How to help your child choose a college major

How to Help Your Child Choose a College

Helping your child choose a college can be a great experience. Keep reading to learn how to support your child in the college decision process.

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Published March 15, 2022

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Students must ultimately make their own decision about which college to attend and what to major in.
Not all students follow the traditional education path.
Parents and guardians who overstep boundaries can create more anxiety for their child.

Helping your child choose a college can be a wonderful bonding experience. But when done incorrectly, it can also increase anxiety and put more pressure on students.

Parents and guardians who navigate this process properly can build confidence and decision-making skills in their children — benefits that will serve them well in choosing a college and beyond.

BestColleges.com is an advertising-supported site. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site.

Ready to Start Your Journey?

Keep reading to learn the do's and don'ts of helping students navigate the college decision process.

How Involved Should Parents and Guardians Be in the College Decision Process?

In an ideal world, parents and guardians of students preparing for college primarily provide emotional and possibly financial support.

Sometimes, however, parents get too involved in the process to the point they start making decisions on behalf of their child rather than letting them draw their own conclusions.

Helping your child navigate the college decision process can be challenging — after all, students are in the middle of transitioning into adulthood while also making decisions that can affect their lives for years to come. Instead of taking over the process, parents and guardians should play a supportive role to empower their child.

6 Ways to Help Your Child Choose the Right College

Helping your child choose a college can feel stressful for both you and your child, but it doesn't have to be. These six steps can make the process beneficial and enjoyable for both.

1. Create a List of Schools With Your Child

Creating a list of schools can help students better understand what they want to get out of their higher education experience, be that academically, personally, or socially. When creating a list of schools together, it's important to really listen to what your child needs and wants and take time to understand their preferences.

For instance, some students may want a college that prioritizes academics above all, while others may feel they need a robust social component to truly enjoy the experience.

2. Don't Rule Out Alternative Education Paths

For many parents and guardians, having their children earn a four-year degree ranks high on their list of hopes and expectations for them.

That said, not all students want or even need to follow the traditional path. Some learners may be better served by trade schools or community colleges, while those considering jobs in the digital sphere may find that a coding bootcamp best fits their needs.

Rather than imposing your desires on your child, bolster your child's confidence in choosing an alternative education route by supporting them during the process.

3. Talk Openly About Location

While some students imagine themselves moving across the country to start their higher education journey, others prefer to stay close to home.

By talking about location early, parents and guardians can help students consider decision-making factors like in-state vs. out-of-state tuition and how costs differ between public and private colleges.

Other factors students should consider include the size of the city where a school is located, how long it takes to travel home, and the cost of living in their new location.

4. Discuss Affordability and Compare Financial Aid Offers

Start talking openly about the cost of college early in the process, especially if you won't be providing your child substantial financial support for their education plans.

When looking at schools, take time to compare tuition rates among colleges to help students understand how those numbers add up. Discussing affordability can help manage expectations in addition to teaching students about financial literacy and management.

Once financial aid offers arrive after you and your child have submitted the FAFSA, sit down to figure out how much you and/or your child will owe after taking out all available funding.

5. Visit Campuses With Your Child

Visiting campuses as part of the college decision process can help students solidify their top choices and start to imagine themselves attending. Being part of campus visits with your child emphasizes your support and provides the opportunity for you to ask questions your child may consider.

When visiting, try to empower your child to gather information, either independently or collaboratively with you, rather than taking over the process entirely.

6. Provide Emotional Support

Making a final decision about where to attend college, waiting for acceptance letters and financial aid offers, and transitioning from high school to college can be a stressful time for students, often leading to anxiety.

Parents and guardians can provide emotional support and a listening ear during this process, helping students talk through their options and fears.

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Helping Your Child Choose a College

Despite good intentions, parents and guardians can sometimes make mistakes during the college decision process. Here are five common errors to avoid.

1. Taking Over the College Search Process Entirely

Parents and guardians who micromanage the college search process deprive their children of the opportunity to explore a variety of schools and learn how to narrow their options based on available information. Helping your child choose a college should be a collaborative process that brings together their excitement with your wisdom.

While it's perfectly acceptable and normal to offer guidance and advice when asked, try not to provide too many opinions without prompting.

