The problem of choosing a profession is a person who stands at a crossroads and thinks which road is best for him. Today we will try to answer this question: how to decide on a profession?

But first, let me say: on our website you can take a test to determine the profession online for free.

The right choice of profession brings great moral satisfaction, as a person gets the opportunity to fully realize his potential, because only by doing what you love, you can achieve true success.

The problem of choosing a profession is a kind of stupor into which a schoolboy and a future student fall. On the one hand, a person has abilities, achievements and talents in one or two areas, on the other hand, these areas are not very material or prestigious, and also parents, friends, etc.

What education should you choose? The main advice: choose the education where you have abilities, talents, what you do better than others!

If you love the stage, perform - enter the acting business. Love to communicate, be in the spotlight - the school of TV and radio presenters! If you're good at drawing, go to art school. If you love numbers, solve complex problems, you feel the delight of solving complex problems, then you are an accountant or an economist!

The mistake of millions is that they think that a highly paid profession will bring money and happiness to a person, but in reality the opposite is true!

For example, our hero has a talent for dancing, and he went to study law. What happens is 5 years of boring lectures, meaningless information that is not remembered at all. Somehow unlearned, issued a diploma. The same worthless, meaningless work is being read, day after day. No interest, no desire to develop. Minimum wage, lots of problems at work. But, one day, a person enters a dance studio and sees his real place, where he should be. And this is the deepest disappointment: 7-10 years have been spent just for nothing. And it doesn't matter what anyone thinks and says. Yes, strong man stop and go in the right direction. Weak, will regret, look for reasons why he will not succeed, justify his choice. Exist but not live.

Now you have a choice - make it right!

So, what are the typical mistakes that high school students make when choosing a profession?

  1. False values. Young people are increasingly guided by the level of prestige of the profession when choosing a life's work. "Money", "prestigious" and "highly paid" are false values, according to which you should not choose a profession.
  2. "Help from outside". This is a common mistake, and not by the student (applicant), but by his parents, relatives, friends. It consists in an attempt to impose their ideas about the “best”, “most in demand today” profession.
  3. "Favorite subject". Often a school subject is so captivating for a student that he is ready to associate his whole life with it. In this situation, the student needs to identify the true motive of his interest in the subject. Perhaps it wasn't the features that caught his attention. academic discipline, but the ease of the subject, the personal qualities of the teacher, the style of teaching.
  4. Ignorance of one's own abilities. Many high school students do not have an idea of ​​their own abilities, the area of ​​inclinations and interests is not disclosed. In this case, you need to look for your interests and talents.

Mistakes in determining the criteria for choosing a future profession are made not only by high school students, but also by their immediate environment - parents. Often the unfulfilled desires of one of the parents determine the direction of the attitude towards the validity of the choice of their own child. Another common misconception of parents is ignoring the abilities of their children.

A professional choice of profession will help to make a psychologist and a professional test.

To identify the direction of professional self-determination, various methods are used in the form of trainings, tests. These methods make it possible to accurately determine professional orientation personality and contribute to the choice of profession in accordance with individual characteristics.

The main factors influencing the choice of a profession: interests, abilities, character, values, motives, state of health, information about the world of professions, social environment, social status of parents and many others.

Let's summarize: how to decide on a profession?

  1. Explore your area of ​​interest. Analyze your abilities, inclinations, strengths and weaknesses.
  2. Get to know the professions and the current state of the labor market in general.
  3. Learn what education you can get based on your own preferences.
  4. Find out information about educational institutions that offer the desired specialties.
  5. Take a free test to determine the profession on our website.

Conclusion.

Who to be, the problem of choosing a profession - important step in the life of every person. To avoid irreversible consequences decision, high school students need to carefully listen to their own inclinations, develop natural abilities, and parents need to accept and respect the choice of their children.

Today's notes about what mistakes young people make when choosing a profession.

So what not to do...

1. Attitude to the choice of profession as a permanent one.
In any field of activity, there is a change in occupations, positions as a person's qualifications grow. Wherein greatest success reaches the one who has passed the initial steps well. Analyze the situation for labor market. Please note that every year new professions appear. Be prepared for the fact that you will have to regularly improve your skills, master related specialties. Do not be afraid that the choice of a profession now, in the 11th grade, will fatally determine your entire fate. Changing the choice, mastering a new specialty will make you a valuable specialist in demand in interdisciplinary fields of activity. The first profession, even if you later change your mind and find something more attractive, will come in handy in unexpected situations. For example, the first education of an art critic will help a lawyer in his second education to understand difficult questions inheritance of antique values...

