Should my daughter be thinking about jobs?

[Longshot]

For what little its worth.

When I was going through school I was taught very much that you should have a career path identified and that you should plan your education accordingly. The insinuation was, from quite a young age, that you should be making life decisions at 14 or 15.

But when you're life's only goal is to get a job with 13 weeks holiday a year, that's not so hard

 

[swansonj]

I just showed the daughter in question this thread, and she points out that in my OP I omitted one other thing this teacher spent the journey home telling her - that she lives up Box Hill, and ALL cyclists are invariably "vulgar, foul mouthed and obnoxious" . Apparently they went to Australia for the duration of the Olympics. So that colours further the quality of careers advice from that particular teacher.

 

[Archie_tect]

Daughter not inspired to be a teacher then....

 

[Yellow Fang]

When it comes to choosing subjects you enjoy rather than subjects that would be useful for getting a job, I don't suppose many people actually enjoy mathematics very much, but it is a handy A level to have.

 

[summerdays]

As a teenager myself I decided I wanted to be a pharmacist (yeah I don't know why either), but it influenced my O-Level choices to include 3 sciences, at A-Level (long since changed my mind but didn't know what I wanted to do), I chose the subjects I liked including one the teachers tried to talk me out of as my written English wasn't my best so they didn't want me to take Georgraphy. But I did because I liked it and therefore I was interested and worked harder at it. As it turned out that was the A-Level I got the highest grade for and went on to study at Uni. And no it hasn't had any direct impact on any job I have done since, though obviously influenced some employers to give me a chance.

My kids are currently at that sort of stage, one wants to be an architect and another a primary school teacher (the other has high unrealistic hopes of being a lego designer ). I think teachers often have tried to influence them to take their particular subject, presumably as they thought they were reasonably hard working. However my eldest took physics and really struggled with it, because they thought it would help them. With my next child I have firmly said they should take subjects they like and are interested in rather than because they think it is the right subject to take. So I have influenced them away from Maths which they ended up getting an A for, but that they didn't understand, just learnt more, despite teachers saying it would help in the future with teaching and so next year the four subjects will be Biology, History, Geography and French.

 

[Hover Fly]

I was brilliant at nature study/biology at school, never dropped a mark or 1% in any test or examination until the last year when talking to the careers master after saying I wanted to study botany I was told flatly that I would not get a job and was being pushed towards being some kind of NHS flunky, which I definitely did not want, so I "did one" to use a modern expression and horrified everyone concerned, except my father, by serving my time as a turner which as it turns out was the right choice in the long run, despite "wasting my talents" by not spending x years in some city or other while at university.

 

[swee'pea99]

FWIW I went uni-looking with my eldest last week, and at a careers talk at Bristol, the woman said they advise their students that with very few (specialist) exceptions, employers don't give a monkeys what degree you have. What they're interested in is whether you seem bright. lively, engaged, interested, 'rounded', stuff like that. They want you to have a degree - as evidence that you're smart, diligent, disciplined and so on - but they don't expect you to have learned anything useful. They're interested in whether you can think, not what you know.

 

[vernon]

But when you're life's only goal is to get a job with 13 weeks holiday a year, that's not so hard

That's enough about MPs....

 

[vernon]

Daughter not inspired to be a teacher then....

Teaching is the last career that I would recommend to any youngster as teachers no longer teach - they process exam grade delivery units to maximise yield.

 

[pauldavid]

I just showed the daughter in question this thread, and she points out that in my OP I omitted one other thing this teacher spent the journey home telling her - that she lives up Box Hill, and ALL cyclists are invariably "vulgar, foul mouthed and obnoxious" . Apparently they went to Australia for the duration of the Olympics. So that colours further the quality of careers advice from that particular teacher.

As teachers go she doesn't sound like a bad judge of character then!

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Find a job you like, never work another day in your life !!!
You daughter will spend so much of her life at work that I would advise doing something she enjoys something that matters and has value to her.

I equally feel your daughter should ask the teacher why he chose that particular careerer as it has a lot of pressure, it is not particularly well paid for the demands.
Most teachers I know do so because they get satisfaction from helping young people grow, achieve and develop which means part of the motivation is not financial or careerer based

 

[byegad]

I worked with a guy who flatly refused to fund his son's University course if the son studied Ancient History. While admiring the boy's enthusiasm he was very worried about future job prospects. The boy was eventually prevailed upon to study something with a career prospect at the end of it.

For a long time I thought this guy was wrong, until a relative's son did a degree in Ancient History and ended up in a job he could have started at 18, at the age of 22. While I'm sure he enjoyed his degree it didn't help him in getting a job, and my ex-colleague's stand suddenly made sense.

 

[vernon]

For a long time I thought this guy was wrong, until a relative's son did a degree in Ancient History and ended up in a job he could have started at 18, at the age of 22. While I'm sure he enjoyed his degree it didn't help him in getting a job, and my ex-colleague's stand suddenly made sense.

A friend on mine's son did a degree Ancient History and Classical Civilisation and has been working for the past three years as a lab technician in a high school having failed to find employment elsewhere. He's still living at home as he can not afford to live in a flat or bedsit.

 

[srw]

Someone I've worked quite a lot with studied history fairly recently. He was accepted on to an IT graduate programme and is now developing a very good (and well-paid) niche as a business analyst and project manager. I'd employ him myself like a shot if he wanted experience in my team.

The subject of a degree is less important than what you do with it. I'd be particularly impressed by someone who expressed a real enthusiasm for their subject, however obscure. Someone doing Ancient History alone will learn a lot about human motivations and about behaviouaral analysis. Someone who adds in ancient languages will also learn a lot about logical analysis and will evidence a very good memory.

 

[Night Train]

I am tempted to say that if a teenager has been offered a place at a good Uni studying their chosen subject then it maybe best to let them go there.

I had four offers for my MechEng: Imperial, Brunel, Woolwich and Middlesex.
I wanted to go to Brunel as my first choice, Imperial as my second choice. Woolwich and Middlesex didn't feature in my hopes at all. My parents put so much pressure on me to go to Middlesex as 'it is closer to home and you won't need to live in halls and waste your time with students!' that I went there to make my life easier.

Had I been at Brunel, in halls, I would not have made the decision to leave early to run the family business but stayed put to finish my degree first.

I still wish I had got my IMechE.