Mostly, children are not very sure about what career they want to choose and end up choosing the career they don’t like. Your role as parents becomes extremely critical at this stage. Let’s understand how we as parents can empower our children to selecting the right career.
Recommended Read: What is the Role of Parents in Choosing a Career for their Child?
1. Strength Spotting Vs Career Spotting
You know your child very well, you can help in identifying their strengths, observe them while playing, doing small tasks, watching television, talking to their friends, and make a note of things your child does the best. Recognise and appreciate their efforts, actions that they do on a micro-level, like, “you help others in need”, “you speak very confidently”, “you don’t give up”, “you organize your thoughts before you speak.” Identify under what circumstances they perform to the best of their ability, whether it’s working with small or large groups, or working alone. All such preferences are cues to possible careers which you normally use as examples.
For example, if your child is good at organizing their thoughts well before they speak and speak confidently, you might end up making macro suggestions like “you would make a great journalist”. However, these skills might apply to a variety of careers like lawyers, politicians, psychologists, educators, artists, motivational speakers, and many more.
2. Speak to Them Vs. Speak for Them
Yes, it might be easier to help them get an internship, design their resume than coaching them on how to make it, but resist the temptation. Discuss your highlights and challenges, give them a tour of your workplace and the role you play. They should be aware of the career lingo, resumes, cover letters, interviews, promotions, initiatives, salaries, and so on. It’s a learning experience for them.
3. Career Listing Vs. Listing Careers You Know
We as parents try to give as much information as possible to our children and help them with all the careers we know and how we started our journey. However, we might not be aware of all the entire universe of careers available. Hence, we should refrain from passing limited and outdated information. Instead, equip your children with better resources, get them to read about the upcoming jobs, skill-set, connect them with people who can broaden their career horizon.
4. Passion Vs Prestige
In earlier times, the stereotypical career choice of every parent was to see their child as a doctor, engineer, or a lawyer. We may covet a particular job/career for our child, but what we need to introspect is:
Will these careers make them happy? If it does, how important will it be?
Pushing your child towards a career that you always wanted to be in or is one of the trending careers might not be a wise call. On an average we spend more than 40 plus hours at work, hence, it’s important that we love what we do and as Rancho clearly stated in 3 idiots, “kaamyaab hone ke liye nhi kaabil hone ke liye padho”
5. Focus on Experience Vs Focus on Benefits?
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it”
– Steve Jobs
The best way to evaluate whether you like something or not is to work in that field. Internships are a great way to try out different professions and experience the challenges and highlights. Many students choose to work for free internships and some even pay for doing internships, just to understand how well you align with a particular job or role.
The stipend and remuneration received initially.
6. Networking Vs Pressurizing
You must have followed a particular way to find the job that suits you the best. Stop right there, if you are thinking the same will work for your offspring as well. Once, your child shortlists some careers they are willing to explore, help them build a better network, leverage your contacts to get them the right exposure, talk to people from different industries and act as a launchpad for them, perhaps you can find them a right mentor.
Choosing the right Career is an ongoing process. Do you remember the first thing your son or daughter mentioned that they want to be when they grow up? You might have often heard of pilots, presidents and must have been a witness to an ever-changing aspiration to become a teacher, singer, police officer, doctor and so many more.
Children have a desire to explore different career options at a young age by participating in various extra-curricular and co-curricular activities. To have any hope of filtering out roles that aren’t suitable for them, they need to have a clear understanding of what interests them, and what they’re good at.
7. Supportive Vs Controlling
Think yourself as a launchpad for lifting your child and supporting them as they find their way to an ideal career. You help them with your experience and resources to reach for different possibilities and let them take the lead.
Unlike parents who hover over their children all the time directing their every move, playing the main role in decision making like selecting the right subjects or colleges and accompanying their child everywhere (from extra-curricular activities to job interviews).
Recommended Read: Child Interested in an Offbeat Career? 6 Ways to Deal with the Situation Effectively
Conclusion
Selecting a career might seem like a daunting task sometimes. However, we assure you, you’re not alone in this. We at Mindler help you unravel your career related concerns with the help of a psychometric test and an in-depth discussion with you and your child. So, take your assessment now and get a better career clarity.
