Naughty, Or Why Teenagers Find It Difficult To Choose A Profession

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

In career guidance work with adolescents, I often face their anxiety, uncertainty and anxiety about the need to make such a responsible choice.

And this is more than NATURAL! Because a teenager is given a task that he has never performed before: independently choose a profession. Before that, of course, he already had independent decisions, but still not so large-scale, and in most cases he was offered hints, help, or even told what to do. And now teachers, parents, and maybe even neighbors will certainly ask him a question: "Well, have you already understood who you will become?"

There is always anxiety before such a responsible decision, but it can hide. So much so that an outsider's gaze, and sometimes even the child himself, does not understand what is really going on. The following are some of the common difficulties that teenagers face when choosing a profession, and in which their anxiety often lurks.

CONFUSION AND NOT KNOWING "WHAT I WANT"

This is the norm. The answer to the question "what do I want" requires a certain level of understanding of oneself, one's characteristics, desires. And this understanding does not fall from heaven, it is a process of self-knowledge, which in adolescence is only "gaining momentum." People have been looking for an answer to this question for years. To facilitate this search, I recommend that parents give the teenager "support under his feet" in the form of information: about himself, about the world of professions, about adulthood.

ILLUSIONS ON PROFESSION AND WORK

Sometimes you can hear from teenagers: "I will be a businessman in order to give orders and do nothing", or "I will be a programmer, sit at a computer - and you get paid for it." Why a teenager has such a vision - everyone has their own reasons. But as you know, the longer the illusion is fed, the more painful then its destruction. In this case, it is really important to show the severe minuses of his illusions, but not to forget about the pluses - about real, not illusory, but quite possible joys of the future profession, for which (like a hook) you can hook his motivation.

UNWANTED TO WORK IN THE FUTURE

The reasons are also different. From anxiety - "I can't cope, so why try at all," to demotivation and such a formed attitude to work. It is very important here to figure out with the teenager, where did he get this attitude. This is task # 1. Further, I recommend showing the teenager the positive aspects of work, the advantages that could serve as a stimulus for development. For example, "If you work, you will earn. And with this money you can travel, or replenish your collection of retro car figurines." Look for an incentive that will motivate, because you, like no one else, know your child.

LOW ATTITUDE TO THE SITUATION OF CHOICE

Anxiety often lurks here as well. Yes, so deep that outwardly it seems that everything is indifferent. It is important to bring it to the surface, hear (for the child in the first place) why he is really worried, and try to involve him in the process so that he becomes INTERESTED. Nowadays there are a lot of master classes, games, and events for choosing a profession, which are not only useful, but also funny. Show your child that choosing a career is not only serious but also exciting.

"CYCLING" ON ONE PROFESSION

"I'll be a machinist!" is that all you can hear from a child? There are also several reasons:

- Or once, for some reason, he caught this profession in memory (for example, my grandmother drove on the railway as a child, and said that I would be a machinist, but it was so much fun!).

- Or is it a teenager's intuitive flair, which he simply cannot explain in words.

An objective assessment of the child's abilities and personal qualities (professional diagnostics, consultations) will help to check what it really is. If this is an intuitive sense of his vocation, then this has already been reflected on the personality of the adolescent - there are potential abilities, inclinations, preferences. But the teenager so far simply cannot explain that "I want to be a machinist, because I like technical systems, I am attentive, I always follow the route, I am interested in trains and how they work, etc."

You can learn more about how parents can help a child in choosing a profession by watching a recording of my webinar:

Well, remember how at the end of the cartoon about Nekhochukh he shouted "I WOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I wish your teenagers more often say their conscious, true WANT.