Decisions, Decisions

As kids, we're forever thinking about what we want to be when we grow up, never quite committing to any one idea as we waffle back and forth with such vocations as firefighter, ballerina and veterinarian. The thing with these more popular choices, though, is there is rarely a time when we, as children, can test drive potential careers before pledging our undying loyalty to a single calling.

Sure, we can shadow adult professionals to get a better feel for the work they do, but the honest-to-goodness chance to fight a fire, dance in a professional company or perform surgery on the family dog just isn't feasible for a youngster.

Then we begin the mental, emotional and hormonal under-taking of high school where we have 36-48 months to decide on and plan for a career that's supposed to engage us for the next 50 years. Since we're barely at the point in our maturity to decide if we want fries or onion rings with our burger, it seems sort of backwards to expect teens to be fully aware of the path they want to take.

In reality, the first few years out of school are spent in the service industry just to garner a paycheck. So if we haven't yet experienced life beyond 12 years of classroom education, how can we possibly know what direction to choose?

This question is especially valuable now at a time when, as Jennifer Lee of The New York Times points out, "highly educated 20-somethings, whose careers are stuck in neutral, [are] coping with dead-end jobs and listless prospects."

Sooner or later, says Nona Willis Aronowitz, "we're going to have to accept that not every-one going to college will be using their degree to get a job. In a way, this is depressing. But in another, it's Utopian." Given this new reality of a broken economy, it's becoming apparent how "on-the-job" life lessons can prove more relevant for making important life decisions than aimlessly wandering through the academic maze.

Career Choices graphic from "What Color Is Your Parachute?"