject. The point is to get as good a first degree result as possible. No need to decide now on career. She should 'try out' work experience in different fields during her summer holidays etc.

Philosophy is great for a law degree.

Do they use Unifrog at school? She can input subjects she enjoys and get ideas

Oh and NATO is bilingual French and English if she’s thinking of foreign office/diplomat career. Negotiating treaties. Peacekeeping.

Academic
£65k
Wasn't really a plan and kind of ended up here and not sure how to get out
Wouldn't particularly recommend it (high workload, quite stressful, lots of criticism and rejections) and think she would need to find something she was more passionate about to get through PhD etc. Probably something science related would be best as I get the impression there is a bit more funding for STEM stuff

Can you share how you got into the instructional design? I think I would love that!

She could do translation and language engineering with that background. I can point you at sone excellent courses.

Could she have a tear or two out of education to try some things out?

I did a humanities degree, then worked as a planning officer in local government. Nowadays salaries would probably be 30k to mid 50s in local government then more in private sector. My workplace paid for a postgraduate course for me to be ‘qualified’ it’s as much or as little a career as you want. In local govt you either do applications or policy. In private sector there are design/ environmental positions. And many people go self employed after having children etc,

Now I am an occupational therapist, working with adults in a hospital. Have also worked in social services adapting houses. Is good to work with people, some of it’s really meaningful- getting to see short term rehab and watch people get better and able to go home. This also needs a degree/ postgraduate and there are public/ private sector opportunities in any demographic. Allied health degrees also currently have help towards funding - if that makes a diffeeence 🤞

good luck whatever she chooses x

Soz OT in public sector is likely around 28k up to 50s for manager/ specialist roles x

We are still reading. Thanks for all the great ideas.

I was once told that you should look for ‘motivated abilities’ .. ie do what you like doing and what you’re good at. It might be difficult at a young age, but has she been involved in things like DofE, school projects, volunteering, things at home, holidays that she has enjoyed ? What did she like about them .. solving problems, dealing with people, organising, finding stuff out, winning an argument etc etc. If she can start to think about what makes her tick then that’s a good start and can be applied in all sorts of roles. You’re looking for common threads with questions/discussion , but in more general terms to help guide rather than the whole ‘commit now to a lifetime career’ devision which is a massive ask unless you’ve got a clear vocation.

Another thing to think about is that doing jobs really helps you find out what you don't like! Or what you are not good at. I found managing a shop very boring for example, whereas one of my children loves consumer sales. I am rubbish at organizing things but good at deep work, long-term projects. I'm good at teaching and interacting with young people. I think over time you have to have work experience, try things, take any internships or anything offered, don't fix too early and work your way to what you enjoy.

It's really hard to know what you want to do aged 17, I certainly didn't! Your dd sounds lovely, if all your siblings are set on paths already then I can see she wants to be on one to but it's find not to know at this stage, but be motivated to find out! Four is a lot of teens, I congratulate you for navigating this with all of them!