Starting your career path as a teenager.
Discussion
When I was in the sixth form, I decided to go off to uni and study engineering. At the time it seemed like a good idea and I've now got myself a reasonably well paid and secure job.
At the time of making the decision to do engineering at uni, my other choice was to become a vet.
However, the extra 2 years at uni put me off and I thought at the time that engineering would be more fun.
13 years later, my wife works as a veterinary nurse with some vets who are in their mid 20's and earning more than I am. We went to a house warming party at a place that I could only dream of buying in my 40's let alone my 20's..... anyway, I digress.
Am I the only one who thinks that making a career choice when you're a teenager is one hell of a responsibility? At 17 you get given rubbish career advice, handed some university brochures and have to decide which way you want your life to go.
Should they be handing out average salary information as well?
Surely if they did, the number of people doing "leisure and tourism" and other similarly rubbish degrees would fall? There wouldnt be a sudden influx of people wanting to be vets or lawyers because there simply wouldnt be enough clever people to make the grade.
Discuss.
At the time of making the decision to do engineering at uni, my other choice was to become a vet.
However, the extra 2 years at uni put me off and I thought at the time that engineering would be more fun.
13 years later, my wife works as a veterinary nurse with some vets who are in their mid 20's and earning more than I am. We went to a house warming party at a place that I could only dream of buying in my 40's let alone my 20's..... anyway, I digress.
Am I the only one who thinks that making a career choice when you're a teenager is one hell of a responsibility? At 17 you get given rubbish career advice, handed some university brochures and have to decide which way you want your life to go.
Should they be handing out average salary information as well?
Surely if they did, the number of people doing "leisure and tourism" and other similarly rubbish degrees would fall? There wouldnt be a sudden influx of people wanting to be vets or lawyers because there simply wouldnt be enough clever people to make the grade.
Discuss.
Goochie said:
Am I the only one who thinks that making a career choice when you're a teenager is one hell of a responsibility?
As I recall, it was impressed upon me in the strongest terms that the decisions made at that point would impact the rest of my life.No, of course I didn't listen.
Big Issue?
I sometimes think what if when I look back and see the choice I made....
Was all set to do an A-Level in Geology as I seemed to have the knack of it just like my father and was going to follow him into the oil industry and work on the rigs and work my way up.... he tried to persuade me not to as its a hard life, but I wasnt listening and just 2 weeks before I started 6th form, my course was canned, so I picked up Computing instead as I couldnt think aof anything else to do and I couldnt swap colleges to one that did Geology.
The rest was as you say it.... history.... I now have the pleasure working for myself (in theory) working for investment banks, with computers...
I can only imagine what it would be like if I went the other way????
Maybe the north sea, maybe africa, maybe asia somewhere... who knows...
Was all set to do an A-Level in Geology as I seemed to have the knack of it just like my father and was going to follow him into the oil industry and work on the rigs and work my way up.... he tried to persuade me not to as its a hard life, but I wasnt listening and just 2 weeks before I started 6th form, my course was canned, so I picked up Computing instead as I couldnt think aof anything else to do and I couldnt swap colleges to one that did Geology.
The rest was as you say it.... history.... I now have the pleasure working for myself (in theory) working for investment banks, with computers...
I can only imagine what it would be like if I went the other way????
Maybe the north sea, maybe africa, maybe asia somewhere... who knows...
The whole "engineer's in the UK" thing is probably for another thread.
I dont remember anyone at the time pointing out that the choice we made would affect the rest of our life
My parents' career advice was "do something you enjoy, that way you wont be sat there bored to tears all day long"
I could have done music too - I was in one of the same bands as fellow PHer "GetCarter". One of us now drives and Aston Martin and the other one doesnt.
I dont remember anyone at the time pointing out that the choice we made would affect the rest of our life
My parents' career advice was "do something you enjoy, that way you wont be sat there bored to tears all day long"I could have done music too - I was in one of the same bands as fellow PHer "GetCarter". One of us now drives and Aston Martin and the other one doesnt.