2. Current opinions about the prestige of the profession.
With regard to the profession, prejudice manifests itself in the fact that certain professions and occupations important for society are considered unworthy obscene (for example: scavenger).An economist or psychologist is no more useful to society than a chemist or a locksmith. The prestige of the profession should be taken into account - but after taking into account your interests and abilities. Otherwise, you will own (if you will) a "fashionable", but not enjoyable specialty. Or, what good, you will be unsuitable for the performance of basic work functions ...

3. The choice of profession under the influence of comrades (for the company, so as not to be left behind).
We choose a profession according to our "taste" and "size" in the same way as clothes and shoes. Group feeling, peer orientation are very positive features of children of your age. They are needed to master the norms of behavior in society, the formation of the image of "I" and self-esteem. Therefore, look back at others, COMPARE (yourself with friends), and not blindly repeating. Try to see how you differ from your comrades - and how you are similar. This will help you understand that if Vasya goes to work as a firefighter (and he is a risky person), you may not like this profession (you are very careful and reasonable).

4. Transfer of attitude towards a person, a representative of a particular profession, to the profession.
When choosing a profession, it is necessary to take into account, first of all, the features of this type of activity, and not choose a profession just because you like or dislike the person who is engaged in this type of activity. The charm of a teacher is especially dangerous (if you admire the sincerity of a physicist, this does not mean that you like physics in itself, outside the "set"). In addition, guys often make a mistake, trying to get the profession of an idol - an athlete, politician, journalist, artist. Athletes are not all like that.

5. Fascination only with the external or some private side of the profession.
Behind the ease with which the actor creates an image on stage, there is intense, everyday work. And journalists do not always appear on TV programs - more often they shovel a lot of information, archives, talk with dozens of people - before they prepare a 10-minute report, which, moreover, will be voiced by another (TV announcer).

6. Identification of a school subject with a profession or a poor distinction between these concepts.
There is such a thing as foreign language, and there are many professions that require the ability to speak a language - an interpreter, a guide, an international telephone operator, etc. Therefore, when choosing a profession, one must take into account what real occupations and professions are behind this subject. To do this, it is best not just to study professiograms or dictionaries of professions. It is worth analyzing newspapers with vacancies on the labor exchange (they usually indicate what kind of education is required for a particular vacancy). For example, a person with a linguistic education ("Russian language and literature", "foreign language" at school) can work as a teacher, translator, editor, and assistant secretary. Moreover, keep in mind that there are more professions than school subjects. You can become a lawyer, marketer, apparatchik. Professions can usually be associated with several school subjects (usually correspond to university entrance exams for admission to this specialty). For example, a future economist at school may like both mathematics and geography at the same time.

7. Outdated ideas about the nature of labor in the sphere of material production.
In all professions, and above all in workers, complex and interesting equipment is being introduced, and the culture of work is being raised. (A computer is being introduced in absolutely all areas of activity - up to animal husbandry).

8. Inability / unwillingness to understand their own personal qualities(inclinations, abilities).
Professional consultants, parents, teachers, comrades will help you to understand yourself. Psychological tests, as well as articles and publications on the topic of popular psychology, can also be useful. However, keep in mind that there are many non-professionals among them, so be critical of both test results and what is written in psychological books. The task of popular tests is to activate the activity of self-knowledge (introspection, introspection), and not to give you a ready answer to the question of who to be or stick a label about what you are.

9. Ignorance / underestimation of their physical characteristics, shortcomings, essential when choosing a profession.
There are professions that may be contraindicated for you, because. they can worsen your health condition. There are few such professions and they mainly include those in which a long-term stress of certain physiological systems is required. Computer scientists strain their eyes a lot, and pilots strain their hearts ...

10. Ignorance of the main actions, operations and their order in solving, thinking over the problem when choosing a profession.
When you solve a math problem, you perform certain actions in a certain sequence. It would be wise to do the same when choosing a profession. I hope that knowing and understanding these mistakes will help you avoid them when choosing your future profession.

