“Sir, what did you want to be when you were younger?”
I’m sure you are familiar with some variant of this question. So, what career aspiration was shaping your subject choices and interests in your mid teens? Was there a career choice at all?
I wanted to be a barrister or, to quote my leavers’ yearbook, “a ballyhooed musician” (there’s still time!).
On canvassing my colleagues, I’ve learned that their teenage career aspirations varied from the heights of aviation to the depths of archaeology; the global adventures of a travel writer to the familiar locale of an MP; the instincts of a police officer to the fine skills of a carpenter, to name a few.
Some of these aspirations were achieved before they started working in schools. Some have been deferred. Some have changed altogether. I spent the first eight years of my post-university adulthood in professions where I was not an all-singing, all-litigating sensation. I joke now, but I used to question where I had gone wrong.
Earlier this year, students at my school had their careers day. One activity had students meeting guest speakers, who answered closed questions about their work before students guessed their profession.
Many guests captured the pupils’ imaginations but there were two who kindled particularly impactful conversations.
First, there was a young woman who said she worked in a job that didn’t exist 20 years ago. The students’ guesses narrowed it down to her being a content creator on a social media platform, and they were right - cue starry-eyed admiration from her audience.
Quickly noting their awe, she went on to outline the hard work it had taken to turn her passion for travel into a career, highlighting the decade of other jobs that had provided her with an income until her platform was self-sustaining.
Second, there was a young man who played his poker face a little too well. His tempered responses convinced some that he did a job that didn’t bring him satisfaction and so they, incorrectly, guessed he was a warehouse or supermarket manager. In fact, he was happily employed in a data systems role.
During the break, some mild laughing at the warehouse suggestion urged me to query what was funny. The students explained that they just didn’t believe it would be a particularly inspiring profession for the event, so they were quite surprised when I told them that I had spent years working in warehouses and supermarkets.
The students were fascinated by this morsel from my previous life outside the classroom and were keen to know more. Through sharing my career journey, they were able to make connections between previous jobs and aspects of my character that contributed to the teacher I have grown into.
As a profession, we invest substantial resources into promoting and enabling aspirations but, in doing so, do we overlook preparing students to navigate changes and setbacks in their aspirations, or circumstances that lead to ambitions being left unfulfilled?
Does our inclination for upward trajectories inadvertently downplay the value and reward of work that is stigmatised as “low-skilled” when, really, the only deficiency is in the pay?
The dialogue that day reminded me to celebrate all careers and to inculcate a practical understanding of the relationship between aspirations and work.
In doing so, I hope that my students acquire a knowledge and understanding of resilience, and that it helps them to happily function in any profession in which they find themselves.
DeMarco Ryans is an English teacher and literacy lead at a school in Surrey
This article originally appeared in the 23 July 2021 issue under the headline “It’s OK for career paths to follow the scenic route”
