Convincing kids to take up a certain career

Society Business and Career
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So when it comes to choosing a career , it can be a very daunting experience for the kids . Even more daunting for the parents !

What is your kid wants to choose a career that you think might not be ideal in the longer run. Although keeping their wishes in mind as well , how can you best convince your kids to go after those career choices which have better job opportunities in the future ?

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

What would you say are some career choices that have better job opp.s in the future?

My take is that to give my offspring(s) the best possible exposure I can to good education and fun while they grow up, and hopefully by the time they are adults they have a good enough understanding of their interests and strengths. It is too hard to predict 10-20 years into the future to see what would be a good job then, but being confident, nimble and self-aware always helps. We live in a world where people who are good at what they do will mostly always find employment in stable societies - be it those that operate in fake fairy tales or the factual world.

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

Much agreed Queer.

Recently a lady discussed with me that her 15 year old son wants to become an artist and wants to pursue it as a career. Now she is convincing him to opt out of making it a career at this stage and pursue it as a hobby first and perhaps over the years if its a successfull investment, he may get into a full time career as an Artist.

But in the meantime he should focus on getting a different career option like Law, accounting, even teaching etc .

Now I do agree with her and seriously would love for her son to see her perspective coz its very easy for many of us to say that let the kid do what he wants , but later if he isnt earning enough or not really doing very well , then you as a parent start feeling guilty about not letting your son follow a more job oriented career .

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

My son was totally into the early video games that ATARI had in the 80s, since he was spending so much time playing them in high school, I asked him to learn how to design one, and he did one in his College Class...........that got him interested in his IT career :)

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

CB, nothing new about desi parents asking kids to do anything other than doctor, lawyer or engineering "on the side" or "as a hobby." This was probably good advise in the 70s and 80s when career opps were limited. IMHO, today you are going to end up raising a kid who will not enjoy his career choice, and will have even less chance of making it in his main interest. Isn't it better to raise a gritty kid that understands the options, difficulties and responsibilities - and they pick what they want - if starving artist is what they pick, it is their choice to live by.

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I had strategized into doing a 360 degrees development where they have amazing social skills, physical strength and academic qualifications. They say EQ is more important than IQ so do anything but don't let them become socially awkward. You cant force your will on them but you can certainly brainwash them skillfully in wanting themselves what you want for them. Parents who neglect their child for 15 years all of a sudden want them to be successful, I am afraid it don't work that way.

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

Queer , I disagree with letting them be coz they chose it . Purely because , a parent must not give up on their kids that soon . Of that is how i feel . in the end if the kid isnt doing very well in life , it hurts the parent equally or more then what the kid might themself be going through in life .

Bobby , I agree with this approach . Skillfully turning their attention to something more agreeable is what I am after . Can you share some ideas of how we can do it ?

I always advise in such situations that the kid be given opportunities to shadow some close ones in their profession . Or let them shadow a key person in the field that the kid wants . Then let them do the same in several other career and then have a chat wtih them and discuss what they think .

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What does "doing very well in life" mean to you? Because not everyone has the same ideas on what they want from life.

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

It really is an absolute fact that you are an average of 4 people closest to you so make sure they are surrounded by motivated engaged and skilled kids. Kids like to do things they are good at. If you want them to be in the engineering profession then involve them in those kinds of activities from very early years, buy them tools, involve them in fixing things, show them videos, take them to science fares, show them the car engine etc.

My youngest says he wants to be a physiotherapist because both junior coaches Nicole n Casey want to be physiotherapists and he has been to physiotherapists before. Environmental factors play a huge role in life and the biggest thing is if he is going to have good company.

My eldest is in engineering because he got influenced by our gold medalist athlete Ben and Ben is studying engineering. Also Canadian Olympian Canoeist is an engineer.

Please put him in sports that is the best decision of my life they learn the relationship between effort and results.

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

Is this Ben from the Ben and Jerry's icecream cover? Coz he is really a mouse...

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

He is the Canadian national gold medalist in Kayaking, I was lucky to have the 3 siblings as role models for my kids. He just quit and that made us very sad as he couldn't afford it anymore. He had to chose bw training or a job. I was looking forward to seeing him in Olympics.

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

But just two days ago you said Tom was the gold medalist in kayaking.

Are you just making stuff up again, pal?

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Why don't you quote the post about Tom then, The three siblings, Ben, Robin and Stephanie are the ones we are talking about now. I had mentioned Jeremy he is the upcoming star he is only 16 and hasn't won any medals yet but trains with a passion.

Bens parents and siblings have moved away but Ben stayed to complete his engineering. Stephanie might still go to Olympics. She moved away from home to train with a bigger club. There are a lot of sacrifices needed.

And by the way I am the VP of the club.

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

This is Ben, pic from clubs public pictures

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

okay thanks for posting Tom's pic, but where is yours?

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Here it is:

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

Haha...keep fantasizing about men Queer, I am a liberal and don't hold animosity towards queers..lol

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<3

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Re: Convincing kids to take up a certain career

I will be forever grateful to my Dad that he did not even try to convince me to follow the career path he had in mind for me. I know that the career I had chosen (IT) would not have been his preferred choice. But forget about trying to convince me, at the time he didn't even tell me that he was not too excited about IT. He allowed me to go the direction I wanted to go and Alhamdulillah I have been working in IT quite successfully for almost 20 years now. The fact that my father did not act like a typical Desi Dad back then played a huge part in me being successful today.