Counseling High School Students on Future Career Paths

[tampamommy]

I've been thinking about my past experiences counseling many high school students (especially 10-12th graders) regarding how to choose a career path/college major. Not only have I done this type of counseling with my own children, but also with many young adults/families that I have encountered in my teaching, tutoring and consulting roles.

Much of my "advice" to them comes in the form of asking them questions about their goals for their lives, futures etc. In my opinion, one of the misguided emphases we often stress to young people is to do "what makes them happy." This is a huge departure from a generation ago, when the emphasis on vocation was earning a living. It is wonderful (even ideal!) if an individual is able to discover a vocation that is their passion AND earns a supportive living. But I would submit that many, many people pursue a vocation to earn a stable living and spend their spare time pursuing their avocation/passion. And there is nothing about this that necessarily results in "unhappiness." It really is a balance of being able to support oneself and do what one loves---no matter which you get paid for.

That's background to my current ponderings. As I offer guidance to young people in this particular time in our history, I feel obligated to stress the idea of pursuing a career path that allows for an online transition. Chances are pretty good that our high school/college students will see another viral/other outbreak in their lives. (In my life, there has been Legionnaire's disease, SARs, AIDS, Covid, and perhaps others I am forgetting). With the lockdown thrust now a precedent, it seems quite a likely possibility in the future. And so, for those of you who have young adults -- especially if they are undecided on a career/major -- I offer the thought to help them REALLY think this through. 

There is nothing wrong with pursuing a career that you "like" or are even somewhat "neutral" about if you want to maximize your future chances of being able to support yourself in crisis. You can then spend every other waking moment pursuing your "love" that may not result in any financial gain, but much personal fulfillment. There is nothing wrong with pursuing a career that you are utterly passionate about that is not translatable online. But if one chooses to do that, there is accountability for one's choice in the future.

My kiddos are well into their career fields at this point. But back when I counseled them as they thought through career options, these questions came up. We thoroughly discussed the online component as being a wave of the future to seriously consider for a variety of reasons. That was pre-covid pandemic by many years.

All the more reason now to make sure that career/major guidance to our wonderful young people stresses viability in a new and changing world, versus simply "what they love doing." 

Good thoughts for all of you currently in the guidance phase with your young adults!

 

 

[Arcadia]

My teens has always wanted a work from home job eventually since they were in elementary school. Part of the reason is work commute is bad here and part of the reason is cost of housing is very high. 

My husband has been working from home before our county announced shelter in place. This pandemic has just reinforced my teens wishes to get a job that is viable for work from home. 
 

However, an issue with work from home jobs are that the employers can hire someone from any location and actually any country. When I was working in post sales support, I was supporting customers from a few countries through phone and emails. It was relatively easy to switch the entire support team to another country with cheaper labor costs and much lower office rents.
 

The lab technicians in my husband’s department has continued working despite shelter in place. My county allows people to work if it’s critical for continuity and safety measures are in place. My husband would normally do some lab work but since that’s not his core responsibility, he is expected to not go to lab. Productivity has gone down for the department compared to being in the office. Base pay isn’t affected but we won’t be surprised if performance bonus is cut. So we are budgeting based on zero bonus this year. 
 

My teens other job idea is to run a food truck on weekends 🙂