Making a career decision as a teenager can be overwhelming and anxiety producing. Typically, young people can react in one of two ways. Either they make quick, socially acceptable choices with little thought, or they decide not to decide and put it off until later. Both are typical human responses. Unfortunately, both can also promote future unhappiness.
As a parent, helping teens get beyond the fear of career decisions begins with helping them to calm down. The following is a message that can be used to help guide them:
1. Your goal is to make the best tentative decision now based on what you know about yourself and the labour market ahead. This is just the first decision in a process of making the final decision.
2. For most, the likelihood that this tentative career decision will be the final decision and you will end up pursuing this career is probably not even 50%. But if you are willing to tackle making the first tentative decision now, the next decision will be a better decision.
3. The alternative is to do nothing, which only postpones the problem but does nothing to work towards a solution. Doing nothing is a decision.
4. Finally, this tentative decision is just the first decision. It is not irrevocable; it will not doom you. Many successful men and women started with a different career plan and even earner degrees to do so, but successfully changed direction. But note that they did make the first decision.
This approach can be effective in reducing anxiety. It emphasises that this is just the first decision of what will most likely be a second or third more refined decision. Also it makes the point that changing one’s mind is normal and very possible. And finally, it recognises that doing nothing is a decision that will get you nowhere. It will not reduce anxiety; if anything, it will only increase it.