Why Our Kids Need Career Counseling Now More Than Ever…

I remember the days when I was back in school, which was in the 90’s. Even though my friends and I felt that teachers and parents were being mean and super strict with us, in retrospect, I realize that lives were much simpler back then. We had the option of deciding what we wanted to by taking our own sweet time and could afford to make mistakes.

Forget choosing or imagining myself in a particular career, I had not a clue until my 8^th standard as to what stream of studies would I take up after my 10^th. It was only during my 8^th standard half yearly exam, when I barely passed in Sciences and Maths, I realized that those subjects were NOT my cup of tea, and I would like to take up Arts, because I loved the languages and the social sciences.

But that was the 90’s. Nowadays, it is impossible for a student to dilly dally and decide eventually what subjects she/he wants to take up or what career the kid would choose eventually.

Both the eras have their pros and cons. nowadays; there’s so much more avenues of choosing a career. Back in the 90’s options were fewer. I had no idea who a Data Scientist is or what she/he does. OR being a Food Stylist was actually a profession. I thought it was something my mother always did with our food when guests came home. OR even the fact that Podiatry is a separate branch of medicine.

Having said that there are a lot of options for a career now, I also need to add that this makes life even more competitive for the child. Add parental expectation to the mix. All parents want what is best for their kids, and in wanting that, quite a lot of time they go overboard in deciding what career, what life, which city, which partner would be best for the child. Then there is peer pressure and the severity of the competition because of the fact that there is no dearth of potential in our country as of now.

All this and more affects the child psychologically and if by chance the kid is not mentally inclined towards the field the parents have chosen for her/him, everything starts going south from there on.

As a parent, we would definitely want the following for our child

• A healthy life
• A decent paying career
• Job Satisfaction
• Mental and physical well being
• A happy and content life

Career guidance provides the parents and the child with the basic information about what subjects is the child inclined towards and what type of careers would he/she excel in. It also allows the parents to manage their expectations towards their children. So now more than ever, proper career guidance and counselling has become essential for the child.