Anna Sukhikh

Career: Career Guidance - Methodical piggy bank

10 mistakes when choosing a profession

  1. Don't treat your career choice as a lifetime choice.
    In any field of activity, there is a natural change in occupations, specialties, positions, places of work as a person's qualifications grow.
  2. Do not confuse position, profession and specialty.
    For example, the chief physician is a position, a doctor is a profession, a dentist is a specialty.
  3. Don't choose a profession based on its appearance. Always try to get to know the content of the profession, the essential aspects of the everyday work of a professional.
  4. Do not succumb to prejudices about this or that profession.
    The fashion for professions is constantly changing, today some professions are prestigious, tomorrow others. But the fashion for the profession does not always keep pace with changes in the labor market.
  5. Do not transfer your attitude towards a person - a representative of a particular profession - to the profession itself.
    Likeable or unsympathetic personal qualities of a particular person are not always professionally important for a particular profession.
  6. Do not equate subjects and professions.
    The world of professions is much wider than one might imagine based on the list of school subjects.
  7. Do not choose a profession "for the company", under the influence of comrades.
    We buy clothes and shoes according to our size, not what suits our friends. Do the same with your choice of profession.
  8. Do not choose a profession without understanding your personal qualities.
    It is very important to know your interests, inclinations, abilities, level of knowledge and preparedness.
  9. Do not choose a profession without evaluating your physical features, shortcomings, essential when choosing a profession.
  10. Many professions have special requirements for the state of health, and some professions are contraindicated (not recommended) for certain characteristics of the body, deviations in the state of health.
    Do not choose a profession without knowing the basic rules, actions and their order in solving the problem of choosing a profession. If you do not know how to solve the problem of choosing a profession, seek help from a professional consultant

Mistakes in choosing a profession

  1. Attitude to the choice of a profession as an invariable
    In any field of activity, there is a change in occupations, positions as a person's qualifications grow. At the same time, the one who has successfully completed the initial stages achieves the greatest success.
    Analyze the situation on the labor market. Please note that every year new professions appear. Be prepared for the fact that you will have to regularly improve your skills, master related specialties. Do not be afraid that the choice of a profession now, in the 11th grade, will fatally determine your entire fate. Changing the choice, mastering a new specialty will make you a valuable specialist in demand in interdisciplinary fields of activity. The first profession, even if you later change your mind and find something more attractive, will come in handy in unexpected situations. For example, the first education of an art critic will help a lawyer in his second education to understand the complex issues of inheritance of antique values ​​...
  2. Current opinions about the prestige of the profession
    With regard to the profession, prejudices are manifested in the fact that some professions that are important for society, occupations are considered unworthy, indecent (for example: a scavenger).
    An economist or psychologist is no more useful to society than a chemist or a locksmith. The prestige of the profession should be taken into account - but after taking into account your interests and abilities. Otherwise, you will own (if you will) a "fashionable", but not enjoyable specialty. Or, what good, you will find yourself unsuitable for performing basic work functions ...
  3. Choosing a profession under the influence of comrades (for the company, so as not to be left behind).
    We choose a profession according to our "taste" and "size" in the same way as clothes and shoes.
    Group feeling, peer orientation are very positive features of guys your age. They are needed to master the norms of behavior in society, the formation of the image of "I" and self-esteem. Therefore, look back at others, COMPARE (yourself with friends), and not blindly repeating. Try to see how you differ from your comrades - and how you are similar. This will help you understand that if Vasya goes to work as a firefighter (and he is a risky person), you may not like this profession (you are very careful and reasonable).
  4. Transfer of attitude towards a person, a representative of a particular profession, to the profession itself
    When choosing a profession, it is necessary to take into account, first of all, the features of this type of activity, and not choose a profession just because you like or dislike the person who is engaged in this type of activity.
    The charm of a teacher is especially dangerous (if you admire the sincerity of a physicist, this does not mean that you like physics in itself, outside the "set"). In addition, guys often make a mistake, trying to get the profession of an idol - an athlete, politician, journalist, artist. Athletes are not all like that.
  5. Fascination only with the external or some private side of the profession
    Behind the ease with which the actor creates an image on stage, there is intense, everyday work.
    And journalists do not always appear on TV programs - more often they shovel a lot of information, archives, talk with dozens of people - before they prepare a 10-minute report, which, moreover, will be voiced by another (an announcer on television).
  6. Identification of a school subject with a profession or a poor distinction between these concepts
    There is such a subject as a foreign language, and there are many professions that require the ability to speak a language - an interpreter, a guide, an international telephone operator, etc. Therefore, when choosing a profession, one must take into account what real occupations and professions are behind this subject.
    To do this, it is best not just to study professiograms or dictionaries of professions. It is worth analyzing newspapers with vacancies on the labor exchange (they usually indicate what kind of education is required for a particular vacancy). For example, a person with a linguistic education ("Russian language and literature", "foreign language" at school) can work as a teacher, translator, editor, and assistant secretary. Moreover, keep in mind that there are more professions than school subjects. You can become a lawyer, marketer, apparatchik. Professions can usually be associated with several school subjects (usually correspond to university entrance exams for admission to this specialty). For example, a future economist at school may like both mathematics and geography at the same time.
  7. Outdated ideas about the nature of labor in the sphere of material production
    In all professions, and above all in workers, complex and interesting equipment is being introduced, and the culture of work is being raised.
    (A computer is being introduced in absolutely all areas of activity - up to animal husbandry).
  8. Inability / unwillingness to understand their personal qualities (inclinations, abilities)
    Professional consultants, parents, teachers, comrades will help you understand yourself.
    Psychological tests, as well as articles and publications on the topic of popular psychology, can also be useful. However, keep in mind that there are many non-professionals among them, so be critical of both test results and what is written in psychological books. The task of popular tests is to activate the activity of self-knowledge (introspection, introspection), and not to give you a ready answer to the question of who to be or stick a label about what you are.
  9. Ignorance / underestimation of one's physical characteristics, shortcomings that are significant when choosing a profession
    There are professions that may be contraindicated for you, because. they can worsen your health.
    There are few such professions and they mainly include those in which a long-term stress of certain physiological systems is required. Computer scientists strain their eyes a lot, and pilots strain their hearts ...
  10. Ignorance of the main actions, operations and their order in solving, considering the problem when choosing a profession
    When you solve a math problem, you perform certain actions in a certain sequence. It would be wise to do the same when choosing a profession.
    We hope that our recommendations will help to choose the right direction when choosing a profession, to determine the main stages of solving the problem. However, do not take the instructions literally, it is even better if you get creative and develop your own plan for yourself - a list of actions necessary for choosing a profession. This may include: an analysis of offers in the education market, an analysis of demand in the labor market, an objective assessment of one's abilities, inclinations, and knowledge. Good luck!

