Lack of Career Counseling

Problem Statement: The problem that I want to address is the lack of awareness amongst our teenagers about the career options they can pursue today. No one really guides them and they just do what their friends are doing or what their parents want them to do.

As a result, today our society is filled with people complaining about their jobs, not being productive, and as a result, they suffer in the long run.

My Experience: In my daily life and on social media, I have tried to help a couple of people especially the ones who just completed their intermediate level education. I found them confused about different aspects including the university they want to get admission to and the scope of different degrees in today's market. They had a constant fear of being not successful and not being able to meet their parent's expectations because of the increased competition and higher employment benchmarks. There were some scenarios when parents wanted a kind of guarantee from me that if their child selects a particular field he’ll be able to easily find and job and become successful in life. So, overall I found the situation to be very alarming.

Adapted Process and Gained Benefits: The process that I adapted was one on one interactions and phone calls. The parents and children were trying to convince each other and I felt like a mediator. This really helped me better understand how emotions of parents are bounded with their child career choice.

For example, parents want their son to be a doctor because they don't have any doctor in the family, and there’s a big scope for doctors but the child wants to join aviation school because his friends are doing the same and he wants to stay close to them.

These emotions act as a deciding factor in career choice and there’s a serious need for career counseling at school and college level. It is also important to create awareness among parents about new career options. They should realize that degree has no scope but a person can create scope for anything he loves doing and is good at.