With job opportunities changing so quickly, some parents feel they can’t easily help their teens prepare for the future. How can you give advice when you don’t even know what jobs will be available down the road?
Mary Somers, a career consultant who teaches the topic at Johns Hopkins University, suggests the following counseling steps.
*Encourage exploration and give students confidence to try different things.
*Remind them that career choices made now will probably not be permanent. But they should still be aware of their skills and opportunities.
*When students look at career assessments, they should consider the tasks and environments that fit them instead of just considering specific jobs. Jobs may become obselete, might change, or another position with similar characteristics may open up.
*Instill in your children the understanding that professions may change, and that it’s their responsibility to prepare for that possibility. They must learn new skills and learn what jobs are available.
*Get them started keeping track of their accomplishments and understanding how they can relate those to a variety of jobs.
*Help them learn how to network. It will continue to be the way most people get jobs, no matter how much the jobs change.
What will your teen do? Here are some of the interesting jobs that future expert and author Faith Popcorn predicts. Corporate jesters: Like their predecessors among royalty of old, these new-age versions will let corporate executives know what is really happening in their organizations instead of just passing along what the bosses want to hear.
Simplicity experts: These are specialists who can make software, hardware, corporate networks and the Internet easy for staff or customers to understand.
Cybrarians: Librarians of the Internet will try to keep track of the million pages added each day to the Web.
Extreme scientists: These scientists are likely to study science by climbing the world’s tallest tree or rappelling into an active volcano.
Online learning experts: The amount of Internet education will quadruple in five years. Online learning experts will need to understand the technology and the process of education.
Gap-year counselors: These counselors will help young people decide how to use their “gap year,” a year off between high school and college.
Geomicrobiologist: Professionals in this field will study the process by which microbes have shaped our world and the ways they can help with new medicines or to clean the environment.
Hospitalists: These are people who will take charge of a patient’s care throughout their visit to a health-care facility.
