“When looking to the future as a whole, Australia’s job market is looking a little like Marilyn Monroe’s hourglass figure – lots of jobs at the top and at the bottom, with slim pickings in between.” – The New Daily
I was at the BLA Careers Expo with the QLD Department of Education on Thursday 25th of May and never have I felt more excited for the next generation (Just when I thought all hope was lost). There was approximately 3000 kids that came through the Fred Moule Pavilion from all over the region. Some of the schools I didn’t even know existed and some of them traveled all the way from TI! We spoke to them about future focused careers such as social media marketing and drone piloting which a lot of them didn’t even know about let alone considered it as a career path.
However, I was really taken back when I asked “Do you know what you want to do when you finish school?” and the majority of them answered straight away with things like radiologist, midwife, teacher, dentist, lawyer…. I was so impressed. They don’t know how lucky they are to know exactly what path they want to follow. For the rest of them that didn’t know what they wanted to do, this day was such a great opportunity to get their heads around what options are out there.
Obviously, no two of us are the same and I think there is almost too much pressure on kids at school to choose what career path they’ll be working toward. It’s hard enough being in high school!
In saying this, education is still very important and I’m grateful I graduated high school. If you asked me in grade 11 what I wanted to do when I leave school I probably would have said something like “I wanna be on Big Brother” or something alone those lines. I didn’t have the luxury of knowing exactly what I wanted to do when I graduated but I’m glad I graduated with all the tools I needed to leave school and take on the real world, because its a MASSIVE shock when it actually comes time to adult. (Shout out to SMCC)
I attempted Uni and I pretty much fell flat on my face I couldn’t justify accumulating a hex debt when I didn’t even know what to study in the first place. I legitimately thought because I didn’t do a trade during senior year I HAD to go to uni when I finished otherwise I’d be a failure. I cannot stress enough that this is not the case. There are many wildly successful people in this world that didn’t know what they wanted to do.
My advice to any senior students who are feeling sick at the thought of trying to figure out what you want to do is this; just enjoy it because as soon as you leave things get real. Whatever career path you land on be grateful for the opportunity to pursue it. I’ve learn’t the hard way that there are no shortcuts to success. I have no regrets not going to university, it may have taken a little time but I love what I do and turns out I’m good at it so I’m excited to (finally) start building a career on it.
To keep up with what’s happening around the region, tune into HitFM and 89.1 community radio each Friday, pick up your copy of CairnsEye or follow Social Butterfly Marketing on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
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