Not all schoolchildren are ready for such self-determination, and some do not even strive to take responsibility for such an important life choice. This is precisely the most important psychological and pedagogical problem of career guidance - fear of one's own choice.

In such a situation, a school graduate seeks for himself and often finds rather intricate ways to avoid real responsibility for professional and personal self-determination, which can be expressed approximately as follows:

  • Seeking advice on career choices and educational institution to their more authoritative (significant) peers and strict adherence to these tips. However, such advice is often based on existing prejudices about what is "best" and what is "clearly unacceptable". The result of focusing on these prejudices is an almost “universal” choice by adolescents of such professions as a lawyer, economist, manager, make-up artist, etc.
  • Seeking advice from their teachers and school psychologists (professional counselors), who often also focus on the prejudices that exist in the public mind. At the same time, specialists often simply play along with their students, offering them precisely prestigious professions and educational institutions as a choice. In such a situation, one can even talk about the fear of psychologists and teachers themselves to take responsibility for extraordinary advice (according to the principle: it is easier to advise something banal, but generally accepted ...).
  • Asking teenagers for advice from their families and friends. Often, these tips are also oriented to existing (or pre-existing) prejudices about what is more “prestigious” and “promising”, and what is less… choice often lag behind real life and are more correlated with the already past socio-economic periods of the country's development.
  • Finally, adolescents can be guided in their choices by the stereotypes of public consciousness cultivated by modern means. mass media- mass media (youth press, TV and radio programs, etc.). Quite often, such influence of the media focuses not on specific professions, but on a certain way of life. But at a young age, as you know, a person chooses not so much a profession as an image and lifestyle, where a profession is just a “means” to achieve the desired image and style. The profession in this case, as it were, is “selected” for an attractive style and lifestyle. The problem here is that the cultivated (or rather, propagandized) way of life is quite standard, somewhat vulgar (repeatedly replicated), focused on undemanding taste, and that is why it is so attractive and seductive for the fragile soul of a self-determined teenager.

Thus, in most cases, a teenager really relies on the opinions of people close and significant to himself. But is he capable, due to his social immaturity, of being a full-fledged subject of his professional and life choices in general? Are we not demanding too much from a still young and inexperienced person when we talk about self-determination and call for the fact that he himself should take responsibility for important life choices?

The fact that a self-determined teenager is trying to find additional support in his important life choices is normal and a psychologist should treat this with understanding. The teenager is worried, the uncertainty about the future really scares him, and his natural defense mechanisms just work - the mechanisms of securing his choice. Unfortunately, often all the insurance comes down to focusing on the stereotypes of public consciousness and the implementation of these stereotypes. But in this case, you no longer have to talk about real creativity when planning your development prospects, and then you have to agree that the teenager is not so much self-determined as with the fact that he is “determined” by various “advisers” in the world of professions and life meanings. .

