When you were young… really young, your knowledge of, ‘what you could be’ was limited to the careers of the people you came into contact with in real life or story books. There were the jobs your parent(s) held, the people who worked in your neighbourhood, the folks in your Child Care Centre or School, and that was about it.
If you were asked, you probably answered with certainty that you were going to be a Princess, a Construction Worker, a Police Officer, A Doctor or Explorer. With the passing of each year, the circle of people you knew and the jobs they held got bigger. You went different places around town and out of town. You watched television, the school had career days and you met people at campgrounds, playgrounds, parks, museums, fairgrounds and Recreation Centres. You couldn’t possibly have decided to, ‘be’ any of these people when you were a toddler simply because you had no idea the jobs they held even existed.
The same is true for people in their teens and twenties; you gain the knowledge of what people, ‘do’ and the jobs or careers they hold only as you become introduced to them and exposed to their work. So again, if you ask some people in their teens or 20’s what it is they want to do with their working life, they 1) may not know, 2) may think they know or 3) may know. The teacher they become might indeed be what they’ve wanted to become since they first understood what a Teacher was and did, and same for the Firefighter or Construction Worker.
And as with option 2 above, some might definitively tell you what they are working towards, but 5 years later if you caught up with them, their career direction took a right turn somewhere as they gained awareness of some other career that sparked their interest.
The people who don’t know however, are the ones who ironically, get the oddest advice a lot of the time such as, “Well you’d better figure it out soon…you’re 23 after all!” So why is this odd advice? From my point of view, it’s odd because the one thing most of us can agree on is that we want people to hold jobs or careers that they truly love and are passionate about. When someone isn’t sure what they want to, ‘be’, all they’re really saying is that they haven’t had a fire ignite within with respect to a job description. And wouldn’t it be preferable to having them in a job that fires their imagination, brings them happiness and joy, and one that authentically inspires a person who loves what they do?
What people need who are trying to figure it out, are two things: 1) Time and 2) Exposure. A person needs time to find and be exposed to the job or career that’s going to flick the switch. Unfortunately, daily pressures like needing food and rent money often necessitate a person ‘settling’ for a job that doesn’t feed their passion. In my case, it took until I was 42 years old to come to being an Employment Counsellor and Coach. Ah, but what I didn’t know is that the years I spent in other jobs and careers was the very training I needed to excel at this role.
As I’d never needed the services of an Employment Counsellor, I had no exposure to what is involved in the job. None of my relatives, friends or colleagues ever used or talked about what this person does in their work. Yet, I was so much bettere suited to the role in coming to it when I did than I would have right out of school. By my early 40’s, I’d worked in Retail, Pronvicial and Municipal Government, Recreation, Non-Profit / Profits, Volunteered in Entertainment, been self-employed and experienced unemployment and what it took to job search as well as how that unemployment affected my self-esteem. In short, I had life experience which gave me sincere empathy and understanding for what it takes to job search.
So what can YOU do if you’re concerned about someone’s lack of career direction? Support them with patience, expose them to various jobs and careers, encourage them to try a variety of jobs without the pressure to find a 40 year long job that will define their career.
We all get there at some point and a person’s work life might be a single career, a few careers, or a series of jobs in various fields that collectively make up their work life. There’s no guarantee of happiness nor any guarantee of disppointment in any scenario, so don’t presume to know what their personal choice will result in.
Just. Be. Patient.