5 Ways to Help Your Child Choose a Fulfilling Career

Can you remember the first thing you wanted to be when you grew up? Chances are you don’t.

The reality is, as adults, we’ve navigated through the realms of finishing high-school, heading to college, and facing the challenges of picking a career that “fits”.

But wouldn’t it have been easier if we knew exactly what we wanted to be along with the support and guidance of our parents?

Choosing a career can be tough. For parents, helping your child chose a career doesn’t have to be a pain.

Here are 5 ways to help your child pick a career path that they will thrive in.

Uncovering their strengths

All kids have strengths and challenges.

It’s natural to focus on things that aren’t going well for your child and on skills that need improving. But it’s just as important to see your child’s strengths.

Oftentimes strengths come out as your child explores interests. Learn about ways to help your child pursue passions and discover new strengths.

This can include:

• Talking about new interests
• Signing them up for summer camps/workshops
• Taking note your child’s successes
• Observe their challenges

Part-time jobs

If your raising teenagers, part-time jobs almost always teach teens valuable life skills, like how to listen and follow instructions, and money management.

Part-time jobs can also teach customer service skills, the best way to memorize information, office skills, computer skills, or how to make change.

Finding a mentor

Once your child tells you what they want to do, think about the people in your circle who are pursuing the same career.

If they want to be a doctor, ask the family physician if they can explain the job to your child.

This may seem strange at first, but you should be able to reach a lot of people for possible mentorship unless your child wants to pursue an uncommon career.

Volunteer opportunities

There are a lot of great volunteer opportunities for kids that will help them pick a career later on in life.

Whether they want to help with a one-time project or are interested in a long-term commitment to an organization, there’s something that will match your child’s interests and strengths.

Completing personality tests

The personality questionnaire for kids is a tool to help parents and adults understand their children better.

For this tool to be most effective, it’s important for the adults to know their own personality type as well as the children’s types.

Some questions are directed more toward the parent and some more toward the child. But both parents and children should participate in the answers to get a good sense of similarities and differences among the family.