2. Pushing for a Specific School or Major

You may have specific ideas about which college your child should attend — and even which major they should declare — but pushing your agenda can be damaging for prospective students.

This is especially true for potential legacy students, or those attending college on the basis of familial relationships to alumni. Pushing your preferences can make the student feel as though they need to bend to the desires of someone else rather than forging their own path.

3. Ignoring the Financial Side of College

Attending college represents a serious financial investment, so failing to discuss the financial side of earning a degree is a massive mistake.

Parents and guardians who don't take the time to talk about college costs and compare financial aid packages can cause financial burdens for their child later on. This is why it's so important to hold frank and honest conversations throughout the process.

4. Assuming You Know What Your Child Is Looking For

Just because you might have raised your child doesn't mean you necessarily know what they need and want out of their college education. Ultimately, students must decide what they want their future to look like, including the type of degree and career they pursue.

Try to make sure you're not pressuring your child to make decisions based solely on a school's ranking or reputation, as this can lead to regret later on.

5. Making the Final Decision for Them

At the end of the day, it's up to students to decide where they want to attend college — and parents and guardians should not try to make the final decision for them.

Even if you're contributing financially to your child's education, make sure you let your child weigh their options, consider their financial situation, and make a decision based on their needs, wants, and goals.

When College Decision Day comes around, parents and guardians can lend their support and encouragement but should refrain from offering unsolicited opinions and exerting pressure.

The Importance of Not Overstepping Boundaries

When parents and guardians become too pushy or get overly involved in the college decision process, their behavior can prove detrimental to their child. Ultimately, both you and your child may end up feeling anxious and unhappy.

As much as you want to be a resource and support, students must make their own decisions in the end.

If you catch yourself overstepping boundaries, make sure to acknowledge it by telling your child that you recognized your behavior and will try to empower rather than influence them in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions About Helping Your Child Choose a College

Parents and guardians can do a lot to help with the college decision process. In addition to helping students compile a list of potential schools, they can discuss the pros and cons of each, ask students insightful questions, and make sure they understand the financial implications of their decision.

If you maintain proper boundaries and act as a support system throughout the process, your child will likely feel empowered in their decision. Ultimately, the right college for your child is the one that aligns most with their academic goals, meets their personal needs, and is financially attainable.

For parents and guardians who want to provide financial support but can't afford a pricey college, honesty is the best policy. If the child feels determined to attend a particular school but your budget doesn't stretch that far, let them know.

Tell them you can provide a certain amount, but they'll need to consider other financial aid options if they have their heart set on attending the more expensive option.

Getting rejected from their dream college can be difficult for students, but remind them that it's not the end of the world. While providing space for them to express themselves, let them know how proud you are of their efforts and that other options exist.

When they're ready, encourage your child to consider the schools that did extend offer letters and help them see the benefits of attending one of those institutions.

Feature Image: Fly View Productions / E+ / Getty Images

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Parents: How to Help Your Child Choose a College Major

Every parent wants their child to succeed, especially when it comes to college admissions. For many parents, the college admissions process is the first time your student will be making major life decisions on their own, and these decisions will probably have huge consequences for your child’s future. One such decision is choosing a college major.

When your student applies to college, they’ll have the option to apply with the intention to take on a specific major at the institution in question. While it is not required that your child has chosen their major by the time they apply to or attend college, you’d be surprised how much simpler the college process becomes if your student has an idea of what major they might want to pursue.

As a parent, why is it important for your child to choose a major early on in the college admissions process? How can you help your child make this important decision? What if, even after your guidance, your child still can’t choose? For the answers to all of these questions and more, read on.

When Should Your Child Be Thinking About Their Major?

Each college/university has a different policy on this, but most students don’t officially declare a major until a year or two into their college career. However, we at CollegeVine strongly recommend that your student narrow down their major well before that, even as they’re forming their college list before they start applying. Why so soon?

Firstly, if your student has an idea early on of what they want to study, they can use their remaining time in high school to build a competitive academic and extracurricular profile for that major. For example, if your student knows they want to study Computer Science, they should enroll in those technical courses, enter some robotics competitions or hackathons, and join computer-science-related extracurriculars. The sooner they decide on what they want to study in college, the more time they have to prepare.

