It's that time of year again: graduation for a fresh crop of university students -- and a fresh wave of panic as they ask themselves: "Now what?" writes career expert Barbara Moses in her Career Intelligence column in today's Careers section.
Twentysomething career angst is not new, but today's career confusion is much more widespread and the costs of making a mistake are much greater, Dr. Moses says.
One effect on the career decisions these new grads will make: what they saw at home. For, love their jobs or hate them, parents send constant signals about work and the workplace to their children. And how parents model work has a huge effect on how their children view work and organize their own career and family lives, Dr. Moses said in The kids are watching, an article published in Wednesday's Careers section.
Are you a model parent when it comes to work? Or are you or a young person you know suffering from career angst? Dr. Moses will be online today at noon at ReportonBusiness.com to field your questions on these and other career-related topics.
Barbara Moses is a well-known organizational career management consultant, author and speaker, who writes and talks widely about career issues and smart ways to navigate the modern working world.
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Dr. Moses is a well-known organizational career management consultant, author and speaker, who writes and talks widely about career issues and smart ways to navigate the modern working world. She writes a monthly Career Intelligence column for The Globe and Mail's Careers section and is the best-selling author of four books, including What Next: Find the Work That's Right for You, and her latest book, Dish: Midlife Women Tell the Truth about Work, Relationships, and the Rest of Life.
She is also president of BBM Human Resource Consultants Inc., which helps organizations implement career-management programs, and the designer of Career Advisor, an online career planning tool used by major organizations. She holds degrees in psychology from McGill University, The London School of Economics and the University of Toronto.
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Terry Brodie, Editor, Globe Careers: Welcome, Barbara, and thanks for joining us today.
Your column in today's Careers section talked about the angst that new grads are facing in stepping into the working world. If there were three things that kids could do today to ease their angst, what would they be?
Barbara Moses: It's great to be here, Terry.
There are many things you can do to ease anxiety. Top three?
First, stop telling yourself you should know what you want to do. It's not true. Many twentysomethings, indeed the majority, don't. But telling yourself you should have it figured out just increases anxiety. It also leads to thinking: "There must be something wrong with me because I don't know what I want to do."
Second, don't compare yourself to others. Don't think that everyone else has it together, and that you are the only "screwup." This leads to the same emotional distress I just described.
Third, don't tell yourself that there is one perfect solution, or one perfect job. Like perfect love, this does not exist. Whatever decision you make will be fine. Use the experience as a vehicle for learning more about yourself and what you like and don't like.
Oh, let me add a fourth. Think about what you want to experience at this life stage. Take a breather from being a student? Travel? Have an adventure? Have fun? OR get started on your career path.
Brian Christmas from Toronto writes: To borrow from the Roman adage: In times of peace, prepare for war. In that vein, my 17-year-old daughter is bound for university in the fall - understandably, without a clue of what she wants to do with her life.
Can you offer any tips on what strategies she can adopt in the next couple of years - be it course selection, extracurricular activities, part-time work, books to read - so that she leaves university with a little more certainty about her career choices?
She's on her own in this decision, I know, but is there anything her parents can do to support her cause without becoming too overbearing?
Barbara Moses: Seventeen is young, so, if she doesn't have a clue, that's fine. I worry more about 17-year-olds who know exactly what they want to do.
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