If this is so, then the problem is even more exacerbated and we are talking about the fact that the professional choice is no longer made “together” with the teenager, but “instead of” him. What is the general logic of full-fledged career guidance assistance to a self-determined teenager, taking into account his lack of life experience and ever-increasing anxiety about his immediate future (the future after graduation)? There are several options for organizing such assistance:

  1. If career guidance work is carried out fully, then the scheme is approximately as follows. Even in the junior and middle grades, students are gradually introduced to the world of professional work, their main inclinations and abilities are revealed (first of all, they reveal the general dynamics of their change, on the basis of which longer-term forecasts can be built). Ideally, they allow schoolchildren to try themselves at least in some available species labor (approximately as it is done in "professional tests" - in the well-known Japanese system "Fukuyama test".
    Closer to the senior grades, students should gradually develop a readiness for introspection of their main inclinations and abilities, i.e. more and more they are not so much “explored”, but form the motivation and ability for self-exploration (self-knowledge). It is this that can become the basis for the formation of readiness for genuine self-determination. At the same time, more and more are considered, compared and discussed various options building your happiness (various lifestyles). Such consideration is impossible without referring to the value-semantic aspects of professional and personal self-determination. According to many serious experts, it is the value-moral orientations that make up the "core" of a self-determined personality.
    Finally, in senior and graduation classes the main focus is increasingly shifting to specific elections. At the same time, schoolchildren are not so much offered ready-made recommendations, but gradually form their readiness to make these choices on their own. Only in this case can we talk about real professional choice and self-determination.
    The general logic of such training is approximately as follows: first, using specially prepared examples (situations), a professional counselor psychologist (or a school psychologist) shows how one could choose a profession and implement this choice. Further, using other examples-situations, the high school student himself is invited to give a recommendation to an imaginary peer (in this case, the example is already transformed into a learning task, where the readiness to navigate independently in various situations of professional self-determination is gradually formed). Finally, the high school student independently uses the already formed ability to navigate in career-oriented situations in his own choices, and the role of a psychologist-professional consultant is to control and “insure” a self-determined young person.
  2. Another option is when a full-fledged career guidance work is not carried out with a student, but a conscientious teacher (or psychologist) still believes that career guidance is necessary. Usually, this situation is complicated by the fact that the administration does not encourage an initiative teacher-psychologist in any way, there is practically no time left for such work (there are many other “important” things at school ...), often the teacher-psychologist himself does not have sufficient qualifications and experience to provide professional consulting assistance . Still, help can be provided.
    Firstly, the very fact of discussing the problem with a teenager or his parents professional choice already worth a lot.
    Secondly, there is a set of fairly accessible and uncomplicated career guidance methods that make it possible to roughly identify the professional preferences of a teenager (for example, the “Differential Diagnostic Questionnaire” - abbreviated as “DDO”, “Map of Interests”, “Questionnaire professional readiness- modified" - "OPG-m", questionnaires "Pros and cons", "Crossroads", etc.).
    Thirdly, such a variant of the organization of work is possible, when the psychologist works with a microgroup (of 3-4 people), where the problems of each student are discussed in turn. In this case, it is even possible to organize a kind of “professional consultation” game, where peers will give each other advice and recommendations, which makes it possible to form a willingness to navigate in various (and not only in their own) situations of choice.
    Finally, fourthly, a school psychologist can simply “instill” in the mind of a counseled teenager a sense of confidence and optimism about his future, which is also worth a lot. At the same time, optimism itself is not just an infantile hope that “everything will be fine”, but the confidence that even in difficult situations a teenager will not be at a loss and will make a worthy choice (but for this it is important to understand what a “worthy choice” is in general, in contrast, for example, to a standard, vulgar choice in its unoriginality ...).

Of course, in the case of limited conditions for full-fledged career guidance, it is not possible to “cover” all students, so you have to choose those who need such help the most and who are ready to discuss their career guidance problems.

In a school setting, addressing the problem of professional and personal self-determination is possible not only within the framework of hours and professional consultations specially allotted for this. Each teacher and each psychologist, when conducting a variety of their activities-events, can always touch on certain aspects of professional and life choices. As noted by the former Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, the famous psychologist A.G. Asmolov, the main task schools are not the transfer of knowledge, but the formation of a semantic picture of the world in the student, the world where they are going to live and self-determine (similar statements can be found in such luminaries of psychology as V. Frankl, G. Munstenberg, etc.). And for a high school student, the main semantic problem is the problem of self-determination, i.e. planning your development after school. And if we really strive to give the student a complete, i.e. systematized knowledge and education, then the core of this system should be the idea of ​​professional self-determination, which any teacher should remember... , without a central, integrating idea, school knowledge often has a "fragmentary", "partial" character...

