‘What do you want to do after school?’ If you do not know, then you are not alone. The anxiety toward our unknown future and the pressure on our minds to achieve something in life becomes stressful. This article will gave teenagers 8 career tips for their career selection.
There are infinite choices (currently approximately 3.32 billion people employed worldwide) on the market. These choices range from a doctor, engineer, and teacher to illustrator, designer, writer, stuntman, actor, and many more. Meanwhile, studies show that there will be an estimated shortage of 85 million workers around the globe by 2030. Take the US, for example; there are nearly 11 million job vacancies, but only 6.5 million workers are listed as unemployed in 2022.
However, jobs are also disappearing, and many jobs will be automated or replaced by artificial intelligence or machine learning, such as customer service, data entry, etc. The question is: what should teenagers choose? If you are a parent, how do you suggest to your kids?
This article will not give specific job suggestions but will help you go through your thoughts. Let’s dive right into it!
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Table of Contents
1. Know Your Strengths
Before making any choice, you have to know yourself. There are certain things that people are truly good at, and what are their unique strengths. Some people are lucky to know who they are and what they like to do, for example, young Bill Gates with computing. But most of us are not that lucky. Then how to find it?
a) Try as many as you can
It is similar to sports, and it would be best if you tried many to see the one that suits you. The best way is to learn by doing, explore as much as possible, and grab every opportunity, such as a summer job, internship, and experience day.
b) Assess your personality traits
Try to assess your personality traits by self-assessment tools and aptitudes test (e.g., Myers–Briggs Type Indicator) to help you. Explore your interests and skills that make you unique from others and try to polish them as much as possible to excel further and make it your strong point in choosing a suitable career.
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c) What things do you value the most?
When choosing a career path, you must clearly understand your values. These values include career development, flexible work routines, autonomy, high salary, social interactions, outdoor work environments, status, family time, etc.
2. Push Your Limits
Pushing your limits means trying to come out of your comfort zone and explore new aspects of life. How would you know what you like or dislike if you don’t even try it out?
The best way is to challenge yourself with new things. Indulge yourself in activities you have never experienced before. For example, you have never done cooking. What if you try to cook something and enjoy it? Who knows if you will master your cooking skills and make a successful career as a chef?
There are infinite possibilities and challenges for you to take on and learn about your preferences. These challenges will enable you to improve your self-worth and give you a clear idea of what you can achieve in life.
3. Learn From Experiences
Your experiences in your past life shape your future perspective on things. When you feel stuck, confused, and frustrated about how to shape your career path, you take on new challenges in life.
When you try out new things, they become experiences in your life. Try to learn from these experiences. You start to know yourself when you experience diverse things in your life. These experiences help you shape your personality and give you a perception of your strengths and weaknesses.
Through these life experiences, you learn about your skills and what you enjoy the most. This makes it easier for you to make a career choice most related to your skills, likes, and dislikes.
4. Surround Yourself with Passionate People
One of the greatest career tips for teenagers is communicate with your peers. Suppose you regularly catch up with people who are always complaining about things, criticizing others, do not have a favorable view of life, and have no real-life goal. Would you feel motivated? Can they give you good advice? Would you take inspiration to try out new things and learn something productive? The answer is an absolute no.
Spencer W. Kimball says, ‘Always keep good company. Never waste an hour with anyone who doesn’t lift and encourage you.’
The people you spend time with significantly impact your life, and they play a vital role in shaping it. Without knowing it, we observe those people and get motivation.
Surround yourself with people who are a source of positive motivation for you. They must be the people who are as passionate as you and inspire you to make healthy choices for yourself, not only in your career but also in life.
5. Make a List of Your Options
Based on your likes and dislikes, life experiences, skills, and motivation from people around you, you realize that there are various options you can choose for yourself. Make a list of those career options and research how you can approach them.
For example, you enjoy reading about human biology and find it interesting how the human body works. Make a list of career paths you can take based on your preferences. You can work as a doctor, nurse, or scientist who loves to research human physiology.
If you love technology and get excited when solving computer-related problems, you can choose a career path in the IT industry.
6. Stop Searching for a Perfect Path or Passion
Ups and downs are a part of career life. In a realistic world, there is nothing called a perfect path. You are allowed to make mistakes, and the question is, are you a person who learns from them?
It takes time and continuous efforts to figure out who you are and what you are passionate about. Your first choice career might not be the best choice for you. It doesn’t mean you are a failure and can’t do anything else. Maybe you are cut out for something else.
If you are searching for a perfect career path, stop now. Please look at your past experiences and try to learn from them. Every failed experience in your life will become a step toward a suitable and successful career.
7. Trust Yourself
As a person choosing a career for ourselves, there is always a fear of making the wrong choices. The lack of confidence in our abilities to do what is best for us builds a lack of trust in ourselves.
Not everything will go our way. Trust in yourself will help you stay calm and handle these problems to the best of your abilities.
Self-trust helps you regain your confidence and make decisions for yourself. Trust that you can get back up as a stronger person after failures and make suitable choices for you in the future.
Maybe you are not good at your career at the start, even if you enjoy it but you can polish your skills and excel further if you trust yourself. Be confident and persistent about your choices and continue chasing your dreams.
8. Money Matters
Dream career shall have financial saturation and there is nothing embarrassing to discuss about it in the career tips as teenagers. You do not need to become rich in your first career but at least need to make a living independently based on your own situation.
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Final Thoughts from Pragmatic Lifestyle
It is natural for you are anxiety about your career decisions at the beginning of your path. Every successful person out there was just the same as you. Try to find out what you like, what your personality is, what you value the most, how you learn from your experiences, and how much you trust yourself. Knowing the 8 career tips will surely help for teenagers to make suitable career choices.
So, don’t hesitate to challenge yourself and keep going!
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About me
Hi, there. I am Lin. Together with my husband and two kids, we live in the beautiful Netherlands in Europe. I am dedicated to self-development, creating quality time for the whole family, and fully supporting kids with their potentials and possibilities with all I have learned from engineering, MBA, and 10+ years of working experience in the energy sector.
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