Getting my 12 year old son to think of what job/career he want to do when he is older

valk_scot

FBaby wrote: »

At 12 a child will only have been exposed to very few jobs usually that if their parents or teachers hence so many aspiring young teacher. A 12yo is very unlikely to say they would like to become a Cognitive Psychologist or a Civil Engineer. Those are discipline that might lead to their dream job they just don't know it yet!

I wanted to do some sort of engineering when I was 12.This was back in the 70's and my dad had a fit, he said it was no career for a woman, it was too rough and physical and men wouldn't take me seriously, I'd get harassed in the workplace blah blah blah. So I did biochemistry at uni instead and got a nice lab job wearing a white coat. It was okay but I'm still convinced that I'd have made a good engineer.


My DD is 12, she wants to be a paramedic. Fine by me, she'll need some sort of human biology degree or similar so she'll need the usual core subjects and some science at school. That's a nice broad base with plenty of scope to change her mind. She's going to be six foot tall as well so no problems with the physical bit. I don't think it's a bad career choice at all. She'd make a terrible teacher I suspect.

GobbledyGook

My 10-year-old wants to be a teacher as well. I'm pleased with it because her own teacher told her she'd need to work hard as teachers need a good all-round education behind them and her history has improved massively (for some reason DD1 finds anything that happened more than a week ago boring).

She also likes the idea of the long holidays. She said that teachers work super hard and get longer-than-normal holidays where as my cousin works super hard cleaning and only gets 3 weeks holidays - which is a fair point. Even when her teacher told her she sometimes worked during the holidays DD said that working at home during the holidays with the choice of if you can be bothered to get out of your jammies or not was better than another normal job

cte1111

My 11 year old has always been adamant that she wants to be a farmer (well when she was 4 she wanted her male friend to be a farmer, then she could be a farmer's wife, fortunately she has now met some female farmers).

I'm not convinced this is the best career for her, we're vegetarian and the realities of livestock farming perhaps don't fit in that well with my beliefs. So I can sort of see where the OP is coming from. However I try not to make too much fuss about it, she can make her own choices and she's only little yet.

Indie_Kid

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I originally really wanted to do something to do with forensics when I was 12. I am colourblind; so that's not an option now.

I don't really know what I want to do as a career and I'm nearly 25.

pollypenny

Indie_Kid wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I originally really wanted to do something to do with forensics when I was 12. I am colourblind; so that's not an option now.

I don't really know what I want to do as a career and I'm nearly 25.

That's another career aspiration to worry about!

Post CSI, Silent Witness etc so many young people have fancied themselves as Gil Grissom that there are number of new uni courses.

Trouble is, there are very few jobs in the field. 150 I believe.

BBQ141

cte1111 wrote: »

My 11 year old has always been adamant that she wants to be a farmer (well when she was 4 she wanted her male friend to be a farmer, then she could be a farmer's wife, fortunately she has now met some female farmers).

I'm not convinced this is the best career for her, we're vegetarian and the realities of livestock farming perhaps don't fit in that well with my beliefs. So I can sort of see where the OP is coming from. However I try not to make too much fuss about it, she can make her own choices and she's only little yet.

Is your child a vegetarian through choice or through your wishes?

pollypenny wrote: »

That's another career aspiration to worry about!

Post CSI, Silent Witness etc so many young people have fancied themselves as Gil Grissom that there are number of new uni courses.

Trouble is, there are very few jobs in the field. 150 I believe.

This is true, when I was 4 I remember, vividly, wanting to be a vampire when I grew up. When it turned out that wasn't possible I was a little lost.

I did my initial degree in a forensic discipline and there were very few universities that offered anything forensic related. Now it seems every uni has a BSc/MSc in Crime Scene Sciences (or some such nonsense) and there are very limited jobs out there, a new graduate who had managed to get a job as a Volume CSI (what used to be called a SOCO) would be making about 16k a year.

There are lots of jobs in forensics, but people only really see the police CSI type jobs. When I was in uni I worked part time for Customs as an investigator and also dealt with forensics, if I were to want to do that now there is no way because all of the universities send their students there for free as work placements.

I would say for every job I advertise these days I probably get about 600 replies.

sooty&sweep

Hi
My son has just turned 13 and he wants to work in Games Workshop because he likes warhammer or be an electronic games tester !
I think being a PE teacher is a good career choice but still plenty of time to change his mind.
I'm not dismissing my son's current career preferences but I am encouraging him to choose options at school based on what he's good at and he enjoys. So that if he does change his mind he's got the educational background to do so.
Jen

Lily-Rose_3

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that there's nothing wrong with having aspirations to be a teacher? :cool:

It's a good career.

daisiegg

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that there's nothing wrong with having aspirations to be a teacher? :cool:
.

It is not just you, if you read the thread you will find the majority agree with you

duchy

pollypenny wrote: »

That's another career aspiration to worry about!

Post CSI, Silent Witness etc so many young people have fancied themselves as Gil Grissom that there are number of new uni courses.

Trouble is, there are very few jobs in the field. 150 I believe.

It makes for my interesting "free choice" modules on my Social Science degree though