Providing career advice for many parents is a frustrating and challenging task. Many parents with kids requiring career advice today have been part of the boomer generation. They’ve tended to stick to one role throughout their career and are able to give great advice around this area. This focus and experience in one area does become a potential problem though when trying to advise their kids. OK, most of us have some friends we can call on when necessary, but that option is still limited.
Of course, the other problem is that often our kids won’t listen to us talking about our career experiences just because we’re the parents! I know of a lot of parents who are ideally placed to give advice, but find themselves talking to a brick wall (or rather to no – one at all).
One more twist in the tale is those of us who have kids who want to do what we’ve done in our careers, because that’s what they know and they haven’t taken the time or put in the effort to explore other options. When I hear that a teenager want to be in advertising because their parent is, that’s a red flag for me!
So, what to do? I’m going to suggest the idea of creating a global parent community of career advice. Think of the power we can harness if thousands of parents were to individually document their work experiences, identify the good and bad of their career, talk about the specific skills required for success, make videos about their week – the challenges they faced and the decisions they had to make and so on.
Using technology creatively will make what seems like a difficult challenge much easier to overcome. We’ve got to make it easier for parents to be able to share their experiences in the knowledge that the community of career advice will benefit everyone. An individual parent’s involvement might not help their own kid, but it will help someone else’s in other part of the country and vice versa. This is definitely an idea in which synergy is created – individual knowledge is harnessed and creates a whole that is infinitely more useful than the parts.
Pie in the sky? No ways. I’ve recently opened a new website to facilitate this interaction. www.mytalentplace.co.uk is designed to help solve this problem and create the community. Check it out and let me know what you think. Oh, and while you’re there, why don’t you register and contribute something?
For more information on Career Advice visit My talent Place or email grant.crow@mytalentplace.co.uk
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