Careers thinking at the age of 7?

[kyliekaw]

Are the ages of 5-10 too early to introduce/build on the topic of careers with my children? My kids are learning about different professions at a basic level as part of a new school curriculum and I'm a bit worried they are going to get swayed to a job just because it sounds cool. Whats your guys thoughts?

Are your 5-10 y/o interested in learning about careers?

@kyliekaw At 7 I thought the BEST job in the entire world would be to get to do the ironing ALL day 🙃😂 so clearly what’s cool to a 7 year old might not stick until adulthood anyway 😅

My 7yo is going adamant he is going to become an astro-cartographer. Don’t over think it 😉

My 7 year old DD wanted to be a window cleaner and now she’s an economist 😃

Yes, my 5 and 10 year olds were very interested. One wanted to be a palaeontologist and one wanted to be an actress. We were trying to encourage towards Accountancy, Medicine, Banking, etc.

We have one post doctoral researcher hoping to get a substantive academic post and one English teacher.

They will be what they will be and must be allowed to follow their hearts.

It doesn't really matter if they get fixed on something, they will almost certainly change their minds. My youngest wanted to be a sweet shop owner from the ages of about 5-10. Then, age 10, they had a policeman into school giving a careers talk and suddenly she wanted to be a policewoman. This lasted until about last year (so for approx 6 years) and now she has changed her mind again.

My 7 year old wants to have a shop/ museum/ library all in the same building lol. Let's see how it turns out

Likely they will end up doing jobs we don’t even understand.

Dh was apparently adamant he was going to be a waiter in his own pizza restaurant. He’s now a corporate lawyer.

Gosh OP, you really seem to be very interested in children and careers for a Thursday evening, enough for several threads!

You wouldn’t by any chance be looking at producing personalised eBooks for kids based on careers?

And of course kids that age are aware of jobs. I believe I wanted to be a farmer (until I realised I wasn’t that keen on animals).

One of mine wanted to be an archaeologist as a small child, because they liked the sound of the word. They didn't know what the job was.
Another of my dds wanted to be an ice-cream van man.

I really wouldn't fret about it too much.

If you’re not pushing your child age 7 to be a corporate lawyer or investment banker they will never make it in life. Best get all that nonsense about all other jobs which would be low paying out of them early…

No seriously, if you want happy kids don’t push them in any direction. They will be able to and should make their independent choices when it comes to it.

At the age of 7 one of my kids wanted to design robotic limbs. He had looked up which degree he wanted to study, worked out the best route for entry to uni. He is driven! He still wants to do that, aged 12, although he's changed his mind on the degree.

My other child at 7 wanted to be a Scaffy as one of the Scaffy's doing work on our house once told her 'work hard or you'll become a Scaffy'. The idea of being able to earn money AND not work hard at school was of course music to her ears.
Now, she wants to be a 'do nothing' guy groan

The third one aged 7 wants to have as many children and animals as possible, and will get paid because she is kind and has nice hair.

My 7 year old wanted to be an ice cream van. Not a human serving ice creams but the vehicle!!

@looking4pup

There was a careers day at school in year 1, when they had to dress up as what they would like to do. My daughter chose a nurse's uniform. Nice to do but certainly not serious at that age.

Since then has had no desire whatsoever to be a nurse, is now in her teens.

Looking back I actually could have predicted what my children would do as an adult.From the age of 5ish
DD always wanted to know everything about my patients,how they got to hospital and if they had families,spent her teens counselling her friends …she is now a SW
DS1 was obsessed with animals and countries…he is now an ecologist
DS2 always liked nice clothes, cars and being cool …he is now in the city at 23 earning very good money
They are all great but nothing they have achieved have surprised me because of their childhood interests.

Well did you get your dream job of owning and managing a laundromat?

I really wish more primary schools would have careers in the curriculum! It's never too early.
They won't be swayed into particular careers at this age but they will hopefully become aware of the concept of a career and how their strengths and interests might lead to particular jobs and study options.
It's also good for young people to start to understand that there are lots of different jobs out there.

I love this!! At this age young people are in the 'fantasy' stage of careers thinking so their ideas are often weird and wonderful.

At 7 DS1 wanted to join the Royal Navy and DS2 wanted to drive a lorry with us, and the cats, living in the back! They both have followed very different career paths to those.

I wanted to work in a chocolate factory at 7. One of my friends worked for a chocolate company for a few years.

@VentiPumpkinSpiceLatte Thankfully I can say I did not 😂 and I go out of my way to avoid ironing 🤣🤣

Careers chat at this age is not likely to guarantee what they do in the future.
My brother wanted to be a snowman at age 5. I wanted to be a lorry driver. Unsurprisingly, neither of us have those jobs.
It's always good to learn about different professions though, if only to demonstrate that it takes all sorts to make the world function

My 5 year old wants to be an astronaut, teacher and run an ice cream van! All at the same time!
Way too early. Let them be children for crying out loud.

Way too early. Let them be children for crying out loud.

Learning about jobs is hardly talking their childhood away 🙄
It should be treated as seriously as other subjects taught in schools but unfortunately it isn't....
kudos to schools who actually take it seriously.

Our school had a careers week in y1. Parents were invited in to give a talk before home time. I had to rally the troops to get some mums in- it was all dads to start with.

But pushing them towards a 'career' at such a young age is not learning about jobs. They do learn about them, that's why so many children want to be a nurse, firefighter or whatever seems interesting to them at the time. Worrying about them being swayed a certain way and trying to push for a certain type of career as a child is ridiculous.
How many boys want to be policemen or footballers? How many actually become that? A small minority.
Let them be children and not talk to them about being lawyers, accountants or estate agents. Let them enjoy dreaming.