Deciding on a Career

1. 84

   gmwilliamsposted 12 years ago

   I believe that the best time to plan for a career is from the sophomore period in high school and at the latest, junior year in high school.   By the time, one enters college, a career path should be decided on.   Do you agree with this premise?  Why?  Why not?

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   1. 91

      habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's a good idea, but some teens just aren't sure exactly what they want to do. I was lucky. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, even when I was a little kid. My goal was periodically interrupted with my wanting to be a veterinarian and a cowboy. lol

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2. 83

   grand old ladyposted 12 years ago

   I ultimately it will depend on the person. Some students are by nature self motivated. My daughter, at 21, has her whole life planned before her including the style of the house that she wants to build for herself. But she was always in a hurry.
   
   A friend of hers who is older has no idea what he really wants to do, has no special passion for anything and likes being with his friends. He hasn't done well in college but he is a very, very good person with a kind heart.
   
   My other daughter's friend is working in Singapore and hates her job, but she hangs in there and plans to go to England. But she is always guided step by step on the plans that she makes. Her passion is cuisine and she works in the hotel industry.
   
   Children are all different. So here is a link to a song by John Meyer that sort of talks like it. I am a John Meyer fan!
   
   http://youtu.be/7WwaAKlj6A4
   
   Hope you enjoy this:)

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3. 92

   peeplesposted 12 years ago

   While ideal, it's not always possible. I entered college at 16. Being 16 I could only plan on what I hoped would work. A child knows nothing fully about the economy. Planning a career by 15 or 16 can really only be done if that child has a good support system that can guide them in the right direction.

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4. 82

   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   I think it is useful to have some idea of what you want to do at an early stage, because it helps to plan studies that will give the best possible path towards that goal.
   
   On the other hand, inclinations and likes change with time, and so even do skills. In addition, a single-track career path is becoming a rarity these days.
   
   I focused on going into biomedical science since I was about 9-10 years old. At the time, I thought I wanted to research. Once I got into research during my PhD, I discovered I didn't really like it so much. In my mid-30s, I requalified in library and information studies, but decided during the diploma course that no way did I want to be a librarian, although I liked working with information. So I then worked for 15 years as an information specialist for a charity active in the biomedical field. Just before I turned 50, I left employment to become a freelance medical translator.
   
   Had someone said to me in school that I would end up a translator, I would have laughed, because I was useless at languages then!
   
   The beauty, though, is that while I changed career three times from researcher, to information specialist to translator (despite having no formal linguistic training), my educational qualifications and all my subsequent work experience have resulted in me being able to do work I really enjoy and to never want for job offers.

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5. 87

   Millionaire Tipsposted 12 years ago

   I'm middle age and I still haven't decided on a career!  When you are in school, of course you should  make some goals and plans, but you don't really know of all the different jobs that are out there.  Of the jobs I've had during my life time, except for writing, they are so specialized and offbeat that no one would have ever thought they existed unless they knew of them.  I work/worked for big corporations, but always in a stepchild department that could easily get sold off to another corporation because it doesn't fit exactly with their business model.

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6. 62

   chicagoguyposted 12 years ago

   you are deciding at the right time .........in my opinion medical field is so vast and provides you lot of opportunities !!

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   1. 0

      Beth37posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I am still planning on being a rock star. I just got waylaid for 3 or 4 or 20 years... whatever.

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7. 0

   Casimiroposted 12 years ago

   Kids should be trained to teach themselves and be self-reliant. They should also have good financial skills. I don't see that much focus is given to any of these. The norm for employment throughout one's life is that you will not work for a single company or even within a single field. It's very common today for people to change jobs or fields every 5 years or so and this trend is not an impediment to financial success, often quite the opposite. The trend will only increase in the future. So, we should be getting our kids ready for that instead of trying to lock them into a particular career path.

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8. 57

   kingsinghposted 12 years ago

   People change their career path all the time and what you think that you want to do in high school could change by the time you are in your junior year in college. This is based on the exposure of the discipline that you have been studying and you can lose interest. People change their careers even much later in life pursuing their dreams and realizing what they are doing now is not what they want to do. Great question.

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9. 91

   habeeposted 12 years ago

   Sometimes college students get interested in a different career through exposure. For example, my youngest daughter was taking classes to become a health info tech. One semester, she had to take an elective, and she chose tumor registry. She became fascinated with the subject, so she changed her major. I'm happy to report that she graduated last spring and passed the national certification exam! Even better, she was hired by a local hospital, and she loves her job.

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10. 78

    psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

    It is nice to have a plan, but these days it is likely to change as you go. I changed careers during my university years and again after I graduated--a better option came along.  My idea of what various careers would be like was not realistic during my high school years.

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