Do you remember questions like this stemming back to your primary school days?
The answer was always easy in those days and often a choice of teacher, shop keeper and nurse. I always wanted the shop and imagined my counter full of shiny apples and oranges.
It seems that the older I got the more difficult the answers became, maybe it was because the choices just got bigger and bigger.
At 15 I really had no clue. And a typist was where I’d set my sights. Careers advice in schools was little help. So I took a business studies course at college and a series of events lead me to a financial services career, as a mortgage advisor. Looking for career progression I attended a number of interviews for various roles, often being told I didn’t have the skills for the job.
My questioned remained the same:
“THEN PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I DO HAVE THE SKILLS FOR!”
They couldn’t and my frustration grew. My company had a large experienced HR and training department but no one could help with the question “what do you want to do when you grow up?”, had I reached that level of maturity yet?
Ultimately I made a career mistake and ended up in the wrong role. A point in my life when I lost a lot of confidence. I still held that question. It took a lot of research, some soul searching and a little coaching to help me find the answer. But I did. At the tender age of 40.
I do believe that career support should be better particularly in schools and colleges. HR departments should be equipped to help, but they’re not. This is one of the reasons I specialise in career coaching.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What are your experiences of getting career support? My audience would love to hear about them.
I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career.
You learn a lot from it.
– Lou Holtz
Related articles
- Career Decisions – Risk or No Risk? Harvard Business Journal (mikaljackson.wordpress.com)
- Gareth – My career goals (getintoteaching.wordpress.com)
- Free Assessment Tool
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