Secondly, if your student knows their major, this could actually help them narrow down their college list and guide their college research. With a major in mind, your child will know to apply to only those colleges that have solid, reputable academic programs for that major. Major specific college searches are much simpler and can often deliver a healthy spread of general academic rankings while maintaining high major ranking throughout.

If your child doesn’t know what major they want to pursue before they apply to college, that’s okay too. However, as a parent, you should encourage them to try and figure it out before the end of their first year. It’s imperative to narrow it down once your student starts college because, until they have decided on a major, they can’t move forward in fulfilling all of the course requirements needed for them to graduate on time. For this reason, the sooner they know what they want to study, the better.

Strategies To Help Your Child Pick A Major

Okay, so picking a major sooner rather than later is important, but how can parents help their child make that important decision? This is tricky because you want to give your student the necessary guidance and direction, but you don’t want to be overbearing to the point of telling your child what they should study.

Thankfully, we at CollegeVine have worked with many parents and students to narrow down a college major. Here are some of our best tips for helping your child choose a major:

Consider Their Current Interests: You and your student should both take a moment to sit down and think about the extracurriculars, hobbies, and academic subjects that your student excels in. You may notice a pattern in these activities that indicates your student’s desire to focus on a particular subject. For example, if your student is involved in Mock Trial, Model UN, Speech and Debate, and tends to like Communications and liberal arts classes, you may have an aspiring Political Science major on your hands. Of course, most students’ academic and extracurricular profiles aren’t that cut and dry, so you’ll need to chat with your student about which activities and classes they seem the most drawn to. That should help you narrow it down at least a little.

Choose Electives that Explore Different Interests: If your child is truly clueless as to what direction they want their college education to take them, you can encourage them to broaden their horizons by trying a bunch of potential subjects that may interest them. This can mean signing up for some unique electives in various subjects or joining various clubs to see which ones they like best. Either way, your child will likely gain a better understanding of what subjects they tend to gravitate towards, and they’ll be rewarded varied and interesting experiences in the process.

Sit In On College Classes: If the goal is to figure out what to study in college, then what better solution than testing the water in a college setting! Indeed, if you and your student have the ability and the time, drive up to your local college campus and have your student sit in on a couple of classes. This will let them get a feel for the kind of concepts that they would be learning and whether their interests would run parallel to those potential futures. Of course, there are pitfalls to this strategy. It may be hard to make it all the way up to a college campus, and it’s even harder to find a schedule of classes to choose from. Your student will also need to look into gaining permission from the professor to sit in on the class in question. Finally, college courses are difficult and often require a lot of study prior to class. Without proper preparation, such an experience could actually throw your student of the scent of their perfect major.

Shadow/Talk To Someone In A Related Profession: If your child has a vague idea of what they might want to study, you can help them narrow it down by getting them in touch with someone in a career related to that field of study. For example, if your child thinks they may want to pursue the sciences, try and get them to shadow a doctor or a lab technician. This will require reaching out to friends and family to establish connections. Your student will need to reach out as well. However, getting that one-on-one time with someone who has gone down the path your child is considering could be critical in helping your child decide if this is the right choice for them.

What If Your Student Still Can’t Choose?

If, despite you and your student’s best efforts, they are unable to decide on a major by the time applications roll around, that is okay. They can always apply to and enter college as an undeclared major. All this means is that they will need to spend a few semesters taking diverse introductory classes to try and narrow down what they want to do. While this may not be the most efficient way for them to finish their degree, they will have the time they need to make an educated choice while in college.

Also, it’s important to note that the major your child determines in high school may not represent a static and final choice. Your student will most likely to be able to–and in fact, most college students do–change their major during college. It’s incredibly common. So you can rest assured that there is time before your child will need to make an absolute decision.

Finally, if switching majors isn’t an option, your child can also decide to pursue a double major or a minor in a subject they end up being very passionate about. Most institutions make it so that, with some careful planning and some dedicated study, students who pursue double majors and minors can still graduate in four years.

Thus, while we recommend that your child try to choose a college major as soon as possible, it is not the end of the world if they don’t. In fact, in our experience, many students end up changing their degree plan once they enter college anyway.