Edited by Goochie on Monday 24th August 09:31
I don't think many people - if any - really know what they want to do at 17. I have one friend who probably had a fairly clear idea (having already started a company through their parents at that age which they still run) but the rest of us either had no idea or had something heavily influenced by our parents.
The problem is as 16/17/18 approaches you do have to do something, be it an intermediate job or some form of education. In reality there is no University of Life, so you have to pick one of those and I guess it's a case of picking the best one.
I'd strongly dispute any suggestion that you can't change careers though. In fact, in ,many circumstances the skills you learn in one will complement the other.
The problem is as 16/17/18 approaches you do have to do something, be it an intermediate job or some form of education. In reality there is no University of Life, so you have to pick one of those and I guess it's a case of picking the best one.
I'd strongly dispute any suggestion that you can't change careers though. In fact, in ,many circumstances the skills you learn in one will complement the other.
Yeah, I did IT qualifications because back then there was massive money in computing. Shame that by the time I qualified the .com crash happened and I ended up fixing printers at just above minimum wage for 10 years.
Recently gave up on the IT end of things and earning an average wage in the civil service.
Recently gave up on the IT end of things and earning an average wage in the civil service.
Chris71 said:
I'd strongly dispute any suggestion that you can't change careers though. In fact, in ,many circumstances the skills you learn in one will complement the other.
OK, so when you've got married, got kids and got a mortgage that requires your income to pay it, just how easy is it to change career when compared to making a different choice when you're a teenager ?I agree that you can branch out into other things but making a complete change when you have other responsibilities is near impossible.
Goochie said:
"do something you enjoy, that way you wont be sat there bored to tears all day long"
To be fair I think that's fairly good advice, how much money would you need to earn to make up for having a job you hated? Maybe I'm reading you all wrong but it sounds like you are suffering from the green eyed monster? Do you enjoy what you do? Do you earn a reasonable salary (and no having enough to buy an Aston is rather more than reasonable!).
I do rather agree with your point that, making a proper and correct career choice at 17-18 is actually damned difficult/practically impossible but how else would it work? And also that re training when you have commitments is also very difficult.
Embarrassing foot note...
Making a good career choice at 17-18 is not something I managed to get right. I'm probably the worst person to give career advice. I have sort of floated from one thing to another and to be honest, I enjoy what I currently do but it probably won't last and it doesn't pay well at all.
You're right. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I was good at music and I was interesting in computers so I looked at Music degrees with a tech side to them and did that. Was doing well with my performing/playing so auditioned for music college postgrads. Got in. Started getting some gigs so did that. Fast forward 12 years 
interloper said:
Goochie said:
"do something you enjoy, that way you wont be sat there bored to tears all day long"
To be fair I think that's fairly good advice, how much money would you need to earn to make up for having a job you hated? Maybe I'm reading you all wrong but it sounds like you are suffering from the green eyed monster? Do you enjoy what you do? Do you earn a reasonable salary (and no having enough to buy an Aston is rather more than reasonable!).
I do rather agree with your point that, making a proper and correct career choice at 17-18 is actually damned difficult/practically impossible but how else would it work? And also that re training when you have commitments is also very difficult.
Embarrassing foot note...
Making a good career choice at 17-18 is not something I managed to get right. I'm probably the worst person to give career advice. I have sort of floated from one thing to another and to be honest, I enjoy what I currently do but it probably won't last and it doesn't pay well at all.
In reality there are few jobs in motorsport in the UK, and even less that pay well. I dont work in motorsport but would love to be in a position to have a Caterham/Radical/Atom as a weekend toy to use for track days.
If you could put "enjoyment" in bottles, I think you'd have to be very lucky indeed to have a job that can give you 5 bottles of enjoyment per week - but you can get that much in just a few hours doing a hobby at the weekend. Overall I think the "well paid less enjoyable job" path would have been a better one.
I think that young students should be encouraged to look at what they are good at, where their natural skills and abilities lie + what they are interested in, rather than a specific 'career' because it's been plucked at random from a job portfolio in a careers adviser's office. Or for that matter what their parents want.
Students often have limited knowledge of the vast range of jobs out there and can often think only in terms of a number of obvious routes. Advisers equally often have a limited repetoire and are unable to effectively support students in 'self assessment' (so they can understand their natural attributes and skills better).