Nevertheless, the opportunities for large-scale, systematized career guidance in schools are enormous. In this sense, the original title of the article, which reflects the idea of ​​"joint" work in this direction, seems to be correct. Note that in civilized Western countries the idea of ​​a career is dominant, central not only for educational institutions, but also for the whole society, i.e. the whole society helps to make a young man a career. In our "native" Russian conditions, one can at least dream that, at the level of a particular school, the efforts of teachers, psychologists, and administration would be integrated into joint assistance to the student in professional and personal self-determination. At the same time, the ideal result of such joint assistance should be the formation of a school graduate's readiness for independent (already without the joint assistance of teachers and psychologists) solving their problems, i.e. readiness for true self-determination.

Choosing a future profession is the problem of a modern teenager.
What do we know about our future? We don't know for sure and can only guess. We often think about it, spend long hours discussing what will happen tomorrow, in a month, in a year, even in tens of years. And these thoughts sometimes prevent us from noticing what is happening around us, what kind of life we ​​are living now. And what about teenagers who are just learning to understand their lives, to understand themselves in the present, and parents are already demanding a conscious choice of a profession, a choice of their future? “Of course, it’s not easy for them, but it’s impossible not to think about the future,” you say, and you will be absolutely right.

So, choosing a future profession is not easy, but necessary and even vital. How not to get lost in all the diversity options specialties in modern world because there are so many now? To do this, it is important to have a clear idea of ​​​​the goals that you set for your child, and he sets himself, that is, to understand what exactly drives you in the first place when choosing a profession. Nowadays, one of the leading motives is material well-being, that is, the desire to earn big enough money to be able to do nothing. Thinking about your well-being is normal and right, because you really can’t live without money. But is this motive sufficient and the main one when choosing a future profession?

When thinking about money, do not forget that your child chooses an occupation for the next (at least) a few years. Accordingly, it is this activity that will fill his life, will be his life. And in life it often happens that an activity that brings a lot of money does not bring happiness at the same time. This is a simple and banal thought: "Happiness is not in money." But it is precisely in this simplicity and mediocrity that it proves its truth. Therefore, I suggest not to "disown" it.

The potential profitability of the profession is not the main thing. The most important, according to modern psychologists, sociologists and ordinary people, is the moral satisfaction that a properly chosen profession brings. “But how to help him now, when he is only 15-16 years old, to choose the kind of activity that will delight him for many years of his life?” - you ask. Unfortunately, there is no universal way, it is impossible to predict the future, therefore, when choosing a profession for a teenager, you should first of all think about those inclinations, abilities and interests that he already has now. To do this, you can do the following exercise with your child.

This exercise will help you not only assess the amount of your child’s abilities and possible career options, but also better understand what these professions are, how they are taught, and by whom and where people work after graduation.

Do not rush your child and do not rush yourself, because you choose not a birthday cake, from which there will be no trace after the end of the holiday. You choose the future. And spare no effort or time to truly understand the professions that your child has chosen. Try not to put pressure on him either, because he chooses his future, not yours. And so that the years of study, the money and effort invested in it do not go to waste, and you once hear the accusation addressed to you: “It was you who forced me to go there to study!” - let, even with your help, your child choose a future profession consciously and independently.

However, it often happens that it is difficult for a child to talk about his abilities in front of you, in general it is difficult to talk with you about the future. He begins to be rude, make excuses, laugh it off and resist in every possible way. Let's not forget that this is a teenager. Or it is not possible to choose a profession for other reasons. In this case, you may need a professional consultation with a psychologist who will help the child decide to understand the available abilities, evaluate them, select possible and interesting professions for him and understand which one is best for your child.

How to choose a profession
Scheme for solving the problem of choosing a profession (according to E.A. Klimov)

The process of solving the problem of choice includes five operations (a set of actions):

1st operation - to make for yourself a general orientation in the world of professions and a set of personal qualities that are important when choosing a profession;

2nd operation - to find out the need of the district, city, region for personnel, where your heads, knowledge, hands, young enthusiasm are most needed;

3rd operation - use various sources to gain knowledge about professions: books, television, cinema, excursions to enterprises, etc.

4th operation - make a conclusion about the most suitable type of profession, then class, department, group of specialties;

5th operation - to make a conclusion about the first step towards mastering the chosen profession, to go through role-playing practice. Here it is important to consult with a doctor, class teacher, teachers, senior family members, representatives of the profession being studied.

But the final decision is up to you.

Common Mistakes when choosing a profession.

Choosing a profession is a difficult and responsible step in the life of every person. Choosing the right profession means finding your place in life. To make this decision, it is important to have reliable information about your inclinations and abilities necessary for professional activity, existing professions and specialties, about educational institutions and about the demand for various professions in the labor market.