For More Information

Does your child need some guidance in choosing their major? Perhaps these blog posts can help:

How To Pick A College As An Undecided Major

Why You Should Check Out A College’s Top Majors

Deciding Between a Liberal Arts and Professional Majors

Choosing A Major For Your College Application

Want access to expert college guidance — for free? When you create your free CollegeVine account, you will find out your real admissions chances, build a best-fit school list, learn how to improve your profile, and get your questions answered by experts and peers—all for free. Sign up for your CollegeVine account today to get a boost on your college journey.

tips on how to choose a profession for a child, tests

1. Explore the range of interests

Sit down with your child and remember everything that was good for him or is given, as well as what you once wanted to be realized in. Someone will be able to outline at least approximate areas of potential professional activity, but often teenagers have no idea what their soul lies in, and this makes it difficult to choose a future profession. Then move on to the next item.

2. Try everything

The task of a parent is to give maximum information about existing professions. Tell what you know yourself and take your child to master classes, seminars, workshops and open days at enterprises.

Engage your circle of acquaintances in a variety of specialties. Ask your friends to tell your child what and how they do at work to help him choose an activity he likes.

Another way is to invite the child to try himself as a volunteer at career guidance events. This will allow you to immerse yourself in different branches of professions and look at the kitchen from the inside, as well as listen to the speeches of successful professionals.

Allow your child to try new circles, sections, clubs. The more he tries, the more meaningful the choice of profession will be.

How to find your dream profession: a navigator from the Foxford Home School curators →

3. Don't run after money

A common adult mistake is to push a child to a profession that is considered the most promising at the moment. For example, a Chinese language specialist (after all, China is the future!) or a programmer (what money is in IT).

But a career of convenience, and not of love, will not bring proper pleasure to a teenager. Teach your child not to look at what the masses are doing, but to find their own way. A good specialist will be in demand in any field. The main thing is to do what makes the fire in the eyes, and not turn money into an end in itself.

4. Offer a career guidance test

Career guidance is a whole system of measures designed to help you choose a profession. A tests is one of the most convenient diagnostic methods. They are aimed at identifying various psychological characteristics of a student: temperament, thinking characteristics, communication skills, inclinations and professional interests.

At Foxford Online Home School you can get a diagnostic developed by Skillfolio especially for our students. It aims to identify the abilities, skills and professional roles of the child. Among the interesting and useful skills that Skillfolio analyzes are communication, network literacy, the ability to think systematically, and the level of critical thinking.

5. Do not press

The child must choose a profession on his own. You can advise, give recommendations and express an opinion. But do not insist on your choice - let the child decide for himself what to do.

It is also not recommended to force a child to enter a university for the sake of a crust: if possible, it is better to spend a couple of years on self-determination, and then find the ideal profession by entering the university consciously. But in the case of boys, the prospect, alas, is complicated by the army.

Be a supportive and understanding parent. Remember that the life of a son or daughter does not belong to you, you cannot control absolutely everything. Let the children make their own choices.

Resume

If you are concerned about how to help your child choose a future profession, follow our recommendations. Decide on the interests of your son or daughter, introduce your child to different specialties, teach them not to follow the crowd and take a career guidance test and sign up for a consultation with a tutor. This will help to identify the type of personality and tell you which area of development to choose. Leave the final opinion to the teenager - let him decide for himself.

How to help a child choose a profession when he does not know who he wants to be

Career guidance

Choosing a profession

09/17/2021

Tatyana Nikulina.

Career guidance specialist, head of sales in St. Petersburg MAXIMUM EDUCATION

It is difficult for a child to decide on a profession in the modern world, as the gap between traditional strategies for choosing a specialty and realities is growing. We tell you how to help teenagers choose a profession, and at the same time learn a lot of interesting things about the labor market.

Now even adults find it difficult to understand what to do in order to earn good money in 5-10 years - what can we say about teenage boys and girls? Here's how parents can guide their child's choices in an unstable and changing world.

How to help a teenager choose a profession: a modern approach

Many parents are worried when a teenager cannot understand what he wants to become, at least approximately. Parents are worried about how to choose a profile program for preparing for the Unified State Examination, they need to participate in olympiads, collect a portfolio, but he doesn’t want anything. It will not be possible to decide for him, but you can direct the child to make a choice, help him choose without pressure and imposition and maintaining a trusting relationship.

