Career options for bright, academic dd.

saw50st8

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 2:37 pm

I think it's a good idea for her to explore what she wants to be. I wanted to be an engineer so I went to an engineering school. You kind of need to have some idea when you are going to college. You apply to college in the fall of your senior year, so it's helpful to get an idea and explore it earlier.

She should try to find a few careers that sound interesting to her and then she can talk to people in those fields. If she's really interested, she can try to shadow one for a few hours and see if it's something she'll enjoy. It won't box her in, but will give her a good idea of her interest level.

amother

Maroon

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 2:39 pm

[quote="animeme"]I must add that if she doesn't want to take AP's, or to be in the top track, that's OK.]

There are ways for her to do dual enrollment, where her last 2 yrs of high school count as your first 2 yrs of college. This was offered to my daughters for some courses. It was not AP. They took an actual college course, but in their high school. You should talk to the administration, I believe Machon LParnasa offers such a thing, maybe they can start a class in your high school.

BTW, there are some girls that know what they want to be. My youngest DD wanted to be an accountant since she was 5 yrs old. I asked her at 5 if she knew what an accountant does. She said, no, but it had something to do with math, and she loves math. She became a junior accountant through COPE, and is working on her CPA. No accountants in the family. She does knew she wanted to work with numbers.

Chocomama

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 3:04 pm

On the US department of labor website, there is a lot of interesting info on occupations. She may enjoy browsing through it. You can take a look at this chart to start with:

http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_103.htm

amother

Fuchsia

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 3:10 pm

The main thing is to keep your options open. So have her take math and science classes. You can make up liberal arts classes (if you are an abstract thinker and can write well) but you can never make up missing maths. I say this as someone has a PhD in the liberal arts.

amother

Linen

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 3:33 pm

amother wrote:

I hear what you're saying but she's surrounded by people who all know what they want to be/do and it's something she's started to think about as she's ambitious and wants to work hard toward something. If she's good at everything (more or less), and has to make choices in what she'll study, it certainly helps to have a career path in mind.

I guess my question could also be - Imamothers, what jobs/careers do you or you loved ones have that are good for academic women?

Who are these people that she's surrounded by at age 14 that all know what they want to do?

amother

Puce

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 4:02 pm

I also have a very academic dd who is an all around bright student. She does not like STEM so we are looking into teaching, maybe administration, publishing jobs, maybe graphics. Law is not such an option as it is a big time commitment. She loves writing and is outgoing, took honors English and is involved with drama as well. Best choice we made was sending her to an academic BY that challenged her. We will see where things go in college.

out-of-towner

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 8:22 pm

debsey wrote:

Why not let her intern somewhere this summer? Like a law office, a grant-writing agency, a special needs school, a newspaper, an advertising agency - somewhere a bit out of the box - and let her see what the day-to-day life of a working person in one of those fields is like. Even if she doesn't find her calling, she'll have a great experience to write about in her college application essays, expand her horizons a bit, and at worst, she'll know what she definitely does NOT want to do.

Couldn't have said it better. This x1000!

I found my passion, working with the geriatric population, the first summer after high school, when I volunteered at a local nursing home.

devorah1231

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 10:18 pm

In my family, including my family and dhs, we have the following professions

Translator
Photographer
Administration
Lawyer
Kiruv guy
Teachers, regular and special ed
Mashgiach
Saleswoman
Accountant
Doula
Broker
Therapists
Dental hygienist
HR
Programmer
Personal trainer
Nutritionist
Other school related employees
Nurse
Doctor
Plumber
Ceo
PA
Marketing
Real estate

Besides for the kollel guys and rebbis.

Why not make a list of jobs like this, figure out who your daughter is comfortable talking to, and have her speak to them? Maybe even shadow them?

dancingqueen

Thu, Oct 13 2016, 10:37 pm

I honestly feel that at 14 she should not be interning unless she has specific interest in something. She should do her school work, extra curricular and enjoy being young, and pay attention to what interests her. The sky is the limit at this point for her.

In Europe and Israel, you have to pick a career track by 16 right? Then by 14 I guess you need a good idea of what you want to be.

amother

Babyblue

Wed, Oct 19 2016, 3:59 pm

amother wrote:

I find it unusual that so many people had a negative reaction to the fact that a 14 year old is trying to figure out what to be when she grows up. All kids think about this to some extent, and it is healthy and normal. Obviously, she won't make a final decision now, but as someone who spent most of my childhood trying to figure out what I would be when I grew up, it's comforting, exciting, and goal-orienting to try to help guide where you want your life to go. Some teenagers spend all their time thinking about what kind of guy they want to marry, or what they're perfect wedding would be like, or where they want to go to college, or how many kids they want to have. Obviously, at 14 (or at anytime), you can't decide how many kids you'll have or who you will marry or what perfect or not perfect seminary you will go to. But you can plan and dream and that's a good thing. If she wants to think about where she wants to get to in life, then good for her, and you should encourage her to explore her interests and ideas. And she may or may not change her mind 20 times, and that's fine too and very normal - figuring yourself out and making decisions about your life is part of growing up and becoming your best self. "I changed my mind a thousand times, I think it works better now".

I recommend that she ask her friends' parents and your friends what they do for a living and why they like it and what's hard about it. Just a few minutes discussion with several working adults will give her somewhere to start. And if anything catches her fancy, encourage her to volunteer, intern, or shadow someone in the field during a vacation, even for just a few days. This is what I did as a teenager - not only did it give me ideas about jobs, but hearing about what people liked about their jobs and what was hard about their jobs also helped me figure out what I was looking for in a job. For instance, I never wanted to sit at a desk all day - someone I spoke to said he liked that his job is dynamic, he does several different thing over the course of the week and that keeps him interested.

Also, she doesn't have to limit her search to academic fields. One really all-around academically good girl in my high school class did very well in all subjects and was very smart, and then went on to be an event organizer - some people thought it was a waste of her brains, but it's such a good job for her because she is so creative, detail-oriented, organized and is great with people - it uses so many of her talents and she is happy with it. So don't only focus on academic careers. Help your daughter make a list of her strengths in general in life - this can guide her as well. For example, I'm very smart and medically oriented, but extremely introverted. Being a doctor was therefore not a good option for me. But, being a research scientist is a great job for me. Both jobs involve similar skills in terms of intelligence and analytical thinking, but I would have been miserable in the day to day life as a doctor because I prefer to focus on my work and my thoughts and not talk to too many people. These external factors can make or break job satisfaction as much as, or even more than, whether the job is in an interesting field or intellectually stimulating.

And in 10 or so years, I expect to see a post saying what she ended up being when she grew up Smile

Thank you! Some great ideas.