Careers advice for young people

[Pickman's model]

The the kid is 10 we should be encouraging them to be an astronaut, wild elephant vet or ballet dancer. Not a fucking accountant or advertising copywriter…

Or cop

 

[Pickman's model]

My friends son is home schooled and is now 17. He is doing A level business (and I think long term may become a self employed accountant, I am sure my friend mentioned he was doing an AAT course) and is also working two days a week for a local builder. So at this point probably not ruling anything out.

I think all schooling has been at home or via groups that are probably something to do with their church. I think a lot of religious types value working for themselves and I suppose you get access to a customer base via the church too.

As for accountancy, working in practice will involve peopling as you are serving clients. Perhaps mainly via phone / teams / email. For a bigger company especially in training years, it may mean going out on customers sites to do audits, unless this is now done remotely? It wasn’t in 2019. If working in industry, then I’d expect an accountant to be very much in touch with the operations side (shop floor) and the management side (boardroom). A business runs on information - this is all financial as everything has a value - and an accountants job is to produce that. I am not an accountant thankfully but I have worked with them for decades. In some organisations they take a business partnering role which means a fair bit of peopling

Edit - despite the above, there is a fundamentally a need for an analytic brain and to get numbers, to do the actual work. The peopling is needed in order to service whoever needs the work you’ve done.

Learning excel to a good level be a decent start.

Not sure if this is any help or not and of course if in year 6 then he is at least half a decade from the workforce

Working for a builder... interested in accountancy... might end up a quantity surveyor. Used to know several andys, one had a beard so was Andy jesus. One was mad Andy, did crazy things after a few beers, one was a quantity surveyor, boring Andy.

 

[colacubes]

My 9 year old has no idea what he wants to do with his life. My 6 year old has a very clear vision and has already mapped that out in her head (yeah it'll probably change but whatevs). Kids are people and we should encourage them however we can. There's no right answer here, but the wrong answer is definitely to ignore it and tell them they're too young to be thinking about it.

 

[kabbes]

The two alternatives are not (1) map out career paths featuring detailed explanations of accounting qualifications, the finer points of CV writing and the art of building your network; or (2) tell them to ignore it. Other conversations are possible.

 

[Pickman's model]

My son wants some career ideas and I'm not sure what to suggest, we've tried a couple of online quizzes but they're been so general they've not been very helpful.
His main criteria is something interesting, flexible and he can do it from home.
Ideally he'd like to be an audio book narrator (we've met someone who does this) but I think it's one of those jobs that will be done by AI by the time he's left school.
Any suggestions?
He likes reading, science and history. He's chatty and personable 1:1 but doesn't like noise, big groups and needs lots of breaks from people.

Has he considered some sort of it career, maybe penetration tester?

 

[bcuster]

I'm thinking of two industries I see a lot of growth in. Waste management and landlord tenant management

 

[Sue]

I'm thinking of two industries I see a lot of growth in. Waste management and landlord tenant management

Well that's depressing.

 

[Thora]

The the kid is 10 we should be encouraging them to be an astronaut, wild elephant vet or ballet dancer. Not a fucking accountant or advertising copywriter…

He's definitely not an astronaut, wild elephant vet or ballet dancer type of child.

 

[Silas Loom]

The the kid is 10 we should be encouraging them to be an astronaut, wild elephant vet or ballet dancer. Not a fucking accountant or advertising copywriter…

Elephants are large, dangerous beasts and I’d prefer the clinicians who tend to their ailments to be staid, responsible types. Vets who specialise in fancy rodents can be as wild as they like.

 

[bcuster]

Well that's depressing.

I sometimes I wish I had gotten into the waste management/recycling sector after I left the service

In the US, especially after COVID, skyrocketing rents ,inflation and construction of large multi-unit rental complexes has given rise to a need for well educated and compassionate managers.

 

[A380]

Waste management professional

 

[Sasaferrato]

Plumber. Sparky. Chippy.

If I had my time over I'd have been an electrician.

 

[Thora]

My 7 year old did this quiz yesterday - What Career Is For Me? | UK Career Quiz | Explore Careers UK
It's extremely long and she enjoyed all the would you rather questions - "would you rather look after fish in a commercial hatchery or pitch TV show ideas to Netflix executives?"
And after answering 150 questions it told her she is best suited to working in a supermarket or factory
(she's going to be a dog trainer or celebrity hairstylist btw)

 

[Sasaferrato]

Absolutely this. It’s only relevant post-16 for someone who isn’t academic. And if one is academically inclined, it’s fine to have no idea until one is about 40.

I'm 72 and still don't know what I want to be, apart from alive in the morning.

