The most common question to a child is “what are you going to become when you grow up”, that is accompanied by a very simple assumption that the child will follow in his parent’s footsteps.
It comes as a shock to some people even today when the child of a respected doctor chooses a field outside the STEM domain. The child of a famous actor is assumed to work in the film industry. A businessman’s child is supposed to take over the family business.
Many children unknowingly succumb to the societal pressure of becoming “like” their parents from a very early age and end up in careers that aren’t meant for them.
‘Career interest’ is a valid reason for choosing a field different from that of your family. Mindler is here to help you choose your career interest, read on!
Choosing Your Child’s Career
Most of the times parents overlook their child’s career interests and talents and make them follow a usual career path of an engineer, doctor, teacher, lawyer, etc. Choosing a career for their child is often restricted to having an economically viable and stable job, that is “respectable” according to society.
It’s not until the child is in the middle of his graduation or specialization that he realizes his passion. Many children take a u-turn from their forced career paths to start a new life in a field they enjoy. However, not many children have the courage to leave their half-baked careers, to start a new one with added performance pressure, monetary insecurities, and zero support from their parents.
To avoid a life of regret, frustration, and dissatisfaction for your child, it is paramount to understand child’s aspirations, analyze his genius and help them achieve excellence in that course.
As guardians, it’s your responsibility to guide them towards a career interest best suited for them.
Also read: How Will You Understand Your Child’s Career Aspirations?
How To Help Your Child’s Career Development
A parents’ role in their child’s career development is to lay the foundation for his trajectory and encourage them to engage in as many assorted activities, at the early stages of growing up.
Instead of choosing a particular career interest for your child, you can guide them in choosing a profession of their interest.
Here are a few ways you can help your child find his career interest:
1. Enhancing the child’s thinking ability
- Giving them opportunities to talk, and share their views and opinions from an early age helps them in thinking and taking their own sound decisions. Just engaging children in your daily conversations encourage them to talk to you about their problems too.
2. Early foundation
- It’s the roots that make children grow in a particular direction, and take responsibility for their choices as they become adults. Pushing children towards extracurricular activities and hobbies helps them develop interests, that later become career aspirations.
- Having hobbies helps them discover their innate skills, and talents thus contributing to their confidence and personality development.
- Encourage your child to work towards his passion to help them achieve a clearer career path and a satisfactory life as adults.
Also Read: How to Encourage Your Child to Work for Their Passion?
3. Decision Making
- Decision-making is a significant part of a child’s personality development. The skill helps him choose a logical career interest of his calling.
- Encourage your child to make small decisions from an early age, to develop this skill into a major trait of your child’s identity.
4. Be Aware of Resources, Educating, Training opportunities
- Nowadays schools provide several opportunities for students to showcase their talents, through events, competitions, and their overall performance. Physical education, Art, Reading, Dance, and Music classes along with other activities are a must for students up to class X.
- These classes provide an outlet for your child to explore his options and enjoy activities that he loves the most.
- Schools also organize camps, trips, and hobby classes covering many fields of interest for students to dig their potential, and work towards it.
- Career counselling and aptitude tests also help in determining a student’s career interest.
Factors That Influence Your Child’s Career Interest
When we think of “career interest”, several factors like ‘job description’, ‘degree’, ‘scope and future’ and ‘salary’ come to mind, that influence your decision-making.
Besides these, some other factors that influence your child’s career interest:
1. Childhood Fantasies, Inspirations, and Role Models:
- As children, we read a lot of comic books, watched a lot of movies, and had several inspiring characters- fictional and real. We try to ape these figures as kids, subconsciously drifting towards their qualities and personality, wanting to become like them when we grow up.
- For example, many of us desired to be like Kalpana Chawla, and thus wanted to become astronauts, while some of us were awed by the charisma of Priyanka Chopra and Shah Rukh Khand and wanted to be actors, models, and most of us wanted to be like our parents, in our childhoods.
- As adults, we end up desiring similar career interests as our childhood role models.
2. Culture and Socio-Economic Background:
- Ethnic and racial background, region of belonging, community, and family often affect a child’s career interest. The economic background of the child’s family often interferes with his career interest and passion for the field. It may or may not make a child follow his dream profession.
- The culture is many a time responsible for our expectations from life, including jobs and professions.
3. Gender:
- At a very young age, we experience several career-related stereotypes. The opportunities we get are often according to our gender. Girls were advised not to play football while boys are never asked to participate in dance competitions.
- Gender and career development still go hand-in-hand and often affects your child’s career interest, if subjected to such stereotypes.
4. Personality:
- Being aware of your child’s personality type can help you guide him in the process of career development. The personality helps in carving out an appropriate career interest, which can be your child’s perfect profession, fit for his abilities.
- It also helps in job searching, self-marketing, and evaluating opportunities.
- Personality awareness will help your child in battling the inevitable career challenges throughout its course.
Conclusion
The question of “what to do after class XII” haunts every child. Choosing the right career interest demands introspection, collecting information about subjects, and the perfect colleges.
Sadly a lot of students are forced to move forward with a profession influenced by their parents.
Every child has the right to dream and follow his aspirations, however “stupid” it may sound to his family. Parents should guide their children with their real-world experience, support them and help them choose the right career interest.
Mindler, India’s best career counselling firm helps parents and students from class VIII to college in carefully analyzing talent, potential, and skill through professional assessments, analysis, and in-depth research.
Mindler is solely dedicated to helping parents and children choose the best-suited professions with its reputed Career Counselling Online.
What are you waiting for? Your dream career awaits!
