“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
We’ve been asking young people this question for generations. They shrug, name a familiar occupation or say “I don’t know”. Then we worry they don’t have a plan.
But what if we’re starting in the wrong place? Expecting young people to choose from a world of work they’ve barely encountered seems like a pretty unreasonable expectation when you think about it.
And even when they do offer an idea, we can be remarkably quick to explain why it’s a bad one. I’ve been guilty of it myself, as I suspect most of us have.
If this is our idea of career exploration, perhaps it’s time to stop asking the question altogether and start thinking about career guidance for homeschooled teens in an entirely different way.
Four things to consider when supporting career exploration with teens
1/. Start with activities, not job titles
How can young people be interested in work they don’t know exists?
Most know a handful of occupations through family, friends and the media. Even familiar titles reveal surprisingly little about what people do all day.
An engineer might design systems, investigate faults, analyse information or manage projects. Your teenager could love some of those activities and dislike others.
Give them something concrete to respond to. Watch videos of people working, visit workplaces or ask someone to describe an ordinary working day.
Then ask: Which activities caught your attention? What didn’t appeal? What would you like to see more of?
An “I’m not sure” is useful too. It may simply mean they need more exposure.
2/. Don’t cross their ideas off the list
When I was younger, I considered becoming an air traffic controller. A friend’s father told me they all retired at 35 because of stress.
And that was that. Off my list.
Was it true? I still have no idea. An adult said it confidently, and I assumed he knew better.
We still do this. A teenager says “Maybe a chef,” and someone responds, “Terrible hours. You don’t want that.”
Did that person dislike the occupation, or their manager? The work itself, or one workplace? Would the activities be awful for everyone, or just for them?
Of course adults have experience worth sharing. But an opinion delivered too quickly can end a promising conversation.
Before giving yours, ask what appeals to your teenager about the idea. Help them investigate the realities without deciding on their behalf.
3/. Follow interests without assuming where they lead
At school, I enjoyed economics and geography. Teaching seemed an obvious career because it was the only occupation I knew that connected with those subjects.
I enrolled in teaching and realised within three months it wasn’t for me.
Enjoying a subject doesn’t necessarily mean enjoying the everyday work associated with it. Nor does being good at something mean wanting to spend your working life doing it.
Here, homeschooling families have a real opportunity. Many already connect learning with everyday life through projects, conversations, community involvement and practical experiences.
If your teenager enjoys making things, explore different kinds of designing, building and problem-solving. Talk with people doing that work. Visit a workshop or try a practical project.
Encourage them to pay attention to how different activities make them feel. What draws them in? When do they become so absorbed in what they’re doing that they lose track of time? What leaves them feeling energised and wanting to do more?
These moments of genuine interest and engagement can offer valuable clues about the kinds of work they might find fulfilling.
An interest can become a question to investigate, rather than a career to commit to. These discoveries can help inform choices about courses, apprenticeships, vocational education or university.
4/. Prepare for a changing world of work
We hear a lot about transferable skills. But what about transferable interests?
Imagine someone who had spent years designing layouts for printed newspapers, only to find that the work they knew so well was disappearing as publishing moved online.
They have skills they may be able to transfer. But what if the thing they genuinely loved was making complicated information clear, visual and easy to understand?
That same interest could lead them towards data visualisation, digital design or creating educational resources. They might need to develop entirely new skills, but they’ve already identified something that motivates them to learn.
In a rapidly changing world of work, that understanding can be enormously valuable.
Help your teenager look beyond the occupation they’re interested in. Ask what particular activities appeal to them, then investigate where else those activities occur.
This is where ideas from vocational psychology can be useful. Frameworks like the SETPOINT model of vocational interests group work interests into broad themes, making it easier for teenagers to see how the activities they enjoy might show up in many different occupations.
Job titles can narrow our thinking. Understanding work interests expands it.
Getting the ladder against the right wall
There’s a lot of emphasis on getting young people onto the career ladder. But what if it’s leaning against the wrong wall?
Exploring their work interests early gives them a better basis for deciding what to learn, which skills to develop and where to invest their effort. This is an important part of career guidance for homeschooled teens, helping them consider possibilities beyond the familiar job titles they may already know.
When that effort is directed towards work that genuinely interests them, they have a stronger reason to persist through the difficult parts. And knowing what energises them may help them recognise new directions as work changes.
Our job as adults is to open up possibilities and bring curiosity and structure to the conversation.
Preferably without immediately explaining why we wouldn’t want to do the work ourselves.
We’ve had decades to come up with something better than “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
It’s time to start a new conversation.
Thank you to Dr Cheryl Sykes for sharing her wisdom with the community. Cheryl has created Work Sync to assist teens and their parents in exploring career options. See more about Work Sync in its detailed listing in the directory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Start by exploring their interests, strengths and the activities they enjoy, rather than asking them to choose a specific job title. Encourage them to investigate different occupations, talk to people working in fields that interest them and gain practical experience where possible. The aim is to help them discover potential pathways without feeling pressured to make a lifelong decision too early. Seek out platforms like Work Sync to aid in the exploration process.
Teenagers can explore career options through work experience, volunteering, part-time jobs, workplace visits, conversations with professionals, completing the Work Sync program and researching different industries. They can also try projects or activities related to areas that interest them. These experiences can help them understand what different types of work actually involve.
Understanding their interests can help teenagers identify the types of activities, environments and challenges they find rewarding. This can open up career possibilities they may not have considered and help them make more informed decisions about future study, training and employment.
Homeschooled students in Australia can pursue a range of pathways, including university, TAFE, apprenticeships, traineeships, vocational education and employment. Entry requirements vary depending on the institution and course, so it’s worth researching pathways early to understand what qualifications, assessments or alternative entry options may be available.
Transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving, creativity, organisation and critical thinking can be useful across many different occupations. As industries and technology change, these skills can help young people adapt, explore new opportunities and move between different roles throughout their working lives.