Why is it difficult for a teenager to understand who to be?

There are two criteria for a successful career choice .

I know that I am good at doing and this will come in handy at work.
I know what you can do in life , what options are available.

In adolescence, a person does not understand his strengths and weaknesses and does not have a very good idea of how the professional world works and what changes await him in the near future. That is why teenagers should be helped in choosing a profession. After all, there are two main reasons why it is difficult for a teenager to understand who to be.

Reason 1. A teenager can hardly assess his abilities and possibilities. He still has inadequate self-esteem : overestimated or underestimated - it doesn't matter. The main thing is that she can not stand the collision with reality and the child is disappointed. Some teenagers think that others underestimate them. Others, with the maximalism characteristic of adolescence , consider themselves nonentities. It's great if a teenager continues to try new things and adjust his self-esteem, but not everyone succeeds. And in the end - thoughts about a future career are far from real prospects.

Reason 2 . A teenager has a poor idea of how the world and social institutions work . What does he know about colleges, universities, professional activities, professions of the future? Quite a few and mostly from the words of family and friends, who rely on personal experience. This is not enough to make a decision.

That's why teenagers need the help of adults to guide their career choices. However, this must be done in modern ways that correspond to the worldview and lifestyle of the child himself.

What kind of career guidance is suitable for today's teenagers?

The current generation of children and teenagers irritates the elders with several features:

they spend a lot of time on social networks, they have a whole life there, friends and relationships;
they do not want to study in our understanding: to read long books, take notes, etc.;
they can easily refuse to do what is right; for them, "I don't want to" is an argument.

Yes, children are different now. But that's why most of them are fit new ways to choose a profession . And exactly everything that irritates us in teenagers should be used to help them choose a direction and a thing to their liking.

The desire to communicate, connect with people in the game, social networks - all these interests now help to choose a profession, and do not distract from it. All the fun in the world of new professions does not take place at exhibitions and open job sites, but in a world where the child feels quite confident, but sometimes he needs help to use his digital skills for career guidance.

If it is difficult for a child to decide, you can take a free career guidance to determine the direction, and then dig deeper and understand the nuances.

How to help a child understand professions

Parents are the best assistant to a child in choosing a profession and profession. Younger children are a good reason for us to go to cartoons in the cinema. A teenager is an excellent occasion to explore the labor market and learn a lot of new things. With this approach, you can help the child and get a lot of new discoveries yourself. After all, the labor market is changing, but the patterns of change are quite understandable.

Where to start looking for a profession and direction?

The most difficult thing is to take the first step when you don't know what you want. Adults also often do not understand where they should go in life, although they have more experience than a child. Before engaging in career guidance, psychologists and career counselors recommend various methods for “untunneling” consciousness . Roughly speaking, when it seems that there is no way out, one must see that there are many of them, and all the boundaries are only in our heads. This is important, because different ways of career guidance are still built on a conversation or written answers to questions. For a career guidance test or meeting with a counselor or mentor to be successful, a teenager needs to understand himself and be open to new choices.

There are many techniques that help see themselves from a new side of . You can just throw answers to questions:

What did you like to do when you were little?
What would you do if you didn't have to earn a living?
What are you interested in doing next month? Precisely interesting, to no avail: get up on a wakesurf, bake a cake for 20 people, sing from the stage?
Who would you be in a fantasy world?
What does your character do in a computer game?

The answers to these questions can be grounded together with the child - to find the connection of such dreams with the direction of real human activity, and start here.

To avoid the fear of the first test, you can find and read on the Internet biographies of interesting people who did not immediately decide who they want to be. The famous one is J.K. Rowling. Watch with your child her famous Harvard speech about complete failure - it is very inspiring to not be afraid of making mistakes in choosing a profession or specialty at a university. On the Internet, you can find other role models for a child that will help him understand that it is normal not to know what profession or specialty you want to master. Many teen idols didn't know who they wanted to be, but weren't afraid to try and fail.

After that you can start real searches for people, sources of information and professional trials .

