Class hour in 9th grade “Choosing a future profession.”

Perhaps this is one of the most important questions that a person asks in life - what profession to choose. It is this choice that determines whether you will be happy, in demand, and whether you will be able to realize your potential.

Article by: Happy Monday is a career portal and professional development platform with vacancies, articles and opportunities. Here they believe that work should be loved, and Mondays should be happy. And they will help you choose a profession, create a resume and finally find your dream job. Happy Monday has been sorted out, how not to make mistakes and find a profession that will make all Mondays happy.

The earlier the better

In our schools there is no compulsory subject “vocational guidance”. And teenagers have to choose an educational institution and profession based on their own considerations and beliefs. Sometimes they listen to the advice of parents who received their education about 20 years ago, when the job market was completely different. And, as ProfNavigator employees note, the most common question among parents and children themselves is: “Where should we go next? We don’t know, help!” This is such a dead end on the threshold of adulthood. And all because you need to think about your future profession as early as possible.

Photo: eventsinrussia.com

— According to the all-Russian national project of early vocational guidance, it should be carried out in every school. And it’s advisable to start at the age of 9,” notes Natalya Ilyushkina. — In reality, most schools can only offer tests and, at best, a consultation with a psychologist. And that’s all, since the workload on the school psychologist is very large, and there are many children. By the age of 14, a teenager needs to decide on his choice of profession. In 8th grade, in principle, it is already clear whether he needs to go to 10th grade or after 9th grade he can get a profession.

In practice, parents turn for help when the child is in the 9th-10th grade, or even in the 11th. For example, in May a 17-year-old teenager came to the center for a career guidance game. He was intensively preparing for the Unified State Exam in computer science. During comprehensive career guidance, it turned out that he had predominant abilities in another professional direction. He was targeted not as a programmer, but as a food technologist. The guy got the idea to study to become a technologist, and quickly changed his mind. Then he admitted that he studied computer science with great difficulty, but there were no problems with chemistry and biology.

Unfortunately, the culture of approach to obtaining education and profession in our society is completely undeveloped. And parents often neglect the issue of vocational guidance, which is why they make mistakes.

If you determine the direction of professional training in time and correctly, you can save time (3-5 years) and money (from 300,000 to 1,500,000 rubles).

These resources are spent:

for tutors in unnecessary subjects,
to fruitless circles and sections,
for unnecessary and expensive education,
random work not in the specialty,
fruitless search for oneself and disappointment.

How to get a job you like

At this stage, you already know what you like to do, what you are good at and what professions are in demand on the market. Now you need to bring all the information together and start searching. Where to look for opportunities to start your career:

Training programs. After passing them, they often help with finding a job. But it’s better to talk to previous course graduates to make sure that help with finding a job is not just another marketing gimmick of the company, but a real bonus.
Internship programs. These are often launched by corporations, international enterprises, and large companies. And not only for students.
Job search sites.
Telegram channels, Facebook groups with vacancies. It is better to look for thematic ones, where they publish proposals in 1-2 areas of activity.
LinkedIn. To do this, you should subscribe to the accounts of HR managers of the companies where you would like to work.
Through friends. It is not necessary that they negotiate your employment. It is enough if they simply talk about vacancies in their companies.
Employment centers at the university (suitable for graduate students).
Job fairs.
Pages of entrepreneurs on social networks.

So, how to choose a profession?

Finding your dream job on your own is possible! But you need to be ready to work on yourself. After all, you don’t know yet what you are interested in doing and what you don’t like. What motivates, what type of activity is suitable, what skills are well developed and which are not so well developed. So you can look for yourself for a very long time and not find it! So be sure to follow the recommendations above and you will succeed!

Along the education route

— Natalya, how is career guidance going for children? What is the output?

— We provide comprehensive career guidance: during a 2-hour game, the child will have an express interview with an analysis of academic performance and preferences, and psychological testing. Then a career guidance game takes place in a small group of children. In the game, children try themselves in professions, analyze their abilities and those that are necessary in obtaining different professions, identify their strengths, interact with each other and create projects.

For example, a child says that he wants to become an astronaut. He begins to compare his abilities, what he has and what the astronaut needs. As a result, he understands and realizes (which is very important!) whether he can realize himself in this profession. And this is a fundamental point!

After all, it is important to help children not only self-determinate, but also, on the basis of this self-determination, to understand and reveal their strengths and weaknesses, to help them see what their advantages are, what abilities they have. And most importantly, in what profession they will be in demand and successfully applied. Which means we are happy!

Based on the results of the lesson, recommendations are drawn up taking into account the relevance of professions and an analysis of demand according to the Skolkovo Business School and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives of the Russian Federation. Parents will not only know whether their child is a technician or a humanist, but will receive the name of a specific profession that is suitable for the child, as well as a list of educational institutions where such professionals are trained.

