Lets go back in time. Way back to when I was 12, Oi, it's not that far!
But yes, 12 year old me considering her Standard Grade subjects (equivalent to O Levels or GCSE) and attending her career interview. She had no idea what she wanted to with her life (still don't to be fair) and from memory the options were pretty much lawyer or doctor aspirations for the clever kids, secretary or nursery nurse for the rest of us. If only they'd been honest with us, if only they'd told poor wee 12 year old me about the real options out there, my life could be so different. I'm not going to be talking about acting, or sport, or anything like that because they require some degree of talent. Similarly being a highly paid 'celeb' of dubious authenticity doesn't count as it requires a huge sploge of luck. No, I want to take my school to task for entirely forseeable errors in their duty to assist me plan my entire future.
First off, in the mornings I listen to a Manchester based rock radio station. Two blokes who earn a living essentially ripping the piss out of each other and having a rare old time of it. No one said this was a viable way of getting a regular wage.
Then there's Comic book Colourist. Nope, they never told me about this either. A comic book colourist is the person who takes the pencilled art for a comic book and paints in the colour. I feel this omission from my careers interview was particularly harsh, as I was pretty epic with a selection of felt tip pens and a colouring book in my youth. Had anyone told me you could do it for a living I'd have a made woman by now. BTW, comic book inker is also a real job, and all they do is trace over the pencil drawings with black ink. Seriously.
Falconer. I mean really, I was nuts about birds of prey in my adolescence as I am to this day but the only ones I knew about ran Falconry Centres up in the sticks, had someone mentioned that these guys can actually make a decent living flying a harris hawk or two around a landfill site or airport (for instance) then I might have chosen my subjects accordingly. Why yes there are subjects in school which support a career in falconry, they just slip my mind at this precise moment.
Those are just off the top of my head. I bet there's tons more. Use the comments to tell me about them :)
I often ponder the "if I'd known that you could do *that*" - such a pity we have to choose what we want to do at such a young age and only find ourselves when we're older. Or, too, that I am cleverer than my careers teachers told me I was. I know that theoretically it's never too late but practically it really is.
ReplyDeleteHey ho. Next lifetime.
The other thing to consider of course, and bear in mind that Big is a teacher, that if the careers adviser knew that much about careers then why were they a teacher?
ReplyDelete