Adolescence - one of the most difficult periods in life.
At this time, a person rethinks a lot, tries to separate emotionally from his parents, changes radically both externally and internally.
It is in his teens that he begins to seriously think about who wants to work in the future.
But how to decide on the choice of profession for a teenager and not make a mistake? This can help tests for vocational guidance and psychological advice.
Why is it important to make a choice in advance?
Making the right choice is extremely difficult, and many people, having entered a higher or secondary specialized educational institution, at some point realize that chosen direction does not suit them.
Some realize this even later when they begin to work in their specialty.
Despite the fact that not all people in the period of adolescence, are ready consciously choose a profession, the possibility of making a choice later may not be.
Therefore, it is important for relatives to help them decide, while eliminating psychological pressure and imposing their own opinions.
Making a choice is important as soon as possible, because:
- It will be possible to start acquiring knowledge and skills that will be useful for admission and during future work. The earlier a teenager begins to explore the chosen sphere, the better. For several years he will be able to thoroughly study all the necessary branches of knowledge and penetrate the chosen sphere.
At the same time, his relatives should completely eliminate the element of pressure: there is no need to force him to study the necessary disciplines, threaten punishment, and so on, since the likelihood that he will start to turn back on what he liked earlier will increase.
Give him the opportunity to freely study the chosen direction, make gifts that will increase his interest in the field (books, interesting toys, models), offer help.
- The teenager will get more time to get acquainted with the profession. If he said that he made his choice, invite him to understand the essence of the profession, to start studying various disciplines, remind him that you are ready to help financially, provide tutors, and pay for courses. If he starts acquaintance with the profession, then over time he will be able to say for sure whether this is his direction or not. And, if the direction is not his, he will have time to find something else.
Before entering, a teenager should try to learn more about the profession, because otherwise his choice cannot be called deliberate.
What should I look for before determining my future work?
Key recommendations:
- You should not choose a profession just because of its prestige. Professions that were considered prestigious at certain periods of time invariably aroused great interest among young people and their parents. Also, many parents tend to put pressure on children to choose a profession that looks prestigious and highly paid, and not one that they like.
As a result, the picture is the same: there are many people in the country with legal, economic, technical education who cannot get a job, because there are too many people who want to get a job.
In addition, the picture is gradually changing, and those professions that were relevant twenty to thirty years ago, no longer have such value.
- Priority areas should be those to which the adolescent has a predisposition and interest. When a child is truly interested in certain areas, it will be more interesting for him to study and work, he will be more creative, more efficient and able to achieve success, because employers are interested in people like him. If an employee is passive and chose a sphere because “dad made”, he will not be able to achieve much.
- Don't lean on stereotypes. “Prestigious” work can bring a person more money and pleasure than a prestigious one. A good and diligent worker who knows his field perfectly will always be appreciated.
- Ask those who are already working in areas of interest. It is important to find out what is their situation in the workplace, what are the basic requirements, how difficult it was to find a job after graduation. Also, a teenager can try to contact the employment center: they hold annual “Days of Profession”, which tell you important information related to each profession.
This will help to understand which professions are most relevant in the market, and to determine the educational institution.
Leading Adventure Activity
Leading activity - This is an activity that can radically influence the formation of the child’s personality and takes up a significant portion of his time.
For example, in preschool age, the leading activity is a game.
In the process of gaming activities, the child knows himself and the world around him, comprehensively develops.
Researchers have identified leading activities for each age period, from infancy to ten to eleven years, but about leading activities during the puberty period. There are still disputes.
The following points of view are common:
- From 12 to 15 years the leading activity is close communication with peers. The child is actively trying to find friends, build the most harmonious relations with others, often for the first time falls in love, experiments, begins to understand many moral and ethical postulates better thanks to the involvement in communication, is looking for his place in the micro-society. He is highly dependent on the opinions of those around him, and his choice during this period may be related to the point of view that is prevalent in his circle of contacts.
- For adolescents 15-17 years old the main leading activity is the educational and professional direction. They strive to better understand what is expected of life, they begin to study more actively, they are looking at professions.
Also, some researchers believe that the leading activity of adolescents is socially useful activity (the opinion of DI Feldstein) and socially significant activity (according to the opinion of V. V. Davydov).
How does a hobby affect your profession?
Hobby becomes a professional activity not always and often stays as just a favorite activity.
At the same time, according to statistics, 25% of people chose professions that were somehow related to their hobbies.
A teenager who chose to associate his life with a hobby often faces pressure from closewho consider that his choice is not intelligent enough.
