Mistakes Parents Make While Helping Their Child Choose The Right Career Path

Today, not every school will help to choose a profession, all its resources are aimed at preparing for the exam. Therefore, career guidance becomes the task of parents. To help your child choose a career path, you must take into account his wishes and abilities, be able to predict the demand of his profession of the future, take into account the economy and other risk factors. Here are the top 15 mistakes that parents make when choosing a profession for a child.

Top 14 Things Parents Do That Destroy Their Children’s Careers

Mistakes Parents Make While Helping Their Child Choose The Right Career Path

Mistake 1. Career planning, based on the current situation on the labor market

This is the most common mistake. Parents do not take into account how the introduction of information technology will change the structure of professions, which professions will die, and which ones will appear in the near future. It is possible that the profession of an interpreter, for example, will simply die in five years, because Google announced that it will create a universal digital translator into all languages. Skype recently offered a simultaneous translation of my conversations into English.

Advice: plan a career for a child with an eye on the economic situation in the next 7-10 years.

Mistake 2. Choosing to study abroad without planning further employment

Today, many parents are considering the possibility of educating a child abroad. Studying abroad is not a problem today, the problem is what to do with it further. Foreign education is not always in demand. I know several stories when children successfully studied in Spain and England in good educational institutions, and then when returning to their homeland they could not find themselves, because their ambitions were already formed according to different principles, and it is very difficult to work in performing positions for minimal pay. Therefore, when choosing a college abroad, be sure to think “why” and “what’s next”.

Advice: study abroad is an opportunity that will really give new interesting competences and acquaintances. But decide in advance where the child plans to work after graduation – in which country and in what profession. Because the situation in the labor market is individual in each state. And even a prestigious foreign education can turn into a restriction that will force the child to start his career from the bottom.

Mistake 3. Ignorance of the ongoing changes in labor legislation

Someone already heard about the professional standards? Maybe someone has already tried an independent assessment of qualification. This is a new paradigm of our labor market. In the near future, working without basic vocational training will be prohibited, and all employees will have to confirm their level of qualification in independent professional examinations in special centers.

Advice: decide on the choice of profession, planning to acquire basic knowledge to gain professional experience. Studying in order to get a diploma is already an atavism.

Mistake 4. Outdated stereotypes about the prestige of the profession

15 years ago, it was prestigious to enter the history department of the pedagogical institute, because graduates could work in the administration of a city or a state. Work in the state structure was considered very prestigious. Could we imagine that a welder job can be prestigious? The work of artisans today is as prestigious and respected as work in senior positions.

Advice: Meet industry professionals to find out which jobs are prestigious and why.

Mistake 5. Ignorance of changes in the labor market

One of the most striking features of the labor market is that one career has begun to absorb knowledge and skills from other professional fields. For example, let’s consider the transformation path of an HR specialist.

For many decades, there existed a “Chief Personnel Office”. In the 2000s, the recruitment function was added to this position. Thus, the “recruitment manager” appeared. Then companies began to pay attention to staff development and training, so a new position appeared – “personnel training and development manager”, who was actively involved in personnel appraisal and training. Now, the selection and training of personnel are very actively moving into the Internet space, and the personnel manager has actually begun to combine the functions of a journalist, designer, SMM-manager and marketing specialist. We can assume that in the coming years this position will incorporate the totality of all these actions.

Advice: communicate with labor market specialists (HR managers, recruiters, HR managers, HR inspectors, HR managers) – they will tell you about the transformation of the positions.

Mistake 6. Ignorance of the structure of the profession

For example, a schoolgirl monitored colleges for two years, attended open-door days, successfully passed the exams, chose a specialty and entered a college. But what was her disappointment to find out in a year that she would become an engineer and not a doctor! The incorrect interpretation of the specialty and the lack of knowledge of a specific professional activity can lead to confusion.

Advice: when choosing a specialty, consult with industry workers to find out all about this kind of specialty, its functions and working conditions.

Mistake 7. Persuading your child that you will then help him to get a job

This is one of the most common erroneous parental beliefs. Can you guarantee that your friends will not leave the possible place of work in 5-7 years or you will not lose this acquaintance? Believe me, it is not difficult for a graduate to get a job and acquaintances can be rather a restriction, not an opportunity.

Advice: you, as a parent, can consider this factor as an additional resource, but you should not consider acquaintances as the main criterion.

Mistake 8. Looking at your friends working in this specialty

Yes, your friends can succeed in this or that specialty. But for this, they had a long way to go. Most likely, this was the path from the very beginnings – from working specialties to the head. This can serve you and your children as an example of a successful career, but should not influence the choice of a specialty.

Advice: ask successful people from your environment to tell about your career path, what difficulties they had to overcome, what they managed to achieve and how.

Mistake 9. Building a career of your child based on your unfulfilled ambitions.

For example, you have dreamed of becoming a teacher since childhood. But circumstances did not allow: the situation in the economy changed, the level of wages did not suit, and you had to move to another state. But you wanted it so bad. And now you can realize your unfulfilled dreams in your child and imagine him teaching children, and becoming a respected person.

Advice: turn off your egoism, this is not your life, but the life of another person who has his own dreams.

Mistake 10. Do not let your child study in another city

Parental fear for safety, lack of comfort, inconvenience, uncertainty – these are natural parental experiences. Think about what prospects and opportunities you gain or lose, what resources you have. It may be worth the risk because the child always has time to return.

Advice: when choosing an educational institution for in another city, assess your resources and capabilities. Remember, your child may not be able to build his career only because you did not let him go to another city…

Mistake 11. A child dreams of becoming a tough nut.

Patterns of behavior inspire and make people develop. This factor is a very strong internal motivator for career development. But in this case, you should double-check your child’s commitment to the created ideals. Offer him to consider other options of professional choice, perhaps he just does not know about other possibilities of self-realization. The same factor is the love of the child to a certain school subject or a desire to study only in a particular educational institution.

Advice: regularly inform your child about the diversity of professions, show him examples of successful people from other professional fields, this will allow you to either confirm the existing hypothesis or create a new idea for the future career.

Mistake 12. Choose a profession along for the ride.

A representative of the college came to the school and told what they prepare good specialists and it’s funny to study there. Five people decided to choose this college just along for the ride. After two or three years, everyone had their own interests, and the company fell apart, but the specialty remained. Two students realized that they did not like the chosen profession, two decided that the profession was unpromising, and one continued to study and successfully got a diploma.

Advice: if you understand that your child chooses a specialty for the company, explain to him that the company tends to decay or change. And he will unlikely to succeed working along for the ride. Maybe he should look for other factors in choosing a career path?

Mistake 13. It is necessary to continue the professional dynasty

We respect the preservation of professional dynasties, family traditions and family brand. But if you have a little doubt about your child’s desire to continue your business or he does not dream of working in the family business, then do not insist, ask external assistants and psychologists for help.

Advice: it is cool to continue the dynasty, but first you must make sure that your child will be a worthy successor of the family business.

Mistake 14. Choosing a profession out of spite, or in order to prove your abilities

Imagine the situation that a child and a teacher had a conflict at school. The child decided to prove that his knowledge is enough for enrollment in a college, and he managed it. The conflict resolved, ability demonstrated, result achieved. What’s next? Disappointment…

Advice: if you understand that the choice of a specialty was based on a conflict situation, you should help your child solve the conflict and not relate this situation with his future career path.

Category: General Issues

Tags: education, higher education, students