My view is that too many students are pushed in to the university route, in any old subject and many graduate recruiters claim their applicants come WITH a great paper degree out WITHOUT the core skills needed for business.
Students often have limited knowledge of the vast range of jobs out there and can often think only in terms of a number of obvious routes. Advisers equally often have a limited repetoire and are unable to effectively support students in 'self assessment' (so they can understand their natural attributes and skills better).
My view is that too many students are pushed in to the university route, in any old subject and many graduate recruiters claim their applicants come WITH a great paper degree out WITHOUT the core skills needed for business.
Edited by parakitaMol. on Monday 24th August 10:37
parakitaMol. said:
I think that young students should be encouraged to look at what they are good at, where their natural skills and abilities lie + what they are interested in, rather than a specific 'career' because it's been plucked at random from a job portfolio in a careers adviser's office. Or for that matter what their parents want.
If that is the case, hanging out on street corners, drinking, shagging and ASBOs are a good career that they could if they tried really hard get into... Oh wait they have already seen and done that one Edited by parakitaMol. on Monday 24th August 10:37
Goochie said:
Chris71 said:
I'd strongly dispute any suggestion that you can't change careers though. In fact, in ,many circumstances the skills you learn in one will complement the other.
OK, so when you've got married, got kids and got a mortgage that requires your income to pay it, just how easy is it to change career when compared to making a different choice when you're a teenager ?I agree that you can branch out into other things but making a complete change when you have other responsibilities is near impossible.
I don't have kids or a mortgage, but most people don't have those things until well into their thirties these days - that still gives you a substantial buffer zone from having to pick your career at 17.
Yep. With hindsight, I think the best thing I could have done would have been to have left school, got a job and tried living by myself for a year or two. I did well at school, didn't know what I wanted to do. Parents were supportive, but not much help in career direction. Ended up leaving to study engineering at 17 and hating it... fast forward ten years and countless crap jobs and I can't help wish I'd done the crap job bit first.
glazbagun said:
Yep. With hindsight, I think the best thing I could have done would have been to have left school, got a job and tried living by myself for a year or two. I did well at school, didn't know what I wanted to do. Parents were supportive, but not much help in career direction. Ended up leaving to study engineering at 17 and hating it... fast forward ten years and countless crap jobs and I can't help wish I'd done the crap job bit first.
Perhaps its just engineering jobs that leave people feeling like this ? 
Goochie said:
Chris71 said:
I'd strongly dispute any suggestion that you can't change careers though. In fact, in ,many circumstances the skills you learn in one will complement the other.
OK, so when you've got married, got kids and got a mortgage that requires your income to pay it, just how easy is it to change career when compared to making a different choice when you're a teenager ?I agree that you can branch out into other things but making a complete change when you have other responsibilities is near impossible.
As for vets, my mate's girlfriend is a recent vetinary graduate and competiton for jobs is fierce. Even when you do, if you're working for someone else the salaries aren't that spectacular - it only gets good once you plough potentially £500k or more into opening your own practice. Much the same as for dentists and other highly skilled/trained professions - and it takes a fair chunk of your early career to pay back the fees and loans. This is assuming you get on to the course in the first place - all of those now seem to be expecting AAA students and there's still a massive amount of competition, with people often reapplying the next year and maybe the one after to get on.
As for the original question - I was convinced at school that I wanted to be an engineer. The first year of my engineering degree convinced me otherwise. I guess part of the problem is that you have very few opportiunities at that age to really see what various careers are like, so you build an idealised view which will never actually match up to reality.
If I had teenagers, right now I'd be telling them to do well at school so they can enter an office-based career later on if they want to, but I'd be advising them to be honest, hardworking plumbers, electricans, etc.
Maybe not the best money in the world (if you rule out the big stuff), but working in a local community and trading on reputation it's honest, reliable work. Something to be proud of and something you can *see* at the end of the day.
Maybe not the best money in the world (if you rule out the big stuff), but working in a local community and trading on reputation it's honest, reliable work. Something to be proud of and something you can *see* at the end of the day.
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