As a result, many children give up their dreams and agree with the opinions of their parents, enter universities that they don’t like, work in disgusting areas, and don’t succeed in them.
Therefore, parents who want their child to be happy and contented, should not push him. It is important to look more often at what he is interested in, since many hobbies can be turned into a profession.
This profession will not necessarily be directly connected with it, but it will arouse interest in the child.
Examples of occupations depending on the hobby:
- computer games: programmer, computer graphics specialist, computer journalist, game tester;
- writing prose and poems: writer, journalist, linguist, philologist, teacher of Russian language and literature, proofreader and editor of texts;
- drawing: a designer (and there are a huge variety of designs), an artist, a sculptor.
If desired, for each hobby you can find a number of similar professions that may cause interest in a teenager.
Methods of choosing a professional sphere
The main methods that can help teens choose a professional field:
- Tests for career guidance. They can be found in large numbers on the Internet, they are also often given to passing in schools, clubs. The most valuable of them are the following: the vocational guidance test, created by J. Holland, the method of O. F. Potemkina, the testing by E. A. Klimova, which allows to determine the type of professional orientation, the test by L. Jovayshi, which reveals professional inclinations. To make the result as accurate as possible, it is recommended to pass several similar questionnaires.
- Conversation with a careerologist. There are experts who will help your child decide on a future profession. They test, talk with a teenager about what interests him, analyze his hobbies, and report the results. Various centers offer similar services.
- Recommendations close circle. Friendly, pressure-free advice from a parent, family friend, relative can help a child decide.
It is advisable not only to advise, but to talk about the profession, answer questions, suggest talking with a friend working in this field.
Also exist books that help teens choose a professional direction. The most famous of them are:
- A. G. Gretsov, “Choosing a profession. Practical Psychologist Tips;
- E. A. Klimov, “How to choose a profession”;
- A. Gretsov, T. Bedareva, "100 popular professions."
How does the opinion of the parents?
In adolescence, many children are suspended from their parents, they begin the primary stage of emotional separation.
This is entirely true and natural direction in this age period.
At the same time parental support and approval still very important for teens, even if they do not show it directly.
Teens look at the professions of parents and gradually build their conclusions, depending on what they say and do at home. They may ask questions, be interested in opinions if their area of interest coincides with the profession of parents.
Parents have ample opportunity to put pressure on a teenager who is trying to make a choice, and often resort to them when they realize that the child may, in their opinion, choose the wrong direction.
In most cases, this pressure leads to negative results: either a teenager rebels, worsening the relationship with his parents and complicating his life, or agrees and chooses a sphere that does not attract him.
A parent who wants a child to be happy, it is important to abandon the idea to impose an opinion, force. The best way - Choose a friendly, open parent positionwho is ready to give advice, help with money and discuss options.
If you are not satisfied with the choice of a child, you can express it, but in a mild form and with a clarification that you will accept any choice, despite your point of view.
Major mistakes on the way to the right benchmark.
The main mistakes that teenagers make:
- Passive choice, following the wishes of the parents. Some adolescents obey their parents because of indecision, others because of pressure, threats. Also, the child can choose the offer of parents due to the fact that not enough to understand himself, does not know how best to proceed. But it is important to understand that a teenager who submits to his parents and goes into a sphere that is not at all interesting for him can, after a few years, find himself working in unloved work, the only joy in which is pay day, vacation and weekends.
- Not fully informed choice of profession. This happens if the child has not studied information about the profession, has not come into contact with key disciplines, but has made a choice. Usually, such decisions are based on common stereotypes: "I will get a technical education - I will earn a lot of money", "I will become a journalist - I will gain fame."
Parents whose child told them what profession they want to choose, it is important to ask him what he knows about, gently offer to learn more.
- The choice of professional direction, which was chosen by friends or loved one. Usually correlated with the desire to choose the same institution that friends have chosen. But the problem is that friends leave, loved ones cease to be so, and unnecessary education remains. It is important to choose a direction that you like, combined with interests, hobbies.
- The choice of professional direction, which is definitely not suitable due to the physical or psychological characteristics of the child. A deeply introverted teenager should hardly choose directions that will require him to constantly communicate with people, a young man or a girl with an extensive list of chronic diseases will not work in power structures and in enterprises where you need to regularly contact with toxic substances, lift heavy objects.
If a child managed to understand himselfI learned enough about the features of the profession and spent a lot of time studying professional disciplines, his choice is probably the right one.
On how to help a teenager choose a profession, you can learn from the video:
