Who knew their career path from young?

Hello everyone! It is me, Ellie from Sinclair & Rush, blogging again about all manner of topics. This weeks topic is one that I wanted to learn a little more about. The question I asked you all was, “Who knew what they wanted to be or do when they left school?” This question popped into my head because I believe it is quite a tall order to expect young people to decide their careers, (a fairly important decision) at 16-18. I look back at myself as that age. I was battling with so many other things that I wasn’t in the right headspace, nor did I have the emotional maturity to make such an important decision. So it got me thinking, who else felt or feels the same?

The answers I wrote to the question were:

Yes

Still don’t / winging it!

Based on those that took part in this poll, 50% said “No” and 50% clicked “Still don’t / winging it!”

Wow.. Quite interesting results don’t you think? No one that participated in this poll wrote “Yes”. Now that doesn’t mean that no one in the world knew what they wanted to be when they left school. But it does show that many people support my feelings and views. Also it shows I am not the only one who couldn’t work out their career path at 16-18 and went into something random instead!

Upon further research I found an article with the Office of National Statistics which supports this theory that what we aspire to be at 16-21, is different to what we actually do at 22-29. See following statistics downloaded from said article to support this.

(I will share the link to the full article at the end of this blog as it is very interesting.)

Essentially this table is showing that a high proportion of young people didn’t go on to do what they felt at the time was their dream job.

So we ask ourselves why is this? We are going to explore some of the possible reasons now….

Firstly, one reason could be lack of confidence and self-esteem. We may well have a dream career but It can be scary to follow it for the fear of failure. We all experience a lack of confidence at times and especially in our teenage years and early 20’s, when we are just trying to work life out. So the thought of a knock back or rejection can be too much to bare for our young souls. It can feel like studying to become a Doctor, an Actor or a Teacher for example, will just be too tough and self-doubt creeps in. If we do not feel good enough in ourselves, it will stifle us into not following our dreams. Albeit it temporarily.

Secondly, and quite a common one I would imagine is simply just not knowing what you want to be at the age of 16-18. It is a big decision to decide what you want to be for the rest of your life, (although no-one tells you it doesn’t need to be forever!). Especially during puberty when hormones are raging and frankly you aren’t too worried about the future! You are a lucky and rare individual if you can say you know you want to be a Solicitor, a Web Developer or a Bricklayer for example. These are clear paths with specific training routes to get there so it is easier to make decisions about college or university. But if you don’t have a clue what you would want to do, it is a huge responsibility at 18 to go to University and rack up student debt, with no career goal in mind at the end. Personally, for many young people, I believe they need time to explore opportunities before making that commitment.

Similarly, not having the right guidance when you are young, will naturally impact on career decision making. All adolescents need a mature adult to steer them in the right direction, and give their golden advice. But if you are unfortunate and do not have these role models, it can lead to a lack of knowing what career to take up.

Also, we may not follow our dreams due to feeling “comfortable” in our current situation. It is so easy to fall into a job and stay there because it then becomes what you know. When we know something, we feel safe and secure which human beings instinctively crave, so it can be hard to move on from it. The key is to be excited by change and not scared. Again this can happen as we get to a certain age, we feel less afraid generally so are ready to take risks and go for that new job!

The last reason we are going to explore is: The industry itself may be one that requires a lot of study and can be hard to find positions once qualified. Such as an Architect or a Doctor. Naturally, a person may lose interest and “fall” into other industries a long the way. Not to mention, life events will be happening during our 20’s, such as partners, babies, bereavements, and these things get in the way of peoples careers. Which means they are less focused at achieving their dreams.

As you can see there are many reasons why young people don’t know what they want to be, and don’t follow their dream careers. But we should remember that changing careers and following your passions at any age is a good thing. Never feel stuck in life, there are always options and you are never too old to live out your dreams. It is very common for the adult versions of ourselves to mature, grow in confidence and be more open to taking risks.

Life is a bit about “winging it”, fake it till you make it as time is an important thing. Give yourself it and the answers will come. All experience is valuable and will teach you something so you mustn’t regret that job you did for a year, because you will have learned something and met new people along the way, which is what life is about!

Ask yourself, “What did the 5 year old me what to do when they grew up?” Maybe now is time to please that younger self!

Thanks for reading, to read others click on the blog post below. To view the ONS article just click on the link at the end of this article.

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