How a teenager can get to know a profession

Help your child find real people who will introduce him to different professional areas from personal experience. This is the “living library” method - when a person answers any questions, even the most uncomfortable ones.

Where and how to find representatives of different professions?

Fortunately, nowadays people are quite open to communication and are generally happy to tell children about their work. Just communicate with people on vacation, at casual meetings, with friends or relatives.

Make a list of basic questions with your child :

How did you get into this profession?
Who did you study for and did it help you?
What do you like most and what annoys you the most at work?

This is enough to start a conversation. Support the child when he is just starting such a dialogue.

If there are no such people in a close circle and at random meetings, use social networks .

Reach out to people on your social networks - Facebook, VKontakte, etc. Make your request clear: “My child is thinking about becoming an international lawyer. Help with contacts for a half-hour conversation on zoom” . According to the rule of three (or five) handshakes, they will definitely help you and find such a person who will be happy to talk with a teenager about his work and professional experience.

The non-obvious move that many career consultants use, is Tinder. Many do not know that this social network is not only for finding a partner. Young specialists aged 25-35 work in Tinder and are open for communication. And it's perfectly normal to look for professional contacts there. Create an account on Tinder, indicate in your profile that you are looking for people who will help your son or daughter with career guidance, search for people according to the criteria and write to them. Not everyone will answer, but many will gladly tell the teenager about what they really do at work and how their professional path develops.

On Tinder, a child cannot write to people on his own, but on FB or VK, he can. Encourage him to take these steps on his own. People are happy to respond and help the child decide on a profession.

The best vocational guidance is a professional test

We have already spoken about contacts with carriers of the profession, but this is not enough. It is worth including the child in professional networks in the area of interest. It makes sense to ask the same professionals, what channels in Telegram they read, what communities they belong to. Humor channels and communities are very informative. If a teenager understands the jokes of this professional circle, his motivation will grow.

It's a great idea to find on Instagram by searching for people who blog about their profession. They often announce interesting events or advertise information resources. This is information that is better than any career guidance advice. You can subscribe to popular professional bloggers from an account specially created for this. Recommend a child such a move - it's very adult.

Many interesting events take place online . For example, masterminds, where professionals gather and discuss important issues and trends. It's hard to hit them, but it's possible. If the child honestly writes to the organizers that he wants to decide on his future profession, he may be allowed to listen. If the meeting is closed, they can talk to a teenager personally or advise an event for young professionals that will help him get acquainted with the specialty at an accessible level. Now it's perfectly normal to address people directly. Successful professionals of different ages, when meeting with a motivated teenager, behave openly and are ready to help.

Remember that in today's world of rapidly changing professions and complex social networks, these methods work better than career shows and even more so than career counseling tests, which give the result: you tend to work with people. So understand: this is a waiter or a project manager.

Where a teenager can try a profession

Many teenagers do not know where and how to try a profession , which is of interest.

First, you can ask the very people you consulted. It is possible that they even have some projects where people are needed for small tasks . This is an immersion in the profession and the opportunity to learn it from the inside.

Second, you need to volunteer . When you can help someone in an area that is interesting, do not miss this opportunity. To see the professional world as it is in reality, and not in the booklet of the university - that's why they do it, and not for making money.

Thirdly, in social networks, using the keywords “vocational guidance teenagers”, a child will find many sources of useful information not only about where you can make small professional tests , but also participate in the competition . For example, to draw a logo, write a program, make a presentation - this will be a pass to the world of professionals.

Fourth, if the chosen area attracts benefactors, you can contact charitable organizations and help. Of course, a minor will not be entrusted with caring for the sick, for example, but you can help in a different way, to get to know people and look at work in their specialty.

Those children who have tried the profession, evaluated the pros and cons and decided that it suits them, are confident in their choice. Then the motivation to choose a university and study will appear.

It is impossible to choose a profession theoretically, without the experience of at least included observation from the outside. Doctors save lives, but this is also the oppression of the bureaucracy, and conflicting patients, and the requirements of higher authorities, and a very long period of training. Is the child ready for this when he draws for himself the image of a man in a white coat who saves lives? A child who volunteered next to doctors, encountered old and sick people in difficult life situations, better understands whether he can cope, whether he needs such a life.

