Does a quarter feel a lot bigger than it really is? Check out some of these resources, and try not to worry so much.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Ways to teach your children to find work they love
Talk about how important it is to be happy in what you do, expert advises
By SUE SHELLENBARGER
The Wall Street Journal
I like to think I can talk to my two teenagers about anything. But one topic at our house leaves me feeling as if we’re shouting from separate mountaintops: picking a career.
Although I’m glad my son, 16, and my daughter, 19, are thinking about jobs, their deliberations hold none of the curiosity or sense of exploration that I recall feeling at their age. Instead, they seem rushed and grim. My daughter is anxious about building the right resume to get into med school. And my son talks mostly about finding any job that will enable him to support a family.
My career path was no model; if anyone bothered to draw it, it would look more like an Etch-A-Sketch doodle than the no-exit superhighway my kids seem to envision. But I do recall choosing my life’s work with a sense of adventure that seems to be missing in them.
Blame it on career anxiety, college counselors say. For a variety of reasons, many young adults are more anxious about career preparation than previous generations. (Not all young adults share this, of course; many parents wish their kids had a little more career anxiety, to propel them out of the house.) In my family, however, the evidence suggests I need some new parenting strategies.
The apprehension often begins with the college-admissions race. After striving to win acceptance to competitive colleges, many think they should have “an equally strategic approach to their post-graduate plans,” says Karen Levin Coburn, assistant vice chancellor at Washington University of St. Louis.
Job competition looms earlier. Employers place far more emphasis on internships than in the past, says the National Association of Colleges and Employers; 62 percent of new college hires have completed at least one, based on its survey of 276 employers. Campus competition for internships is starting as early as freshman year.
And the entry bar has risen in many professions. Architects, for example, need a formal internship today and must pass a more comprehensive exam to be licensed, compared with 30 years ago. Even auto mechanics, who used to train on the job, often need a two-year degree.
Such rigor leaves less room for career flip-flops of the kind I did between ages 19 and 25. I set out at various times to be a teacher, an editor for a publishing house, a horse trainer and a long-distance trucker. (Seriously. I still remember the look on the loan officer’s face when I offered him my VW Beetle as collateral for a loan on an 18-wheeler.)
After a couple of aimless years working different jobs, I entered journalism grad school intending to teach writing. It was there that a professor’s inspiring lecture about the principles that underlie good journalism – public service, integrity and truthfulness – won my heart.
Decades later, though, I’ve managed to pass on to my kids only the conventional wisdom – attend career fairs, do volunteer work, and so on. The result is what Jaye Roseborough, executive director, career services, for Middlebury College in Vermont, calls the “doctor-lawyer-teacher-banker syndrome”: Students try to fit themselves into one of a series of career choices as defined by others, rather than using their interests to guide them in exploring the outer world.
How to recoup? “Talk about what’s of interest to them, and how important it is to be happy in what you do,” Roseborough advises. Ask how they envision spending their time. The activities required by a job “must be a way you really like to behave,” she adds. What kind of problems do they like to solve? Explain that many people change careers multiple times. And tell stories about how you fell in love with your own work.
So at my house, at least, I’m shelving the experts’ lists of the 10 hottest careers and the 500 best ways for teens to spend the summer. Instead, I’ll encourage my daughter not to foreclose on exploring her love of design and her interest in business before settling on any profession, even one as worthy as medicine. For my son, I’ll stress that finding work you love can benefit your family too. Perhaps I’ll tell a few old stories about my own missteps. Come to think of it, this could be fun.
How To Find What You Love To Do:
http://www.briankim.net/blog/2006/07/how-to-find-what-you-love-to-do/
Read Some Books:
http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-Parachute-2008/dp/1580088678/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210098174&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/20-Something-20-Everything-Quarter-life-Balance-Direction/dp/157731476X
Take Some Tests:
Ansir - http://personal.ansir.com/test.htm
MBTI - http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
