Starting Out In Your Career - Doing It Right the First Time
Posted on August 08, 2013 by Curtis Songer, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
The average professional starting out today will change jobs at least 12 times & do a major re-tooling of their career 4 times. How do you get started
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the average American will have about nine jobs between the ages of 18 and 32. The average professional starting out today with do a major re-tooling of their career, switching industries at least 4 times in their career. How is a young person supposed to get off to a solid start?
Thirty years ago the average young person left home by age 19. Today, those that go to college leave home on average by age 23 and cost their parents a minimum of an extra $21,000. Those that do not go to college leave home on average at age 31 and cost their parents an average of $30,000. In both cases, these extra costs generally come right out of (or never go into) the parents’ retirement funds. But what is much more tragic is that these young people are getting a slower start in life in their families and careers. Also, studies show that they suffer from low self-esteem issues, social issues, and a more significant lack of fulfillment in the careers they eventually select.
To illustrate my point, recent studies have shown that only 50% of graduating high school seniors enter college having already decided on their major. Of those that are decided, 60% will change their major one or more times after their first semester in college. This means that 80% of high school graduating seniors decide on their final major after they get to college. The end result is that the average student is now taking 5.5 years to get a 4-year, undergraduate degree. This equates to over $20,000 in wasted tuition for the parents, not to mention the extra 1.5 years of their young person’s life.
Why is this? Answer: Schools are not equipped with the proper staff or tools to help guide the student to a career that will be not only the most professionally rewarding, but also personally fulfilling for a lifetime. The high school process is focused on “aptitude”, measuring a student’s skills and abilities in particular subjects. However, long-term success in a career is not nearly as highly correlated to skills and abilities as it is to matching fields of study to personality, gifting, interests, and driving motivators. The high school guidance system does little to address these greater predictors of success and fulfillment.
The situation is even worse for the young person who elects not to go to college. As mentioned earlier, those that do not go to college leave home on average at age 31 and cost their parents an average of $30,000.
It is further interesting to note that as parents, we tend to begin channeling our young people into focusing on one sport as early as age 8 and often have them exclusively dedicated to that single sport by the time they reach age 12. Does it really make sense that we expend so much time and effort on guiding them in their chosen field of sports, a 4-year decision (college athletics), and so little time and effort guiding them into their chosen career, a 40-year decision!
To address this issue, I have developed a 5-step process to assist young people and their parents with this process:
• Step 1 = Discovering their Core DESIGN (where D = Driving motivators, E = Experiences & life lessons, S = Specialized skills & education, I = Interests & passions, G = Gifting & talents, N = Natural personality)
• Step 2 = Developing a Life Plan (Life Mission, Values, & Vision)
• Step 3 = Vocational Fit Analysis (includes approximately 1000 possible occupations)
• Step 4 = Major & College Analysis (includes assessment of majors at 3800 various colleges and universities)
• Step 5 = Final Selection (an objective assessment of the short list using 40 points of decision-making criteria)
In order to help prevent your kids from living in your house until age 30 & beyond, you need to help them find the guidance that will launch them forward into the world. These young people need assistance identifying their strengths and gifting in order to select a career path that will lead not only to financial success, but also long-term personal fulfillment.
