For the last several years, I have sat on a panel for Career Day at my alma mater. It’s always a fun and rewarding experience for several reasons.
The way it works is the school matches people with similar careers on separate panels, and the students rotate through the groups, absorbing our pearls of wisdom and deciding right there on the spot what they will do for the rest of their lives. Actually, if anything, they make a list of jobs they will not pursue, based on what they hear.
For the most part, these 15- and 16-year-old sophomores stare at us like only teenagers can, but occasionally they ask questions, and I’m always impressed by the level of thought and interest.
Every year, most of the students say they have no idea what they want to do career-wise, which should not be surprising.
While talking to the kids is fun, what I really like is hearing the stories of my fellow panelists. I’ve met some truly interesting people and heard some wonderful stories. I loved hearing how Lisa Norris came to create Made by One Girl, eventually getting her products into museums, art galleries, national magazines and pre-Oscar gift bags. And I’d pay money to hear sculptor Cessna Decosimo again describe how he charmed his way through high school and how it took several years before he found himself studying art in Italy.
The universal piece of advice that almost everyone shares is: “Find something you like doing and figure out a way to get paid for it.”
At the most recent Career Day, Dr. Lonnie Boaz said that one of the messages he shares with kids is the issue of time, or the perception of it. He understands, he said, that telling a 15-year-old that it might take 15 years of study to become a medical specialist can make the student’s head spin. He stresses to them that the career likely will last more than 40 years.
In a similar vein, another panelist related a story about a doctor who wanted to change fields but worried about the time it would take. He sought advice from his father and explained that it worried him that he would be 35 when he finished school. His father said, “You’re going to be 35 regardless.”
A few panelists over the years are doing exactly what they always knew they would be doing. I’ve always envied those folks. I spent the first three or four years of college without a clue.
Most of the speakers either stumbled into their current gig or took circuitous routes in getting where they are. For me, that’s really an important message for the students. I’m not sure if that information would have inspired or frightened me at that age, though.