I have 10+ years of experience in the career development field. Most of my post-graduate experience has been helping college-aged students on their paths to find work or to talk about what they want to do with their lives. It’s a big question that most of us don’t really want to think about. The day-to-day routines settle, and we stop dreaming or we forget what makes us tick. But remember when we were children? We dreamed. We dreamed of being grown-ups and doing whatever we wanted. Maybe even being a dinosaur or a crayon.
Before I sound too pie-in-the-sky, I know the dream is not realistic for most of us. We do grow up. Sometimes thinking about a career is prompted by the profound need – not want but need – to find work and to make money to survive. But I wonder if life goals and design need to be explored earlier in life. I can see my children wonder about their future lives. My son, who is 5, just the other day posed this curiosity – “I wonder who I will marry. We will live in the houses near school.” Now, while not a career goal, this statement is a ponderance of where he will be in the future and who he will be with when he gets there. These are things to consider when exploring and choosing a career and forming life ambitions. And instead of scoffing at this statement and writing it off as he is young, I want to keep pulling this thread. How do I cultivate my child’s wonders and interests at a young age to keep him thinking about his future and who he is to become? How can I learn from him as he develops into that person?
With this blog, I hope to combine my passion of being a mom and my expertise in career development to dig into this developmental process. I want this to be a space to talk about how we help our children become – become a police officer; a doctor; maybe a turtle. But I also want this to be a space to talk about how to help them become who they will be as people. Career development for children is more than just asking them who they want to be when they grow up – which is a loaded question that I’d like to explore in a future blog post. Career development for children is about nurturing and guiding them to identify the person they want to be and the steps they need to take to get there. What do they like? What is important to them? Who do they like to be around? What feels easy for them to do? What doesn’t feel easy but is worth the work for whatever reason? Where do they like to work? How do they work best and most effectively?
The questions above are similar to the questions that get explored in career counseling sessions with adults. There are many tools that career advisors use to help people dig into these questions and guide people in their career choices. The tools and theories that get applied are often dependent on an individual’s personal and professional goals as well as their basic needs. And adults are likely pressure-prompted by time and need to find these answers. But I’ve noticed that children are curious about career and life goals too. They think about jobs; grown-up life; build perceptions about the world of work; receive messages about jobs and careers and “adulting”; and start to build a motivation to be something. I will use this blog to talk about some of the ways career advisors guide people in finding answers and how we can apply these principles to children of all ages. I also anticipate talking about how children are exposed to careers and how they build perceptions about different jobs. I expect to learn more about this topic myself as I delve deeper into the developmental processes that children go through to become.
Thanks for being here. I can’t wait to grow and learn together.
