In the last year, I have had a number of discussions with my son regarding his future. He's only thirteen years old, but he has been thinking ahead. His current career goal is 'chef'. He and I watch a lot of Food TV. He does like to cook. On the other hand, he's kind of a picky eater. I have encouraged him in his interest, but I have also introduced that element of his personal reality into the discussion. I have suggested that perhaps restaurant management might be a good choice for him. He can be very organized in his thinking, if the topic is of interest to him. He has mulled over this suggestion a bit and is currently thinking that taking some business-oriented course work in high school might broaden his options a bit when college time rolls around.
His second career choice, at this point, is social studies teacher. While he is pretty good at math, he really does seem to enjoy social studies. That may be in large part to a pretty cool teacher that he had last year (who moved up to the eighth grade this year too). Even so, prior to his experience with this teacher, he did previously express an interest in being a teacher. He's also shown great aptitude for interacting with younger children. (He's done some babysitting and assistant camp counseling.) All in all, teaching would also be a good choice for him.
I do realize that we've got another four years before he hits college, so all this may, and probably will, change. But, it is interesting to discuss the options with him.
On the other hand, here I am in my mid forties and I still struggle with what I want to be when I grow up. I really had no direction when I was in high school. I just knew that I wanted to go to college. I wanted to take interesting classes that were mine for the choosing. My high school had pretty limited options.
I kind of fell into my college major. And, while History really interests me, there really aren't many jobs for folks with a B.A. in the subject. So, I went to graduate school to get a pseudo library science degree, mixed with computers. I worked in libraries for a while. But, technology was king, so I leveraged the computer end of my degree into some pretty cool technology jobs. Then the Dot Bomb happened.
I still like working with technology, but years of high stress jobs have burned me out on a lot of it. Part of me would like to stay with technology, but perhaps with a new slant (maybe health care). Another part of me would love to go back to working in the library field. I really do enjoy hooking people up with the right information. Unfortunately, I have grown quite accustomed to a technologist's salary. Librarian types don't earn nearly the same scratch.
The truth is, most days, I really am bored silly with all my career options. Even if I could get off my lazy butt and write for a living, not many people make a decent living playing the writing game. Plus, I'm sure I'd get bored with that too eventually,
What wouldn't bore me? See my previous post If I had a million dollars.
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3 comments:
I think maybe it's time we ditched the question. The thing is, work has changed. People don't work for one company their whole life, nor do they do one thing their entire career. You have time in a normal work-span (of around 52 years!!!) to do a lot of different things. I am trying to encourage my son to get a good foundation, something he can be flexible with as his interests and desires change. I also am a big believer in serendipity. Most people seem to fall into a career; rarely is it something they set out to do from an early age.
I know exactly what you are saying. The question is kind of silly. Like you, I am trying to encourage my son to learn broadly. It is one of the reason's that I encouraged him to take some accounting classes, in addition to the social studies and culinary stuff. As much as I detested the Business majors we went to school with, folks who excel at that stuff are pretty adaptable. And the skills can help you out in a variety of fields.
From my perspective, the question is kind of silly. I really have no intention of 'growing up' any way. I guess I'm just aching for the next career direction to serendipitiously fall in my lap. (grin)
I forget where I read it, but some famous people did not start the career that made them famous until their forties or fifites.
So, there is still hope for us. :)
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