They Should Teach This at School

There is a difference between the education system in Russia and Israel.

After school, most of the kids in Russia go straight to university. Why? In case of guys, it’s a legal way to postpone their mandatory drafting to the Russian army. And it’s not a cool army where you can learn coding and be set with your career, or learn leadership or something. Most people consider it a waste of time. But I’m here not to discuss the Russian army. Girls go to university because culturally it’s still weird if you’re “not doing anything with your life” after school. We also don’t have a culture of gap years here.

Now my question is, how is a 17–18 years old kid supposed to choose a profession? Usually it’s either a place that the parents think is the best, or where your friends go, or what sounds fancy today. Eventually, a lot of graduates never work in the area of their degree. And they never have time to find out what is really interesting for them, because now you need to work and provide for your family.

Some of us feel the same ambiguity even long after we finish our studies. Part of the reason is because we don’t know what jobs exist. So what can help? Learning about the job market.

You don’t need to be a researcher to learn about the job market. Just open your LinkedIn or wherever jobs are posted in your country, and start looking. You can start with a big company you like. Go through the categories of open positions. Take a look at what are the requirements here and there. What is this position about. Take notes. Look at patterns, what do you see the most often? Watch some Youtube videos about different jobs. If you have a friend who knows what he’s doing — ask him to tell you about how he or she sees the job market.

I think that this skill is very important and they should teach it at school. You’re lucky if your parents knew how the career world looks like, or you had friends who were sharing this with you along the way. Not everyone is like that. I’m sure you have people around you who still don’t know this. So now you can be this friend, and you can share what you know about the job market with them.