If you could give your 16 year old self career advice…

[WinniePig]

Looking back, if you could encourage your 16 year old self towards a career (knowing what you know about yourself now), what would to be?

I would be a translator. Translating foreign novels into English. I don’t think I have any story telling ability or any original ideas (to be a novelist myself), but I would love the challenge of translating something beautiful from
one language into another (and leaving my mark in some small way). It would work for me on so many levels both intellectually and creatively.

What about you?

I would tell myself I will become very introverted and absolutely hate phones so pick a career where you don't have to use them much.

Something making more money. But it wasn't fashionable at the time - we were all altruistic and creative

In my final year at secondary school, the careers’ officer asked us to fill out a questionnaire to identify best suited job/career. I got librarian and was deeply offended. 20 years on and I wonder whether there was something in it. I love reading and peace and quiet! I think the introversion thing makes itself known quite strongly as we get older.

I just didn’t grasp how much people earned.

@whoopsnomore

Something making more money. But it wasn't fashionable at the time - we were all altruistic and creative

Well I went down the law path so had the opposite experience. Little creativity or altruism but v good salary….

I would suggest looking more closely at salaries.

I've been in the public sector since my early 20s, I feel like I can't leave now as I need the flexible working and I guess will care increasingly about the job security and pension as I get older. I wish now that I'd tried out city banking or something whilst I was in my 20s and didn't need to be so sensible.

I would tell myself to not be swayed by my parents, to pursue my dream of going to uni instead of being pushed to ditch A levels and get a job.

@WinniePig we could pitch this "lifeswap" to Channel 4. Try my life, I'll slip yours on (and can I keep your pension? )

Do something where you can make decent money.

I would say there are far more career options out there than your rubbish school and utter lack of career advice have any concept of.

Do the subjects you enjoy and find a job doing something you love, they’re all really small minded and just have no bloody idea.

[quote whoopsnomore]@WinniePig we could pitch this "lifeswap" to Channel 4. Try my life, I'll slip yours on (and can I keep your pension? )[/quote]
Ha ha - that would be fascinating and a true test of whether I am a frustrated artist or capitalist at heart! Probably the latter…..

I would tell myself to take a productive gap year (there were a couple of paid volunteering schemes in France that I looked at wistfully but didn't dare to apply for) and take the time to really think about my degree choice. There were so many things I was interested in - linguistics, modern foreign languages, creative writing, speech and language therapy - but my school just took it for granted that I'd apply for English at Oxbridge and I didn't have the confidence to say I wanted to explore other things.

The other piece of advice I'd give to my younger self is to do internships in the uni vacations. There were some literary agencies offering those and sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I'd had the confidence to apply.

@LawnFever sounds like you had the same experience as me. Career lessons at school were pointless. I distinctly remember we had to write stuff about ourselves, like our favourite song which I kept changing every week dependant on what was on TOTP! But how was that helpful in deciding a career.

I had zero idea of the thousands of different jobs out there. I think the internet has at least done a huge favour for young people in that respect as you can Google stuff. In my day you worked in a factory or an office. And the boys could learn a trade. That was it.

As I get older I think about pensions much more and I actually wish I'd chosen to work for the civil service as years of moving between private companies and having little understanding of pensions means I'm fooked!!

I wouldn't want to give my 16 year old self advice
As if I did i would never have moved to the UK not met dh (26 years married) and not had our 4 wonderful children.

If I could give my 26 year old self advice I would tell her to get through the OU course and contunue as you were on the right track and doing it now in your 50s

I'd have done Maths A Level. Thought I hated it but I got an A at GCSE. In adulthood I realised how many well paying jobs are open to you with Maths qualifications.

Even if I changed nothing else about my career path, it would mean I would have a much wider range of MSc courses to pick from!

I would want to understand much more about how different careers are linked to different lifestyle; obviously salary but also things like hours, travel, needing to move around for jobs (for example in academia), whether it's straightforward to set up as a contractor/self-employed etc. Maybe it wasn't so much a thing back then, especially in the country where I grew up (not UK).

I was always told to do what I wanted, no one made it clear different choices lead to completely different paths though. I feel like I made the wrong choices and have not reached my full potential as a result.

At 19 I could have easily purchased 2 houses, they’d have paid for themselves and I’d have a passive income of £800 a month on both

Pick a career path that will keep you in a job. Lawyer or doctor etc

I'd work hard on getting the best possible grades, go to medical school and become a GP partner. It would have been my dream job.

I would tell myself to look at the bigger long term picture. Is there a route up? Can you progressively earn more? Train/study for a profession that needs specific qualifications rather than something that anyone can do/blag.

I had zero help and my parents weren't really interested. They just wanted me to get a job.

I would have taken a gap year after A levels to get a better understanding of what I wanted in the future. I was forced into a uni course that I didn't want to do and then into the first job I could find, which I also hated. My mum was terrified I'd go off the rails if I went on a gap year but looking back I wish I'd just done it anyway.

Hmmm tricky. I did a degree in a subject I loved, (language and politics, joint honours). I maybe could have been a translator, but most career translators are fluent from childhood in at least 3 languages, which I'd have struggled to compete with.

I have just gone part time in a new job so I can retrain. It's something I've wanted to do for ages and it will be something we can live off, although we won't ever be mega wealthy. I can live with that though. I just want a reasonably steady job that I enjoy, which is what I will have. My career to date along wirh dh's has allowed us to have dcs and buy a small house. I honestly can't complain about any of the choices mu 16yo self made. Maybe if I'd busted my gut I could have done medicine or something like that, or become an academic, but it's not as if those are end game jobs where you just stick your feet up and watch your salary roll in. So better choices on paper may not have been right for me. Not to sound like a total hippy

I also did a gap year and went to South America and I'm glad I did

I would remind myself that STEM subjects aren’t boring or too hard and that I’d be fascinated by civil engineering by 30 so should have got qualifications to support such a job!

Id say to follow your own ideas and not let other people influence you into doing what they would like to have done