As young adults are receiving their post-secondary acceptance letters and anxiously making decisions about their future, caregivers and parents are feeling equally concerned about how to support them. For information on how parents can help ease the transition from high school, I turned to Cathy Campbell and Peggy Dutton’s Professional’s Guide, “Career Crafting the Decade after High School”. This guide identifies a number of different strategies that lead to a career and redefines employment expectations as a nonlinear career path including navigating, exploring, and drifting.
We can support young adults who are feeling confused, anxious, and uncertain by normalizing their experience and equipping them with strategies like using inventory lists, career mapping, and managing career expectation to help direct them to positive outcomes.
Navigating is a strategy often employed by those who already have a strong interest or exposure to a particular career and are focused on planning a clear route to get there. A young adult who is a Navigator may need help managing expectations of what the next few years will look like. Remind them that a career journey is a circuitous track, not a straight defined line.
Although it is helpful to have a clear idea of the direction one will move in, the idea should not be limiting or discourage potentially great opportunities. We can encourage those who are focused on navigating, by helping them gain exposure to the programs, education, and experiences needed to get there. We can remind them that we support them even if they don’t end up at the intended goal. Even with a clear initial goal, navigators can be encouraged to try exploring the options that most appeal to them. We can help them keep their options and minds open to other valuable opportunities along the way.
By introducing the idea of pencil planning, you will be able to re-enforce that goals are set at a point in time, based on the information available at that time, and within the context of the young person’s circumstances – at that time. They may be reassured knowing that their pencil plans can be “erased” and re-written when new information surfaces or circumstances change. (Campbell and Dutton, 83)
Exploring is a common strategy for those without a clear track of where they are going, but have an idea of what might interest them. Many people who have found the process of exploring to be helpful, have done so because they have had an open mind to look for areas of interests by broadening their experiences. This is an opportunity to learn more about personal strengths and interests before committing to a particular path. Exploring often helps people save money and reduce stress related to getting into a program or position that is unsuitable for their personality or skills.
We cannot expect that everyone will be ready to navigate or commit to a career right out of high school. Helping your child feel comfortable with exploring may be beneficial in the long run. Encourage them to be self-reflective through their exploring to help them find value in the experiences they gain. Campbell and Dutton stress the idea that young adults must both do and reflect for the full benefits of experience and learning to occur. Teaching young adults to be reflective helps them become grounded by their own interests, skills, values, and ideas for the future so they can distinguish a path genuine to themselves in the midst of many external pressures.
Drifting is a process that works well for those who are comfortable with uncertainty, open minded, and looking for life experiences. Those who are drifting usually have a lot of uncertainty about what they want to do and benefit from taking any opportunities that present themselves. We can support those interested in various placements by reminding them of the potential to stumble into incredible opportunities through the people they meet or the places they travel to. As well, drifting can lead to the discovery of and exposure to a broader range of career ideas. Encouraging self-reflection, in tandem with gaining experiences, makes the drifting phase a more valuable educational, professional, and a personal experience.
After identifying how young people are handling their career development, we can use several strategies to help them reach a positive outcome. Inventory lists document the likes, interests, environments, and activities that one enjoys based on their personal and professional development. These can be especially helpful for young adults who are exploring and drifting and want to find a suitable career path. Have them also consider and document activities and environments that they strongly dislike. Making notes of the negatives can be helpful in keeping on a career track and avoiding rosy retrospection when things aren’t going as planned. This list should be updated often to account for new experiences and personal growth.
Help your child schedule time into their lives for the doing and reflecting by encouraging them to join groups, volunteer, or accepting various employment opportunities. This type of reflection is crucial in getting them to learn what their interests really are. Help them discover their interests by talking to them about the things they love to do and listening to why. Get them to think about their natural interests by having them reflect on activities they enjoyed when they were ten years old. Inventory lists and the reflection they promote will encourage young people to match their interests with career paths.
After determining a few potential career paths that match their interests, building career maps can help young adults dive deeper into the possibilities in a given field. This can seem daunting with advanced positions requiring extensive experience and training. Remind them that up to this point, their exposure to different career options has been quite limited. Feelings of intimidation or confusion are normal. Assist them in researching skills, duties, or qualifications needed to do jobs that match their inventory list. Often times when a young adult is seeking guidance for their future, they want someone who can help provide them with ideas and expose them to opportunities they are not already aware of. This is a great way to make a more specific and considerate list of possible options that complement their inventory lists.
Map out different career options and write down different strands of what the duties and skills of the role entail. Take time to consider what is interesting about them. After a couple of different maps, people often find that there are reoccurring themes. They can add those themes that reinforce likes, values, and interests to their inventory list.
As parents and adults, we can help manage career expectations by unraveling the myth that career and passion must inherently coexist as our ultimate purpose in life. Relieve pressure from young adults by pointing out that a greater meaning for life occurs outside of work as well. Teaching them to self-reflect and engage in numerous activities will help them view the journey more holistically and will better prepare them to deal with any failures. Acknowledge that those seeking their life purpose in their career will be met with a lot of disappointment. There are pros and cons to all careers and managing expectations will ensure that they are able to find meaningful and satisfying employment. That isn’t to say that you cannot find areas of passion within your career, but be cautious about all-encompassing mindsets about career. No one career will fulfill all our values and interests. Some of that satisfaction will have to come from your personal life as well.
So much of the success of their career journey depends on landing a job in their career field, finding a workplace where the “culture” fits their personality, finding the right niche within their field, not becoming burned out, bored, or disillusioned with the realities of work, and so many other factors.” (Campbell and Dutton 75).
Acknowledging that we all arrive at our careers in different ways and that one process is not better than the other, is the first step to being a positive and supportive resource. We can help young adults by changing the way we think and talk about uncertainty and by providing emotional support as they search for their next step. Often times helping with research, exploring, and confirming personality traits, interests, and skills will help build confidence and trust in your child’s process. If you are looking for more on this topic, as well as any of the career mapping guides check out Cathy Campbell and Peggy Dutton’s Professional’s Guide, “Career Crafting the Decade after High School”.
Campbell, Cathy and Dutton, Peggy. Career Crafting the Decade After High School. Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC). Toronto, Ontario, 2015.