5 Steps to Discuss Career with Your Child
Today there are myriad career options before your child compared to the years when you were in school or college. It throws up new opportunities you haven’t heard before but at the same time it is challenging because you child needs the right attitude, knowledge and skills required for such professions. The cost of professional education and training has gone up manifold that a bad choice could not only prove costly in monetary terms but also in time.
Family and school play and important role in helping your child learn about the various career options and how to go about achieving their goals.
Here are 5 steps to help your child choose a good career
1.Find Out the Interests and Passions
Your child may be doing well in academics and scoring high marks but that doesn’t necessarily mean your child is cut out for a conventional path of engineering, medicine, fundamental science or commerce. Find out their interests such as writing, acting, singing, music, drawing, painting, photography –perhaps it may give some clues about other lucrative career options.
2. Give Them Opportunities to Visit Places and Books to Read
If you take your children early on to science museums, ships,theatre, art galleries, hospitals, music events, exhibitions, technology fairs, industrial visits, it will expose them to a wide world of opportunities and perhaps kindle their inborn aptitude for any of them.
Give them opportunity to talk to people who are involved in various jobs- doctors, scientists, chefs, police officers, sports men and women which will help them understand the milieu in which these people work. For eg. a mechanical engineer needs to be constantly using tools, working with machines, grease and chemicals.
3. Talk to Career Counselors
Instead of persuading your child to choose careers which you think is quite in demand and financially rewarding, leave the choice to your child. But, it would be helpful if they are exposed to sessions addressed by career counselors or have one-to-one sessions with them. They may be able to guide your child in the right path based on their skills, aptitude and interests.
4. Help Them Identify Financial and Life Goals
If your child wants to retire at the age of 35 with huge earnings and have a promotional character, perhaps entrepreneurship is more suited for them. On the other hand, if they are more inclined towards stability and security of finances and job, they could try for government or corporate jobs. Or if they are interested in social service and not too much inclined to get high salaries, then they could try for jobs in non-governmental organizations and charities which will give them job satisfaction.
5. Help Choose a Career Suited to IQ & EQ
Your child may have good IQ and may be creative but if the emotional quotient (EQ) is lower, your child may have problems in the work place- controlling anger, overcoming shyness, having compassion, understanding, teamwork and so on. Such people may be more suited to research, independent consultancy or creative jobs that are not team-oriented. On the other hand extroverts, team players may be more suited for marketing and managerial roles.
A good career choice is made when your child is able to match his skills, knowledge, passion and marketability for a particular industry or functional role. Newer career options are sprouting up day by day- for eg. genomics, event management, ecommerce and mobile application among others. The earlier your child is exposed to various options, the more early they will be able to choose the right career path rather than going through a trial-and-error exercise.
