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Call it a career odyssey.
Four recent college graduates who were good friends didn’t know what should come next. So they crisscrossed the U.S. in a lime green R.V., interviewing inspiring people along the way about how they found their life’s calling. One friend eventually peeled off to become a teacher, and the remaining three went on to help other young people answer the defining question of young adulthood: What do I do with my life?
Chase your Passion
“My advice to parents? Don’t dismiss your kid’s interest, whether it’s in math, gaming, or comic strips,” says Brian McAllister, whose cross-country journey eventually blossomed into Roadtrip Nation, a career “empire” that includes a film, a book, and a successful PBS series that chronicles road trips of other searching young people.
“Maybe your kid wants to be LeBron James. He can take that same drive and work at Nike designing equipment or do art for ad campaigns for Gatorade. What we try to do with Roadtrip Nation—and what parents should try to do— is show your kid there are many different pathways that start with their passion.”
Like McAllister, author and speaker Chad Foster agrees that following one’s passion is one of the wisest pieces of advice parents can give their kids. “It’s in the pursuit of these dreams that many other doors will open for these young people,” says Foster, who also hit the road a couple of decades ago to research how teenagers can better prepare themselves for life after school. “If these doors are related to their passion, their chances of success and gratification are much, much greater.”
Do Something Valuable
Not so fast with the “explore your passion” advice, cautions Jared Chung, the founder of CareerVillage.org, an online community that links students with career questions to working adults with answers. “You know how quickly a teen’s passions can change as they experience more. We prefer to encourage students to do valuable things; pick the right career for them. That framing helps them explore with purpose, and find causes they care about supporting and problems they’re good at solving.”
Tips for Guiding Your Child
McAllister, Foster, and Chung offered several other tips for parents trying to guide their kids toward fulfilling careers:
- Encourage part-time jobs while in school: “Part-time work as a teenager is the number one common denominator among successful people,” says Foster. “During those experiences, young people learn the skills they’ll need for full-time work, including developing a work ethic.” The people they meet in the workplace may also be helpful contacts in the future.
- Support your child’s involvement in extracurricular activities: “In these experiences, kids are learning all the same skills that will apply in the workplace: teamwork, dealing with people, and handing failure and success,” says Foster.
- Provide your child with meaningful intellectual and cultural experiences, guided by your child’s interests: Wherever you go, whether it’s to a museum, a zoo, or a historic landmark, help your kids engage the people who work there. “Encourage them to ask them, ‘How did you get to where you are? What were you into when you were a teenager?’” advises McAllister. “A lot of kids don’t think adults were ever kids. Yet many teenagers are doing the things these adults were doing when they were the same age.”
- Look for local “career” experiences that align with your child’s interest: “If your child loves trucks, drive through the industrial part of town,” advises McAllister. “Go to a welding shop or a building site and talk to the people who work there.” Find friends and colleagues who will allow your child to shadow them for a day, suggests Chung, and consider internships and volunteering. YouTube day-in-the-life videos can also be helpful.
- Don’t guide your children to careers based solely on how much money your child will make: It may lead to a dramatic quarter-life-crisis that disrupts so many careers.
By Vicki Ritterband
The post Guiding Your Child Toward the Right Career appeared first on TeenLife.