Walking the Tightrope: Careers
This week Sally Codman considers possible careers for her offspring. Could the answer be chocolate?
Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief ... I bet we've all played this game as youngsters, pulling petals off flowers and chanting the rhyme to see who our boyfriend will be. Eldest daughter has been playing it again recently, but with a new twist. She's more worried about her future career than any future boyfriend.
We spent a large part of last year, not to mention a sizeable chunk of 2002, discussing this fascinating subject. But despite investigating careers I've never even heard of with the help of a neighbour who's a careers advisor, she's no closer to kindling a burning ambition. I bet she's not alone. There are probably millions of sixteen-year-olds out there, not to mention their long-suffering parents, facing the same dilemma.
Eldest daughter worries about a career choice more because some of her closest friends have been focused for years on medicine and dentistry. The pressure starts early in secondary education when, in Year 9, at the tender age of 14, you have to make decisions on which subjects to take for your GCSEs.
Once entry to the sixth form is staring you in the face the pressure increases. Admittedly, for many Arts-based careers, subject choice is wide and unfocused. A poll of journalists would uncover enormous disparity in their educational qualifications - or total lack of them! Doctors, dentists and scientists need to choose their subjects much sooner. It may be O.K. for a wannabe lawyer to have A-Levels in a variety of subjects, but it's essential for our future doctors to have A-Level Biology etc.
As a parent it's difficult to give good advice - should it ever be asked for. As far as careers and training are concerned, someone moved the goal posts while we were busy paying the mortgage.
It's hard to sound encouraging when your teenager is considering a degree in Media Studies, Pop Music, the Performing Arts or Poetry. Check it out, you can take a degree in just about anything these days - provided you can pay the fees. Call me a cynic, but I find it hard to believe a PhD in Beetle's Music will help keep a roof over your head and the wolf from the door for the rest of your life.
It's all too easy to try and steer them in the direction of a nice, steady job - such as nursing, teaching, banking etc. Although for the first two - always touted by my school, as "ideal careers for girls, you can always combine them with a family" - you'll soon need a karate black belt to equip you to deal with Joe Public. Maybe that's why the banks like Internet accounts so much - if someone is punching you verbally you can always cut them off!
Perhaps Eldest Daughter is too like me. I spent the whole of secondary school agonising over a career choice, eventually dropping out of a Sociology Degree to take a interesting, challenging, totally addictive, appallingly-paid job on a local newspaper. But she doesn't want an appallingly paid job, or one that imprisons you behind a desk, or anything in medicine - too squeamish.
Since she's brilliant at fixing things round the house and can even put flat-pack furniture together without resorting to helplines, I offered to buy her some dungarees, Doc Martins and fix an apprenticeship with our friendly plumber. (Another friend, a social worker with the elderly, tells me the only female plumber he knows is booked solid for months. Something about being pleasanter to have around, making their own tea and clearing up afterwards)
No dice. Then I found it - the perfect job. Screaming at me from amongst the ordinary vacancies in the Telegraph Appointments pages was every woman's dream job - a Chocolate Buyer. No, seriously, I'm not pulling your leg. Fortnum & Mason's world-renowned food hall were seeking a Chocolate Buyer. And what's more, no formal qualifications were required just "a passion for the product (no problem there) plus inspiration, innovation, natural creative flair and the enthusiasm and energy to develop their 'already divine range of products!'
Even this suggestion failed to evoke an enthusiastic response. In Eldest Daughter that is. Yours truly is busy putting together the ideal chocolate buyers c.v and doing plenty of essential product testing. Well, even at my age you can still dream of your dream job!!
Copyright Sally Codman 2004 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
