Career Counseling For Young Adults

Throughout much of history, young children saw the work of their parents.  They either helped their parents with work or they observed what their parents did for work.  Even as society progressed into the industrial revolution, the vast majority of teenagers would understand the work world far better than young adults today.  Teens from the past knew their parents went to factory and probably saw their parents work at the factory on numerous occasions. Farmers, of course, usually started their on-the-job training before age 10. As the work world started becoming more abstract and corporate America developed, a great gulf of ignorance developed as young adults made their way into the work world.  

​I quite often hear from students that their parents “work in an office” as an answer to the question: “what does your parent do for work?”

 A few years ago, I met with a student from Old Lyme, CT.   As we were in a career counseling session, I asked her what her parents did for work so I could understand her general sense of potential jobs.  She did not know and said what other students have touched upon: “they never discuss their work with me.”   She also noted that it wasn’t like either of them were teachers, policemen, firemen, doctors, nurses or in other jobs that she would come into contact with in her daily life.   Both her parents worked in offices and her father traveled a lot.  That was the extent of her knowledge of what they did.

While I am sure that your child will not be particularly interested in having a conversation about your work, it would be helpful for you to discuss your work with your child – for their benefit.