Career day advice.

Today I gave presentations to Grade 9 and 12 students at Carlton Comprehensive High School for career day. I told them about what I do and I gave them a couple of questions to try out being a business consultant. When I was asked to do this, I thought about myself in high school and how I got to this point in my career.  What would I tell myself if I had the opportunity to give 18 year old me some advice? I wanted to make this as inclusive as possible, as I didn’t know these kids or their backgrounds. So I came up with four rules for them to find their best career choice.

Rule #1: Do what you like.
This seems rather obvious but I see young people pressured into following in the footsteps of their parents, friends or older siblings. Life is too short to do things you don’t want to do. It was at this point that I told them that video games were a perfectly good use of their time and build skills for lots of modern careers. I might have caused some trouble for some parents because of this, but oh well.

Rule #2: Education is mandatory.
Many young people are enticed by fast money doing labour in a booming business. They may see the benefits of education being far away and payback for work being instantaneous. The trouble is,  the marketplace always changes and today’s thriving industry can be tomorrow’s disaster. Without credentials, it is extremely hard to break into new industries.

Rule #3: When you find a potential career, contact somebody that is currently doing that job.
Ask them questions about the job. Most people I know are happy to share their experience with young people. This will also help students decide if they want to pursue the career further.

Rule #4: Don’t chase money for money’s sake.
A number of the recruiters at the career fair try to entice students with how much money they can make. The trouble is, if you do a job strictly for the money, you won’t be good at it. You will have a hard time advancing and will be considered lazy and unmotivated. The money you were promised will never match your expectations and will never be enough.  If you find something that you like, you will be better than most at it. You will find it easier to advance and the money will find you.
Do you have any advice for young people? We’d like to hear from you in the comments section.
PS – One question I posed to the classes was based on the TOC section of the website. All three classes answered the question right where we find seasoned managers choosing the wrong answer quite regularly. Are we teaching out common sense in business school? I’d best leave that for another blog.