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What we’re talking about:

An Instagram post from @biglifejournal prompted this episode. The story they shared about how parents supported a child in her dream of becoming a mermaid, in the process helping her learn fantastic life skills including how to reach her goals, made me think about how we are likely to dismiss teens when they come to us with ideas about their future career.

1:23 The post that inspired this episode

Check out the link below to see the post that I’m referencing here. It involves the story of a child who says she wants to be a mermaid, and parents who respond by encouraging her to learn to swim and sing as these are things that mermaids are good at. They teach her how to set goals and work towards her dreams, which are life skills that will set her up the future, no matter what she decides to do.

4:00 How this relates to teenagers

I think adults can be quite dismissive of teenagers’ career goals and plans for the future when they don’t think it’s the “right choice”, and not only is this not helpful, but it’s a missed opportunity to be more curious about why they chose that career to begin with. I share a story about being dismissed as a teen and how unhelpful it was in my career journey.

6:50 How we can be more curious with students

It makes sense that students might latch onto a career they’ve heard of from somewhere, because they’ve been focussed on studying all year and all of a sudden need to make some sort of choice about their next step. What we can do as adults is be curious to find out why they have chosen a particular career, and then use their responses to dig a bit deeper and maybe even discover other similar options where they can pursue their interests and lean into their talents and skills.

10:50 Why I like discussing courses more than careers

One thing I think makes more sense, particularly with teenagers, is to focus on the next step rather than the final career goal. This means that they can zone in on what they like to do, what interests they want to explore, and what skills they would like to develop, and it gives them more time to discover different careers and roles that they will be able to access with their qualification. With new jobs being created all the time, this also means they will be open to new careers that don’t exist yet but will be available to them once they finish their degree.

14:30 What this means for creative careers

I see most adults being dismissive of students who want to work in a creative field, because they’re worried about the job prospects. While this may be a valid concern, I think it’s important to start by being curious and looking deeper into the opportunities available. When students are allowed to explore, they can find out about the wider range of careers related to the one they initially thought of, and they can get a more accurate picture of what a career in this field looks like. With this information, they can make an informed decision for themselves,, rather than dismissing it because “people say there are no jobs in that”.

Links mentioned:

Work with me: https://www.roadmapeducation.com/services

The Instagram post from @biglifejournal that sparked this episode: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFki0WQu3wv/?hl=en&img_index=1

25 Ways to Explore Careers: https://www.roadmapeducation.com/explore