Help with career options

[andweallsingalong]

DD is still young, early secondary school, but I'm clueless about supporting her in her options and beyond.

Obviously it's 100% her choice, but I wish I had more support when I was younger and pushed myself more for a better career instead of selling myself short.

As an example, when I was in my final weeks of high school and looking for a job my mum said "oh, I thought you would go to college", no conversations, nothing. Then I applied for every job I could and took the one that accepted me, worked my way up, but didn't push for payrises, etc. Careers advisers at school were useless. In hindsight I should have gone to college and uni, but knew we were skint so wrote uni off as I didn't know about loans or grants so thought I couldn't afford to go and so figured no point going to college!

So back to DD...

I'd be really grateful for some good ideas on the top careers in terms of being enjoyable, reasonably well paying, having good promotion prospects and not being over subscribed so I can start talking to her and see if anything appeals.

Thanks

My parents both gave me good advice, based on their own experience.

My Mom said avoid working nights.
My Dad said working with people is stressful, try to get into something 'technical'.

I found these ideas helpful because I agreed I wasn't cut out for shift work or dealing with awkward people and could discount lots of careers ideas straight away. (And in my opinion specialist technical skills do tend to be more highly rewarded than 'people skills', although that's not really my point.)

I think she needs to really look hard at what different jobs entail. I always wanted to be a doctor, my whole childhood, until I grew up and really thought about it!

So, what are the things your daughter definitely doesn’t want to have to do?

Good question!

She's good with little kids so I asked about teaching and she said no way! (Not a fan of school).

She'd like to be a singer or work in Macdonalds so far.... McD's I'd be happy with as a part time student job, but think she'd be happier with a better paying career. She also fancies pet sitting / dog walking, but think that's just a fanciful thought as she needs reminding to walk our pooch.

I remember when I was in my 20s IT was the high paying, crying out for people job, then Web design, then they got saturated.

Wondered if there were any similar up and coming trends. Don't want to sound snobby, but I want her to consider things with the potential for high earnings so she has more choices and options in life.

shes still very young. My daughter is 14 and we haven’t discussed careers yet. My son starts Uni in September and we began career conversations more seriously before A level choices. We have guided him to a career as he wasn’t sure, he’s a maths genius but loves sports. We established via lots of questions he actually just wanted to play sport so I told him any Uni could do that; and he can play sport alongside a job when he graduates. So he started looking at finance type jobs and now wants to be an actuary or work in a city bank.

I never had any advice from my parents re jobs. They both worked in low paid jobs, factory / gardening etc, shifts / nights etc. I was actually discouraged from going to Uni and getting a good job by my mum, I guess because she suspected I might move away. Which I did, 250 miles away after Uni to start a job. My kids are lucky as their dad and I both have good, well paid jobs and we are educated enough to help with Uni choices etc. I certainly didn’t have that and I often wonder how it would be having a parent who actively encouraged me!

My mum does congratulate me on promotions, I got one last week, and she did say 6 months ago that I’d do well in my career. So she is proud but equally she probably wishes I was on benefits living down the road! Sorry that opened up a few wounds and I am rambling! keep it lighthearted for now, just thinking of possibilities, and that will naturally change as she gets older

I'd recommend browsing some careers or job vacancies sites just to get an idea of the kind of jobs that exist. As a kid I knew what my parents did for work and about the visible jobs I encountered. It wasn't until I started working in big companies with a range of different functions that I even learned some jobs existed.

Seems a bit backwards to work from courses/jobs. Would it not make sense to start from her? What she enjoys, what she’s drawn to, what her personality is like, what kinds of activities/clubs she likes, what issues she cares about. I.e. make sure she knows herself well, so that when it comes to choosing subjects at school and then choosing courses/unis etc she really knows who she is and what she wants. I think as a parent you can help her get to know herself by giving her access to different activities and clubs and experiences, and check in with her - ask her questions - did you enjoy your day? What did you like about that thing you did today? What annoyed or bored you? Would you like more/less of that activity/experience in your life? Etc. Let it all come from her but facilitate her process of getting to know herself as best you can.

There are some great websites which may help. Have a look at icould.com/buzz-quiz and have a go yourself. Get her to complete it- 5 min job.

work experience is VERY good - you can't tell much about what a job is like until you actually do it. By this I mean that she could spend a week at age 16 shadowing an lawyer / engineer / doctor etc - either you can ask friends or there are schemes that help kids do this. In2Science is one good one. But also holiday jobs are good as work experience - shop work / bar work / care home volunteering - they all give you a real feel for what the world of grown up work is like and can show you what you dont like (which is just as important as what you do).

does your DD want to go to university? That open up lots of opportunities and universities normally have a careers service to give advice etc.

Also, make sure your DD doesn't feel that she has to pick one career at 16 and never change. Lots of people change their mind / retrain / refocus at different stages in life. So if she does not have her heart set on something, that doesn't matter. As long as she has lots of options available.

As they advance through school they usually get some kind of assessment to discover their strengths etc. I'm in Ireland so that the way here. My dcs sort of forgot about the recommended careers for them as time went on but funnily they have all ended up in exactly the type of careers the tests suggested eg
Work with people/ go the creative route/ entrepreneurs road..
Looking back l feel one mistake we made was being very adamant they do exactly what they wanted but now with the price of houses etc l feel it may have been a romantic vision and we should have been more practical in our advice.

The prospects website is a great resource for finding out more about careers.