careers

The work world has changed. Technological change not only continues but accelerates. Shifting practices in hiring and job seeking mean that workers should expect to change jobs several times, and these changes may be scattered over the course of a working life. Moreover, they will sometimes entail complete changes of career.

What does this mean for a teenager? It means get yourself a set of skills that is transferable for multiple industries and occupations, and be prepared to keep adding skills during your working life.

None of that means you don't pick a career and go for it. It does mean that if you think you can learn some tricks of the trade, go get a cushy job, and stay there the rest of your life, you may have another think coming. That other think may come when you already have a mortgage and some dependents.

Preparing for a career requires picking a career, training for it, and then doing it. Sounds simple, right? Maybe it sounds quite daunting. Often, the secret to making such big decisions is being methodical. If you ask some questions and pursue answers, you can narrow down your choices quickly.

What are your interests? Look at your hobbies, extracurricular activities, and preferred academic subjects for some ideas. What skills do you already possess from the aforementioned activities, or jobs you've already held? It's unlikely you have nearly enough to go right to work, but you may have enough to give you some ideas of what to consider.

At this point, you can probably narrow down your interests to broad areas: teaching, engineering, music, foreign languages. You probably don't know specifically that you want to design freeways or provide translation services in a social service non-profit, and you should assume you don't know of every occupation in your areas of interest. At this point, research what some of your potential occupations are and do. Find out whether there will be jobs in the field in future years, what the earning potential is, whether you might have to relocate, how much education you'll need, and how well the required skills will transfer to other industries and occupations. You'll have to decide which of those is important to you.

Before you panic over the possibility of making a bad decision, rest assured that many people change their occupations completely. It often means going back to school, perhaps many years since you were last there, but many do as their interests change, or economic changes reduce opportunities in their professions, or they need more education/training to get a promotion or even make a lateral move with their current employers. It's easier to make such changes when young, but rest assured that a mistake now doesn't doom you. Worry more about choosing the right school for whatever you decide to do.