Career Guidance Game

— What is the route to obtaining a profession?

— You can go further and develop a route for your child to obtain a profession. What does it include? Selection of subjects for preparation and passing the Unified State Exam, selection of educational institutions, analysis of university ratings, teaching staff and entrance scores, learning conditions. For example, you can study to become a doctor in Ivanovo, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg. But we look at the conditions, analyze them, take into account the parents’ capabilities and choose the appropriate option.

— How do children react to the results of career guidance? And their parents?

— The reaction of all children is mostly positive: 94% are satisfied with their career guidance results. And parents have two reactions. Positive: when the results coincide with their opinion, they are happy, but the child, for example, resisted and said that it was not mine. We managed to convince him and discuss it together. And a negative reaction of rejection. The child is glad and happy, but the parents say that this is not the right direction, we did not want to go there. Fortunately, this rarely happens. Mostly, parents themselves do not know which direction to move. But they really want to understand. And if earlier adults tried to send the child to where it was easier, simpler, now they analyze the specialty from the point of view of the prospects, demand and abilities of their son or daughter.

How to choose the profession of the future?

“There is no list of professions of the future. People create them themselves. That’s why they are the professions of the future” Photo: Vladimir Andreev © URA.RU

Finding a cure for cancer, solving environmental problems and creating new technology is an unattainable dream for many due to the popular stereotype that this is the domain of geniuses. Kristina Mikhailova and Mikhail Shatalov are not yet 18 years old, but they have already become popular developers and told how to find the profession of the future, what advantages await dreamers, what disadvantages they need to prepare for, and what qualities a person dreaming of such a position should have.

Where to begin?

Kristina Mikhailova, who created a prototype of a charger that uses the energy of the human body to charge gadgets, is promoting the project in the USA:

“The main thing is to choose what you like. Then it will be much easier to achieve success.”

Photo: Vladimir Andreev © URA.RU

I believe that a profession is just a method with which you can solve a problem that interests you. The most important thing is to understand what the problem is. And then the process of searching for tools to implement this idea begins. And in the end, you either successfully find the appropriate profession, or you create your own, and they are already called “professions of the future.”

I’ll say right away that you don’t have to work in the IT field to have such a profession. The work of the future is methods for solving the problems of the future: climate change, hunger, international conflicts, space exploration, and so on. By the way, they were quite clearly spelled out by the United Nations and The Global Goals.

Mikhail Shatalov, created the mobile application “Govorila”, which helps improve public speaking skills, and is working on an IT startup that makes it easier to prepare for the Unified State Exam:

The professions of the future are not something specific. It's more of a skill for continuous beneficial improvement. And I want to note that it is very important to do not just popular things at the moment, but those that really interest a particular person. In addition, it is much easier to become an expert in the area of interest.

Is it difficult to find a job in this field?

“You don't need to be afraid of competition. You need to develop, show abilities and knock on all open and closed doors."

Photo: Vladimir Andreev © URA.RU

You need to understand that there is always work for any specialist. The main thing is not to be afraid to start and dive into your chosen field. For example, regarding the professions of the future, competition is quite strong. But I also want to note that a good specialist will always be taken away with his hands and feet.

Kristina Mikhailova, who created a prototype of a charger that uses the energy of the human body to charge gadgets, is promoting the project in the USA:

It is very difficult for me to judge Russia, but, for example, in the USA, where I am currently studying, it is not difficult. All startups and large corporations are very fond of programmers and computer engineers, so there is definitely a chance. For example, a friend of mine in the USA got a job as a software engineer right after finishing his undergraduate degree, and his starting salary was $120,000 per year. He knew 5-6 programming languages, he had experience working in small startups in the same position, he also had his own resume website and several projects with machine learning. Nothing is impossible.

“Don’t expect huge salaries instantly simply because you got an IT specialty or another profession of the future”

Photo: Vladimir Andreev © URA.RU

Are salaries always high?

Salaries are dictated by the market, and the emergence of a huge number of courses, relevant areas in universities and the ease of self-study have brought a large number of personnel to the market. In addition, “high salary” is a fairly broad concept. I’ll say one thing for sure: juniors, of course, will not receive top salaries.

What are the advantages of professions and why are they so attractive?

Kristina Mikhailova, who created a prototype of a charger that uses the energy of the human body to charge gadgets, is promoting the project in the USA:

It seems to me that Generation Z has been thinking about the future since childhood. We were the first children to have access to all personal technology: the first private rockets were built before our eyes, and schools began to use modern technology in our teaching methods. Of course, this influenced us and our perception of the world, so the thought of being involved in the development of technology and bringing science fiction closer to reality is attractive. Of course, some of the main advantages are income, stability and demand, as well as the opportunity to create useful products from scratch, make life easier for yourself and the people around you, and have a cool environment.

