Future Careers

Trying to decide what you want to be when you grow up can be difficult. It isn’t exactly realistic to think that you as 14 – 18 year old students – would know the precise career that will make you happy and fulfilled in the future. The data on how many careers a person will hold in their lifetime is difficult to track, but statistics on current adults said that, on average, they would have 7 different jobs in their adult working life. The estimates for current high school students is predicting that you will hold 12 - 18 different jobs and likely in a few different career fields. Crazy! But I suspect most of those adults who have had so many different jobs never imagined changing jobs so frequently. And, if they couldn’t predict what job they would want in their careers as adults, then I don't think it is realistic to think that you will know exactly what you want to do when you are still in high school. 

You don’t know about fields that you haven’t been exposed to yet – how could you know if you’d like anthropology or accounting when those are areas you haven’t studied. That is why it is important to take opportunities to be curious, to explore, to learn, to ask questions, to observe and to find out more about anything which interests you. Seek opportunities to shadow, interview career professionals, volunteer, or work a part time job – even if it isn’t in a field even remotely interesting to you because it will still help you to learn workforce skills.

Ultimately, I hope that you see career searching as a fun and exciting opportunity rather than a stressful task to be added to your “to do” list. Remember, every day you are preparing yourself for your future. You are learning and applying skills that will help you for the rest of your life like listening, organization, problem solving, critical thinking, analysis, time management, taking personal responsibility, completing quality work, meeting deadlines, working with others (including those you might not like) and so many more. There is no doubt that you have a bright future ahead and you will be prepared no matter what (or how many) career(s) you have in the future.