How Career Planning is an important decision but not a difficult one

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Planning has always been an important phase in a human’s life for execution of any activity, whether it is planning for holidays, an occasion, finances or buying a new car/ house. Planning gives a roadmap to achieve the desired result or arriving at a certain point in life. Career planning also is no different. Every child during his education is so much engrossed in their school activities, racing ahead to be better than their peers. In between all this, they sometimes fail to understand the importance of sitting down, thinking, and deciding an ideal career option for them. This is where the role of parents become more significant in shaping their child’s future. Parents plays a very important role in guiding and shaping a child’s career. They are much more matured as they have seen the life up close and have experienced every phase of their lives-whether good or bad. With these experiences, parents have much more rationality and reasonability in deciding what’s best for their kids .But sometimes, parents get so much carried away seeing the success of other kids or the societal pressure,  they tend to make some uninformed decisions for their kids. Undoubtedly, parents do have the maturity and rational thinking to decide what’s best for their kids, but this article is an effort to make them see and understand their kids in a different way.

New Horizons

In the early 2000s, the available career options were quite limited, which gave children very few choices to decide from. The most common career options available for science students were either Medicine or Engineering which then led to preparations for either Medical (CBSE-PMT or other medical entrance exams) or Engineering (IIT, AIEEE and other regional entrance tests). Same were the cases for Commerce and Humanities stream. After the end of the last decade, more career options started to come up opening new horizons for them and enabling them to fine tune their future. However, it is important that parents, too, accepts them with open mind.

Points to remember while planning career for your child

• Understand your child and his career views

Deciding a career path is one of the most important decisions not just for your child, but also for you. Therefore, it is important for both of you to be on the same page. Observe their daily routine, lifestyle, sports they like, books they read, etc. This activity will give you an opportunity to look at your child and their lives in a more detailed way and with a different perspective.

Try to understand which are the fields where you think your child is having more inclination. Having a casual discussion with them- what views they have about their life ahead and how they see it- will give you an idea about the kind of career your child is having in mind.

• Do a SWOT Analysis

While doing a career planning, a S (Strengths) W (Weaknesses) O (Opportunities) T (Threats) analysis is advisable. This will give you a genuine understanding of your child’s capabilities and the attributes to work on. Below I have outlined the analysis points in brief for better understanding.

1. Strengths- Strengths are the positive attributes which your child possess such as strong memory, good concentration, interest in sports to name a few. These strengths if channelized with regular guidance could be utilized to have an edge in your child’s progress than their peers.
2. Weakness- Though some parents have a hard time accepting this, but their children might have some weakness. These weaknesses such as lack of concentration, time management or difficulty in memorizing, if neglected could steer the development of children in a totally different unwanted direction. The first step is to accept that there is an issue which needs to be addressed. Always, half of the problem gets solved just by accepting it exists. The next step is to understand and take measures to counter them so that they do not hamper with your child’s efforts during their career development days.
3. Opportunities- Every child has a special set of qualities which are unique to them only. This presents with an opportunity for them to look for those career options which are uncharted or are not very popular but could lead them to the path of success.
4. Threats- Every year, millions of students are getting passed out from their schools and junior colleges which eventually creates a competition for the child as admissions in the desired colleges becomes difficult. Also, it is important for the kids to maintain their focus and does not deviate from their goal while in the competitive race.   

• Do your own groundwork

In modern times, with the advancement of the flow of information, getting to know about any career options is easier than ever. There are plenty of resources available on the web where parents and students can research about their career of choice and introspect. It is always advisable to know about your career choices to avoid any surprises in the future.

• Don’t impose, Discuss

Though you have done extensive research on a career path, neither you should force them on your children, nor the children should be adamant on their choices. Discuss about your findings with each other, try to list down the pros and cons, growth opportunities and prospects. One always wants their decisions to be accepted by everyone which sometimes tends to have some blind spots i.e., an aspect which we are not able to consider but is visible to other individuals. When parents want their children to pursue one career option, children can highlight them about a blind spot which they have missed, and it goes vice versa. Focus on what is right, rather than who is right.

• Let your career decision be an informed one

Try to find out as much information about your career choice as possible. Talk to your relatives, friends, internet, career coaches, professionals who are already in your choice of field. In a nutshell, before getting onboard with a career choice, know what you/ your child is getting themselves into.

• Monitor their career progress

After all the research is done, applications filled, enrolment done, parent’s job is not yet over. Keep monitoring your child’s progress and see what corrective measures are needed to get on the desired paths. Parents tend to think that since their kids are now in college, they can take their own decisions without the help from parents. It’s a good thinking, but not a safe one. At some point in life every human being must be self-sufficient to take care of themselves, take their own decisions and bear the consequences. When in college, children should take their own decisions, but it’s the job of the parents to keep a watch whether those decisions will do any good to their kids.

• Keep communication channels open

Always maintain close communications with your kids. Try to talk to them, understand them. Ensure that both sides are on the same page. Ultimately, you all are on the same team.

• Always maintain emotional support for them

In pursuit of one’s career, there could be some moments where children get to their breaking point/ emotional setback while pushing themselves too far to succeed in their choice of career. Also, in pursuit of their goals and competition around them, chances are they may not achieve the desired results as expected. In such cases, when they don’t find any medium to vent out their emotional steam, consequences could be dangerous.

Always maintain a constant emotional support for them. They are preparing themselves to face the world, make a name for themselves and achieve something. In the process, they should always know, that they have a family to have their back. Being successful always in your chosen career is not enough, being happy with it is what makes all the difference.

Conclusion

Every child is unique with their own set of qualities, Intelligence, maturity, emotional quotient and their own perspective towards life and the way of living it. It is important to understand these qualities, have an open dialogue with kids and finding out the right career option where the child can channelize these qualities into a promising future. Every parent aspires to see their child successful and competitive in modern society and be ahead in today’s career race, but they should always understand that the most important for a child is to be satisfied and happy with their career choice.