“The disadvantages of professions include overwork and the fight against competition”

Photo: depositphotos.com

What qualities should a person who wants to get such a profession have?

It's simple - a person must be proactive, constantly learn something new, and also be interested in something outside the field in which he works. In addition, you need to be open, not afraid of difficulties and learn to enjoy the learning process.

What are the disadvantages of working in IT?

As I already said, the field is now actively filling up, competition is increasing and it is more difficult to break into a good company. And, besides this, from my own experience I can say that the only disadvantage in work is maintaining a work-and-life balance due to the fact that any place you have is a work place.

Mistakes in choosing a profession

Statistics show: only 60% of people work in their specialty. Why is this happening? Because from generation to generation the same mistakes are made when choosing a profession and university:

Follow in your parents' footsteps. They decided, identified and directed the child. Dad is a doctor, which means his son should be a doctor and continue the dynasty.
Children and their parents choose the university that is closest or easier to enroll in.
They go to university with friends.
They enter a university to study a certain specialty because it is prestigious and fashionable. Remember, in the early 2000s, the legal profession was the most prestigious, and everyone wanted to study to become a lawyer.

Traditional advice often doesn't work

Before deciding on a profession, we inevitably make mistakes. Here's how not to make a decision.

Choose a profession based only on salaries

While still at university, I began dreaming of a career in corporate finance. I was attracted not by the work itself, but by the financial opportunities. There was a lot of money to be made there, and that alone made finance seem like the best choice.

The people around me liked this profession, and I thought it would suit me too. But during my job search, all I thought about was how to pay off my student loans faster, and didn’t consider other factors.

I didn't pay attention to company culture, career prospects, work-life balance, daily challenges, and required qualities. After graduating from university, I became a customer service specialist, but after five years I realized that my priorities had changed. I was trying to figure out what I really wanted from my career.

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Thinking that the only suitable career path is entrepreneurship

Then I thought about starting a business. After my experience, this seemed like a great solution.

However, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. I realized that I would like to combine business with my main job. In fact, everything that attracts us in entrepreneurship can be obtained without giving up paid work.

Ignore your interests

When we work according to our calling, it is useful not only for us, but also for those around us. The more we care about our work, we become more fully present in all areas.

It is a mistake to start a job without thinking about how it will suit you, even if we do it for financial reasons. Sooner or later we realize that the choice was wrong.

In my experience, it's best to take the time to map out your career path before you begin your search. On average it takes me and my clients three months.

Jobs that don't suit us lead to problems communicating with colleagues and lack of productivity.

Go to the gapier to think

This situation undermines the aspirations and desires of future applicants. As a result, this led to the fact that gap year (from the English Gap year - academic leave, a deferment for a year for admission to a university) should become a completely normal phenomenon in our practice.

“This trend came to us from the USA. For American teenagers, a gap year after school is a natural practice. At this time, they are trying to work, considering different areas of activity and looking for themselves when they are no longer under the parental wing, but have their own area of responsibility, says a career guidance specialist. - But still, if your child decides to go to the gapier, you need to agree in advance on a number of obligations of each party. For example, you as a parent undertake to financially support the child during this year, and he, in turn, will have to either improve his knowledge in the subject required for admission, or try himself in those areas between which he cannot decide, or try to work in the area where he is most drawn, etc. At this point, it is necessary to stipulate the responsibility that will come if the child does not fulfill his obligations. Only by knowing what the consequences of not fulfilling agreements will lead to, a teenager will be able to stay the course and really use this year to explore his desires.”

New skills dictated by the pandemic

The main trend of our time is a change in the question “Who should I become?” to the question “What should I become?” “The pandemic has radically changed the idea of what skills a person of the future should have,” says Irina Pleshakova. “The latest data from the World Economic Forum makes us think about changing the vector of our development, because the requirements for a successful person in 2025 are fundamentally different from those in 2020.”

Thus, according to experts, successful people in 2020 were expected to have three key skills: the ability to solve problems comprehensively, think critically and be creative. The top 3 skills of 2025 remain the ability to solve complex problems, but innovation and analytical thinking have appeared.

“Such requirements for future specialists, as well as quarantine and the transition of many processes to the Internet, make it clear that today’s applicants will live and work in the era of sociopaths and social phobes. After all, a skill such as emotional intelligence, i.e. the ability to feel the mood of other people, empathize with them and manage their mood, which was talked about six months ago as mandatory, is no longer included in the top 10 skills of the future. But a successful employee of the future in five years will have to have the inner resilience to cope with the conditions of a turbulently changing world, and be sure to be able to take care of himself, again because the conditions in which he will have to survive and work will be constantly changing.”