 

[scifisam]

The the kid is 10 we should be encouraging them to be an astronaut, wild elephant vet or ballet dancer. Not a fucking accountant or advertising copywriter…

Depends on the kid. They're not all the same.

Kabbes, agreed that there is a middle way, but I'm not sure why you think that isn't what's happening.

 

[Silas Loom]

Depends on the kid. They're not all the same.

Kabbes, agreed that there is a middle way, but I'm not sure why you think that isn't what's happening.

Without speaking for Kabbes, but as one of the boring old men Thora complained of, I think that the problem is the thread title and a first post that doesn’t make the boy’s age clear.

If it had been called “talking to pre-secondary kids about jobs they might like when they are grown up”, nobody would have batted an eyelid.

 

[Silas Loom]

I'm 72 and still don't know what I want to be, apart from alive in the morning.

There’s still time to train as an astronaut.

 

[Sue]

Without speaking for Kabbes, but as one of the boring old men Thora complained of, I think that the problem is the thread title and a first post that doesn’t make the boy’s age clear.

If it had been called “talking to pre-secondary kids about jobs they might like when they are grown up”, nobody would have batted an eyelid.

If only Thora had named her thread properly.

 

[scifisam]

Without speaking for Kabbes, but as one of the boring old men Thora complained of, I think that the problem is the thread title and a first post that doesn’t make the boy’s age clear.

If it had been called “talking to pre-secondary kids about jobs they might like when they are grown up”, nobody would have batted an eyelid.

That's just another way of saying "careers advice." And it's not like there was only one post.

 

[Silas Loom]

That's just another way of saying "careers advice." And it's not like there was only one post.

Careers advice is practical. Conversations with small children are educative.

 

[equationgirl]

I've been talking to my teenage nephews about engineering in general since they were little. Both are now expressing an interest to go into some part of the sector for their careers.

Mostly I did it so they knew about potential opportunities - most children don't have any role models for any jobs other than their parents or friends of the family.

 

[Red Cat]

Yes, in the past, kids would have learned a family trade from early on, the apprenticeship would've started earlier than 10.

 

[Red Cat]

I've never met Thora but I know she's not the kind of person who pushes her children to meet her own ambitions, has I think at least two university qualifications that enable her to work with children and young people, has worked with children in various jobs over a long time, has been a parent for around 14 years, and is generally pragmatic. It sounds like her boy is also a pragmatic kind of person.

Not that any of that matters. The assumptions made probably say more about the educating posters' experience than about thora and her family.

 

[equationgirl]

Thora has he expressed any interest in the outdoors at all? There's all sorts of jobs with e.g the Forestry Commission or the Environmental Agencies.

ETA. I see upon rereading he's interested in jobs he can do from home. Many jobs will have occasional travel, even just to a local office.

I would say that any type of operations management role may not suit as it has an on-site focus on many organisations.

 

[A380]

Yes, in the past, kids would have learned a family trade from early on, the apprenticeship would've started earlier than 10.

And their little bodies and flexible limbs made them ideal for getting the soot out of really difficult areas of the flue.

 

[Red Cat]

And their little bodies and flexible limbs made them ideal for getting the soot out of really difficult areas of the flue.

My point is that ideas about childhood are historical and political, not 'natural'. Likewise parenting etc.

 

[Idris2002]

Working for a builder... interested in accountancy... might end up a quantity surveyor. Used to know several andys, one had a beard so was Andy jesus. One was mad Andy, did crazy things after a few beers, one was a quantity surveyor, boring Andy.

"Andy"? Were you a blade runner?

 

[Idris2002]

And their little bodies and flexible limbs made them ideal for getting the soot out of really difficult areas of the flue.

My point is that ideas about childhood are historical and political, not 'natural'. Likewise parenting etc.

Your point is very true - true to the point of being a cliche in fact. What A380's pointing out is that while cultural concepts of children and childhood may change, that doesn't mean that children themselves change.

 

[Idris2002]

My son wants some career ideas and I'm not sure what to suggest, we've tried a couple of online quizzes but they're been so general they've not been very helpful.
His main criteria is something interesting, flexible and he can do it from home.
Ideally he'd like to be an audio book narrator (we've met someone who does this) but I think it's one of those jobs that will be done by AI by the time he's left school.
Any suggestions?
He likes reading, science and history. He's chatty and personable 1:1 but doesn't like noise, big groups and needs lots of breaks from people.

How is he with maths? Because that would open a very wide range of different options, including for the sort of young person who is - or is not - a "people person".

 

[Red Cat]

Your point is very true - true to the point of being a cliche in fact. What A380's pointing out is that while cultural concepts of children and childhood may change, that doesn't mean that children themselves change.

Gosh, thanks for that.