Of the many professions, it is necessary to choose one, and even such that the soul lies in it, it is quite difficult. Of course, no one is immune from mistakes, but I want the probability of a miss to be as small as possible.

All mistakes made when choosing a profession can be divided into points:

  1. Attitude towards the choice of a profession as a permanent one (i.e. “for the rest of your life”).

In any field of activity, there is a change in occupations, positions as the qualifications of the specialty grow. At the same time, the one who has successfully completed the initial stages achieves the greatest success.

Analyzing the current situation in the labor market, we can say that every year new professions appear. Be prepared for the fact that you will have to regularly improve your skills, master related professions. Changing the choice, mastering a new specialty will make you a valuable specialist in demand in interdisciplinary fields of activity. The first profession, even if you then change your mind and find something more attractive, come in handy in unexpected situations.

For example, a psychologist, having acquired additional knowledge in the field of management and labor office work, can build his career in the field of personnel management. Also the economist foreign economic activity inevitably faces legal matters, so it is often necessary to receive legal education, which may allow him to change the scope of activities. AT recent times in the manufacturing and industrial sectors, managers and marketers with basic technical education are required.

Scientific and technological progress requires the possession of new information technology and means of communication, and this applies not only to specialists of the middle and top management, but also working professions, because production becomes high-tech.

To date, educational services for adults have become widespread: various professional courses from masons to currency traders, the second higher education and professional retraining, higher education on the basis of secondary vocational education, refresher courses and courses of foreign languages, rhetoric, and so on. In addition, there are government programs for the retraining of specialists, for example, retired military personnel or unemployed citizens, etc.

2. Current opinions about the prestige of the profession.

With regard to the profession, prejudices are manifested in the fact that some important professions for society, occupations are considered unworthy, indecent. Everyone wants to work beautifully, but who will do the “dirty, ugly” work?

high income and social status in society - the main criteria by which a conclusion is made: a profession is prestigious or not. Career magazine often features articles on career building based on examples of individual successful individuals, from which it follows that a really good education is a solid foundation for building a career, but this is only the beginning of a long journey. Talk to your parents, acquaintances, many studied at institutes, what are their classmates doing now? Who has been successful and how? All received the same profession, however, salaries and social status and even areas of activity are different.

The prestige of the profession largely depends on the mood in society, on the ideals and principles among young people, and, as you know, they change. The easiest way to trace this is in the history of our country.In the 60s, the profession of a geologist, for example, or a design engineer was very popular and prestigious among young people.. What happened to these professions during the years of "stagnation"? Playing chess in the workplace, boring uninteresting work, low wages - all these were attributes of the engineering profession.As a result, technical universities have problems with recruitment, and those who graduate from a technical university do not go to work in their specialty.Today, production is being revived, many intermediary firms working in the industry need young energetic specialists with a technical education, which are very few. The limited supply makes these specialists very in demand, and therefore well paid. Thus, the prestige of a profession also depends on the state of the labor market.

Of course, there are professions that are called “for all time”, which are always prestigious, but these are mainly creative professions: actors, musicians, artists, etc. However, is it prestigious to be an actor without roles, or a musician without listeners?

3. The choice of profession under the direct or indirect influence of comrades (i.e. "For the company").

Most often, this mistake occurs when the choice of profession is carried out only on the basis of interests and inclinations. As you know, friends, first of all, are united by common interests and hobbies. Therefore, choosing the same profession with a friend for teenagers is considered absolutely natural. It also happens because of the fear of independent choice, the fear of making a mistake. Often, simply because of laziness, for example, a friend and his parents found out everything, chose an educational institution, everyone weighed why they should do something else. Many high school students perceive admission to a university as a certain stage of fun (student) to which it is better to go with a friend. Strange as it may seem, many people don’t care where they go to study, they used to go to school together, now we’ll go to a vocational school or a technical school together. Of course, this is not correct. Firstly, each person is an individual and has his own unique set of abilities and inclinations.Example: Vasya goes to the fireman (and he is a risky and fearless person), and Kolya, following him (very cautious and reasonable by nature), as a result, Vasya will still be a fireman, but Kolya is unlikely.Secondly, each family has its own opportunities that you may not know about.

4. Transfer of attitude towards a person - a representative of a particular profession - to the profession itself.

When choosing a profession, it is necessary to take into account, first of all, the features of this type of activity, and not choose a profession just because you like or dislike the person who is engaged in this type of activity. The charm of the teacher is especially important(if you admire the sincerity of a physicist, this does not mean that you like to do physics) . In addition, one should not strive to get the profession of an idol - an athlete, politician, journalist, artist.

