Today my fourteen year old son came home from school and told he’d had his first careers class. He reckons he’s decided to go into back-end development. I suggested that maybe he’s a bit young to be sure of something like that, after which he refused to talk to me for the rest of the night. I’m torn between wondering if back-end development will even exist in a decade’s time, and not being totally sure of precisely what it entails. Oh, and wondering how many more years of this teenager thing there are to go before his brain is fully developed.
Look, it might be a good thing to pursue, for all I know. I didn’t tell him not to go for it; I was just saying that he’s fourteen so he knows literally nothing about anything, and even less about career choices. As for me, I know very little about student career counselling in high schools. Melbourne ones, in particular, probably have a very open minded approach to it, which is great. And I can see the benefits of getting started early. I just don’t want my kid to commit to anything at this stage.
I mean, what if he discovers a latent talent for tapestry making, or hand balancing, or designing hydroponic tomato-growing systems? All this and more is waiting to be discovered, but it’s not as ‘on the pulse’, so it could easily get overlooked as offering viable career pathways. That failure to take all options under consideration could eventually result in a crisis down the track.
Not that it’s that hard these days to pull off a midlife pivot turn, especially with the right career change guidance. Melbourne has professionals that specialise in that field. But still… going from back-end development to hand balancing, for example, could prove difficult. That actually doesn’t seem like a bad career trajectory.