After choosing a profession and a rough idea of the field in which a young person wants to be, you can think about a university in this direction.

You can get advice on career guidance for a teenager in the system of choosing a future profession, which will help the child to confidently embark on a professional path.

Tips for parents: how to avoid common mistakes

Why do many children want nothing, while others easily find contacts and work on their own already in adolescence?

Of course, there are more energetic and less energetic people in life. But it is also important that parents do not make typical mistakes in raising a teenager . If you devalue his hobbies and desires and deprive him of freedom of choice, he falls out of the resource and loses motivation for learning and development .

A hobby can help a teenager find a profession

Even if it's computer games that everyone dislikes. He meets strangers there and gets to know them. So let him at the same time ask them for advice or use these skills to search for new contacts . There are a lot of adults on the gamer forums to help. If a teenager does not have a hobby, it is worth helping to choose an interesting hobby.

Social networks help to understand who you want to be

If your child is active in social networks, you just need to direct his sociability in the right direction . Let him open this account for you on Tinder and communicate on your behalf, honestly saying that he is the same boy or girl who needs help in choosing a profession.

The social circle helps to raise self-esteem

It seems to us that teenagers just hang out. They so build relationships and fight for a place in the sun. A teenager who does not communicate will feel insecure and fear for their self-esteem. It is better to captivate him with the search for professional contacts - you look and find more interesting friends.

Keep in mind that many unserious associations of teenagers in your opinion can be very resourceful. Do they make memes? This is an incredibly complex skill that is available only to intellectuals and people with strong aptitudes for working with the public. Moreover, a successful meme writer has his own professional contacts and can meet people who, in addition to this hobby, are engaged in science.

Do teenagers make their own channel and watch streams? If you knew how you can make good money on this!

In general, if a teenager does something enthusiastically with his friends, this is already good. Try to delicately understand, and not overclock.

Don't rely on career counseling tests

A good career counselor uses career counseling tests solely as the start of a dialogue with a person. These tests can reveal a combination of a person's tendencies and abilities , but will not be able to give a clear answer to the question: "Who to be?" One and the same person can do many different things and find himself in a variety of professions - this is the time. It is even difficult to determine the scope of employment with a test - these are two. For example, a lot of people with humanitarian talents find application in the field of high technologies. These are intellectual systems in the humanitarian spheres, and design, and public relations.

Go to open days at universities correctly

DOD, exhibitions , career fairs and other similar events, in fact, immerse the applicant not in a real profession, but in the specialty of universities and colleges. Therefore, they do not often help to understand whether such a direction or profession is suitable for a particular young man or a particular girl. Yes, if a child sees a bright show of robots, he may want to become a roboticist, and this is not bad. But often the child does not receive important and understandable information about himself for him: is it personally suitable for him or not?

Another thing is that a child can see people who study at a university and want to be with them. So it makes sense to visit festivals and other events in which the students themselves actively participate. So the teenager will understand. whether he wants to be in this place and communicate with these people. Breaking through to the university KVN in this sense is more useful than approaching the stand of the university at the exhibition.

Do not demand to choose a profession for life

A teenager is afraid of responsibility for the final choice. And in modern realities, professions quickly become obsolete or change beyond recognition. It is better to offer to try and give examples of the fact that even the wrong choice will not be a fatal mistake.

Get rid of gender stereotypes

These days there are almost no gender differences when choosing a profession for a teenage girl or a teenage boy. Previously, scientific specialties, the field of computer technology, professions related to work on high-tech equipment were considered male. Nowadays, it surprises no one when girls are involved in software development, girls win hackathons and professional competitions, and not just olympiads.

It will also be easier for a teenage boy to choose a profession if he gets rid of stereotypes. The psychological and pedagogical direction attracts more and more young men, and this is very good for the education system as a whole, and men achieve great success in their professional life in these areas. These changes are dictated by the labor market, which in our country is not subject to quotas, but is simply very democratic.

They choose not a specialty, but a way of life

Specialties at a university can rarely inspire a modern teenager. He can be hooked by the social circle, the culture of the educational institution. Look at universities from this point of view. Check university websites for student events, travel expenses, active social life, clubs and additional opportunities. If a child is familiar with students of some university and likes them, this is already a step forward.

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