Shapeshifting dreams, confusion, peer pressure: why we can’t have a career advice playbook for kids

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Synopsis
Gone are the days when one could give sanguine advice about choosing safe jobs and careers. It is easy to say just follow your passion. Not all children know what that is and not all can preserve or make a career out of it. The most critical help is to identify a range of possible careers based on interest.

This may, or may not, surprise you. “I am worried about what my career will be when I grow up,” a grade 9 student tells her father. In a different city, a grade 12 student announces to her mother, “I feel generative AI is solving a problem of productivity that no one needs to solve.” On another day, a Grade 10 student, when asked the question that most youngsters hate to be asked, “Which is your favourite subject?” gives a surprising answer,