5. Fascination only with the external or some private side of the profession.

Psychologically, we tend to pay attention to the most attractive features of this or that activity for us.. And we do not think about many other aspects at all. As a result, the image of even a well-known profession is significantly distorted. Indeed, behind the ease with which the actor creates an image on stage, there is intense everyday work. And journalists do not always appear on TV programs - more often they sort through a lot of information, archives, talk to dozens of people - before they prepare a 10-minute report.

Very clearly examples of such a series of illusions are found by applicants from pedagogical universities. Many people are brought here by their passion for their favorite science (mathematics, interest in history, etc.), but the actual work of a teacher, a teacher, attracts little.

Let's take the design profession as an example. The work of a designer is associated, first of all, with creativity, with a free schedule, big money, communication with interesting and wealthy people, as well as fame and social life. However, this profession also has unattractive sides. First of all, it is painstaking and hard work, often associated with physical exertion. Work on a certain project can last several weeks, or even months without days off. In addition, we must not forget that the designer works for the customer, therefore, he must take into account the wishes of the client and his vision of the result of the work, which do not always coincide with the creative idea of ​​the designer himself. But most main difficulty in this profession is employment. Even the largest firms work "from order to order" and this break can be quite large. The competition in this market is already high. As in any creative profession, the recognition of a designer as a professional may come already at the institute, or it may never come. Unfortunately, this does not even depend on the ability and measure of talent.

6. Identification of a school subject with a profession or a poor distinction between these concepts.

First of all, when choosing a profession, one must take into account what real occupations and professions are behind it.There is such a subject as a foreign language, and there are many professions that require the ability to speak a language - an interpreter, a guide, an international telephone operator, etc. And a person with a linguistic education can work as a teacher, translator, editor, and secretary-referent.

It is important to know that there are more professions than school subjects.

7. Outdated ideas about the nature of labor in the sphere of material production.

At present, complex and interesting equipment is being introduced into all professions, and above all into workers, and the culture of work is being raised. And the computer is being introduced into all spheres of activity - up to animal husbandry.

8. Inability to understand, lack of habit to understand one's personal qualities.

Professional consultants, parents, teachers, friends can help you understand yourself. Psychological tests can also be useful, but the purpose of the tests is to activate the activity of self-knowledge (i.e. self-observation, introspection), do not expect a ready-made answer from the test.

9. Ignorance or underestimation of their physical features, shortcomings, essential when choosing a profession.

The price of this mistake is very high - it is health. Many adolescents with health problems do not correlate them with their choice of profession. They choose an educational institution, pass exams, but do not pass a medical examination, for health reasons. And at this stage, parents begin to connect, look for all sorts of ways for the child to be in the chosen educational institution. But the fact is that medical contraindications did not appear by chance, since there are professions in which a long-term stress of certain physiological systems is required.(For example: computer scientists and tailors strain their eyes a lot, and pilots strain their hearts).Therefore, not the ratio of professional activity and health can lead to the most serious consequences.

10. Ignorance of the main actions, operations and their order in solving, thinking over the problem when choosing a profession.

The main thing here is for the teenager to get creative and develop his own plan for himself - a list of actions necessary for choosing a profession. This may include: analysis of offers in the education market, analysis of demand in the labor market, an objective assessment of one's abilities, inclinations and knowledge. An important assistant in this can be: career guidance lessons, which should teach you the basics of choosing the right profession and technologies for choosing an educational institution.

Many schools have their own psychological services, where specialists can provide the necessary consultations, if there are none, then the schools have information about specialized district and city organizations where you will be assisted in professional self-determination. Many teenagers do not even know where to start choosing the appropriate profession, and often tend to shift the responsibility to others, such as parents or teachers.

When a profession is chosen, an equally important question inevitably arises, where to get it. Market educational services is extremely unstable, educational institutions appear and close, state educational standards the names of specialties and qualifications change. It's almost impossible to figure this out on your own. Very often, applicants and parents do not even know what to ask at the Open Day or at the Admissions Committee. The selection of an educational institution must be carried out very carefully. A random choice of an educational institution can lead to the most unexpected consequences: you may not receive a state diploma, or another specialty will be written in this diploma, the university may simply close, it may turn out that the practice will not be organized, and in this case, where will the practical skills come from etc.

1. Self professional orientation/ Under total Ed. V.D. Rozhkov. - St. Petersburg: LLC "Forteks", 2002. - 136 p. From 55-56

2. Organization of career guidance in educational institutions.Part 2. Bryansk, 1999, pp. 13-16