One of the toughest life choices is choosing a career. Most of us have dreamed of being a firefighter or engaging in some form of heroics but gradually we start to feel more intimidated by the prospect. This is why, if your child wants to choose a career, we must give them the right guidance. Even if your child is under the age of 10 and knows what they want to do or they are approaching adulthood quickly, here are a few ways we can help our children choose a career.
Utilising Their Existing Skills
Sometimes our children don’t know what they want to do, which is absolutely fine. There is no rush to get the ideal career. This is why it might be of benefit to help your child understand the things they are skilled at in school and what careers are logical fits. If your children are supremely skilled in maths and science, engineering is an amazing career choice and you can easily find out more information about engineering and how maths and science are integral to them. It sounds simple, but using the skills that come naturally to you can make for a very fulfilling career path.
Researching Each Option
The imagination of a child never measures up to the reality. If your child wants to become a firefighter because they’ve seen it on TV you need to give them the complete picture. Researching this type of career by taking them down to the local fire station can help them to form a better picture of whether this is an ideal career choice. It could also help them to work harder in school. For example, if your child wants to be an astronaut, rather than saying this is completely out of the question, it could be the motivation they need to work harder than ever before.
Keeping Our Minds Open
One of the major issues we all have as parents is thinking that our child wants to do something that may not be a viable career choice. A very good example is being a YouTuber. There are so many kids under the age of 10 who want to be YouTubers when they grow up, but rather than thinking that is not a “real job,” it is, effectively, being a content creator and working in marketing at the same time. Giving your child the tools to be able to set up a YouTube channel could eventually result in a career where they work freelance in the entertainment industry.
Thinking About What Will Be in Demand
We want to encourage our children to do something they love but it might be worth thinking about the careers that are going to be dead in the water in a few years’ time. Because of artificial intelligence seemingly taking over certain roles, you could benefit from giving your child and nudge in the right direction earlier on, for example, in healthcare services.
We all had dreams as children that we wanted to do something worthwhile that we cared about. It’s important that we don’t quash our children’s spirit and give them as much support as possible so they can choose a career that doesn’t just suit them, but actually gives them meaning to life.
