After Sab asked me for my thoughts on graduates who’ve gone into traditional professional areas, such as the City or law, and want to quit that profession after 2 to 4 years, I started thinking about the role that the parental agenda plays in the lead-up to such a scenario.
Parents always have good intentions for their children and work as hard as they possibly can to get their kids schooled to the best of their ability. This might mean funding private schooling, getting that private schooling funded by another relative, or relocating to ensure the child has a better chance of getting into a high quality school
However, the parents’ agenda can also lead to something else.
I was talking to someone recently who, from the age of 14, went to a public school which was described as a factory for accountants and lawyers. It was literally a process of socialisation: a case of “you start off here and end up there”. This is often done with the best intentions but young people tend not to question it and it only hits them after graduation: That they don’t want to work in their “chosen” profession for the next 40 to 50 years.
If you’re in this position, you might be thinking what a waste it’s been; to work and train to be a certain type of professional for five years only to now ‘throw it down the drain’ because it’s not what you want to do. In truth, nothing we do in the world of work is wasted.
Even if you were to be put in a completely different environment, such as a foreign country, you’d be able, after acclimatising, to lean on the things you’re naturally good at and the things you’ve learned to be good at. Taking someone out of their trade isn’t wasting their training. Professions teach a sense and style of discipline that’s easily transferred.
For instance, a former CEO of British Airways was originally a lawyer. A lot of our most senior politicians come from a legal background. Tony Blair, Kenneth Clarke, Michael Howard and Ming Campbell are all ex barristers. Harriet Harman was a solicitor. So, you see, it’s a well trodden path. Only about half of the people who qualify as barristers go on to actually practise. Similarly, only around 50% of those who qualify as chartered accountants with one of the ‘Big Four’ firms stay with those firms. The other 50% go out into industry and may even go on to completely different routes, becoming CEOs, directors and so on.
If you’re in the wrong place, you may need to step across, you may need to step backwards-but that doesn’t mean you can’t step forwards later.
What can be done to prevent future generations from experiencing this same scenario? The main issue is career advice and guidance. Quitting 2 to 4 years into a profession can be down to a lack of career planning. We don’t traditionally receive careers advice from school or university that focuses on the individual as the centre of their career. We lack the skills of career planning and that makes us susceptible to practising a profession for two years before we start panicking that it’s going to be the same forever-doing work as a means to an end instead of something we enjoy.
It’s not a fair situation and for the situation to change, we need to be given good career guidance from much earlier on in our lives.
Simon North — Founder of Position Ignition, a modern day careers advisory firm for professionals offering help around careers, transition and personal & professional development.
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Blog: www.positionignition.com/blog
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