My daughter's high school had it's first college fair the other day. She's a sophomore and her high school encourages parents to start talking with their teens about college and careers early on. Back in the day, that's what my dad did. I can remember him telling me at 16-years-old, "You need to decide what kind of vocation you want to pursue." Yes, my dad uses the word "vocation." I wanted to study psychology. My dad has a Phd in biochemistry and molecular biology and recently retired after teaching 40+ years at the same university. After hearing I wanted to study psychology he responded, "What are you going to do with that? You've always been a good writer. You should go into journalism or something like that." And, here I am.
Flash forward to present day and I'm in the car with my teen and when she brings up college, I mention the career fair at her school. Small digression: at this high school a very high percentage of kids go on to college and a good percentage of those go to prestigious universities. Over-achievement is expected by parents, administrators and staff. Their football team is never any good and sports teams in general are just okay, despite great facilities. To me this seems right.
Anyway, I want my daughter to be who she wants to be and I see my job as her in-house, 24/7 career coach. She has no clue of a direction and for now I think that's normal. How many of us after so many years still haven't quite figured out their professional path I talk to a lot of people in this situation and my advice always follows a similar pattern, although not in this order:
(1) Get a mentor.
(2) Assess where you are now.
(3) Be honest with yourself
(4) Go to networking events/Create a network.
(5) Be able to say what you want to do in :30 seconds
(6) Very important: Don't give up. If your network is a good one, you won't.
It's still very tough out there. By the time my 15-year-old is looking for serious work, it might not be a whole lot better. But I tend to channel my dad during the times when my daughter and I are in the car and I'm fielding her questions.
For now, I tell her to have fun, one step at a time and "you know where to find me if necessary." I think that advice holds for most everyone else too.
*Chantal de la Rionda edits this blog.
