“Garrett has been home for the last year and a half and is growing increasingly anxious. He dropped out of UConn after his sophomore year. He didn’t know what he wanted to do…”
So began a typical phone call to Career Counseling Connecticut.
Not too long ago, young men went to college with little to no idea regarding their potential career choice.
As they chose a major, they became more directed. But still… many outside the specialists… were not certain.
They applied for jobs during senior year and, for the most part, were gainfully employed within the first few months after graduation.
Sure, many were not delighted with their entry-level jobs and were meandered a bit to find career footing in their early-mid twenties.
But most understood that lack of certainty was ok and that general themes – “business analyst” or “sales”- would be sufficient.
Now… I hear regularly: my son (daughters too but sons in alarming frequency!) has dropped out of college because he didn’t know what he wanted to do for his career.
Some of the reasoning is reasonable: college is expensive.
The post-drop out of college planning, however, is not optimal: “I’ll just work at a restaurant until I figure it out…”
I explain the psychological and practical challenge as follows:
From K-12, massive outside change automatically happened to move one’s practical life forward. We might not think of moving from 3rd to 4th grade as a big deal but just imagine if in one year your boss (teacher), co-workers (classmates), and work (different subjects) changed. Middle school adds another change and high school even more so.
All of this “happens” with almost no effort by the student.
College is the first real point of creative control.
But even still, the process is quite defined: choose schools/Common App/await for acceptance.
Upon dropping out of college, many believe that change will happen to them. It doesn’t. The first few months working at the restaurant turns into a few years.
Nothing happens.
As the New Year approaches, realize it’s time to make a change.
In Garrett’s case, he nodded vigorously when I repeated a line I use a lot: “the work world is not kind to those under 25 without a college degree”. He understood that he didn’t have skills that made him employable. We started working on a plan. The plan gave him energy and he’s back in college with the thought that a career in data analysis will suit him but also with the understanding that he need not view that decision as a 40 year career path.