How can family and friends help your career decisions?
- They know you. Family and friends will know your interests, strengths and weaknesses and can make the start of this journey less daunting. They can give you ideas and prompts.
- Comfort: speaking to someone you know about a topic like choosing a career can be reassuring and easier to navigate. This can be helpful if the thought of speaking to someone about jobs you don’t know feels a bit daunting
- Ease to ask questions: some may feel less judged or worried about asking silly questions to someone familiar and therefore get more out of their discussion
- Unlimited discussions: you can see them now and again to pick up where you left off without the need to book an appointment etc as would happen with a career’s adviser for example. Don’t feel afraid that you have to establish your career choice in one discussion. Leave yourself time to reflect and come back to it with fresh thoughts.
- Experience having gone through the process themselves they will be able to share tips and experiences to help you in your journey. Where is a common interest with someone close to you, you will be able to get first hand insight into the job and chance to ask all the questions you have. Different journeys like going to university versus apprenticeships or developing their business to create a career can also be discussed.
- Shadowing opportunity: if you are interested in stepping into a job that your family or your friends happen to be in this can provide a valuable opportunity to gain additional knowledge about it. Some workplaces may allow you to go in and shadow so don’t be afraid to ask.
Supporting them through making decision
- Help them make a list of their interests. You know them and can help with creating a list. Where they are lost for ideas you can help them with examples of previous experiences. A similar list of strengths and weaknesses may also be considered to analyse and weight their options. An example if the framework below published by the Harvard Business Review.
5-step framework to help you make a decision:
- What are your feelings telling you?
- Are they any careers that you are considering? Put them down on paper and see what feeling come up. If you are doing a job at the moment, explore what feeling does that give.
- What matters to you?
- Think about your values, the things you care about and if you struggle with that take a psychological assessment to help you bring them to the surface.
- What matters to other people? The things that you care about matter the most and they will help you find your career choice but also bearing in mind the opinion of your loved ones. This may be more relevant for those having families or someone in care and so their career choice may be influenced by these factors.
- What is the reality of the situation? Whilst many jobs may sound ideal, we have to remain grounded and think about what is achievable. This helps to avoid being disappointed and having expectations that are too big which can lead to negative experiences. If your dream career seems big you can use the SMART goals to help you analyse the situation and turn your goals into reality.
- Browsing different jobs: this might help them find the process a bit more tangible and show them where to look for jobs. Whilst some may be decided on a career it is a good idea to keep an open mind without ignoring the many options out there
- Guide them through taking personality assessments: during the process of choosing a career much time is spent looking inwards and trying to discover ourselves. Beside listing our values and interests undertaking assessments can be a more objective and efficient way to find out more about ourselves.
One such assessment can be:
- Offer them support and patience
Supporting them with their application
Once a career path has been narrowed down family and friends can offer support through the application process.
- Checking the entry requirements
- Helping them create a CV and a covering letter
- Completing the application form with them
- Supporting them and practicing for an interview.