The Covid crisis has most everyone economically worried. Parents of twentysomethings are among the most terrified. Having invested large sums of time and money into college, parents see their adult children entering the work world at a very scary time.

Through building Career Counseling Connecticut, I have repeatedly heard certain phrases. The most common of late: “I should have had my kid come in here before he went to college”.

Children need to be educated about the career world.  Children only know jobs they see such as teacher, fireman, police officer, doctor, nurse, and so forth. Most don’t even know what their parents do.

Since schools provide little to no education about the real world of careers, parents must fill the void. But parents are also woefully uneducated about the new world of work because the world of work has radically changed in the last two decades.

For example, parents often tell their children: “you only should take a full-time job.”.  But the world of work is not what it was in the 1990s. The percentage of college graduates who obtain full-time jobs has been dropping precipitously over the last two decades.  Internships, independent contracting gigs, part-time jobs, freelancing, and other types of “just-in-time” work has become much more common.

This is not to say that full-time jobs are not there or not preferable but simply that other opportunities should be explored. My book, The Parents’ Guide to Career Planning for Your Twentysomething addresses what you can do to help your children launch their careers.