At 16 I had no idea. My dad wanted me to do an apprenticeship in his trade (electrician) and my mum wanted me to go to Uni. Mum won and I graduated in 2 science subjects but still had no idea. At that point I did a 1 year post graduate course in Plastics and was no wiser when I had completed this but had narrowed the choice down to 3 possible options- Production, R and D or Sales. First job was in R and D but over my career did all 3 finishing in Sales. As other people have said he should find a career path that he likes because it looks as though the kids of today are going to be a long time working. Fortunately I was able to finish work when I was 47.
I'm an electrical engineer and I ****ing hate it. I agree that I've done all right out of it and I've never been out of work but it's frustrating as ****. It's not the work itself. It's the way you are treated. I swear the office tea boy is better thought of than us in engineering. In fact I think he's just become our manager. Think I'd try to go into physiotherapy if I had my time over. I bet that's quite rewarding and well paid from what I hear. With all the **** going on in the world right now I don't think I'd recommend any one joining the armed forces. Sounds like a good way to die young to me.
I told my careers officer I wanted to play guitar in The Clash and she told me to get out her office, miserable cow. My lad finished his A levels this year and seems to now be aiming to be a professional holiday maker, he's done a week in Crete, five weeks in Portugal and he's about to do five weeks in Nice. He'll be reading this, so get a job you lazy twat.
Depends on whether he likes working with his hands or his head. I can never get a tradesman when I want one, so to train as a Plumber for example might now be a bad route, as you can set up your own company in time and be your own boss.
At age 14 I wrote my first piece of software. That was 1972, and it set me on my career path, which 40 years on I am very happy with. It's enabled me to travel and provided provided a decent (if not brilliant) wage. It's a field where technological changes come thick and fast so it never gets boring. The advice I got when I went to Uni was not to look at pure software engineering options, rather to combine it with an application area. Semiconductors was the one I picked. The particular branch of the industry I am in is growing. I've been working for a British company since the mid-2000s and that time it's gone from roughly 1500 employees to about 3300 worldwide. We have a perpetual challenge to get enough quality graduates to fill the the openings we have in the UK so there are lots of opportunities. I checked the website today, 214 jobs currently listed of which about 150 are engineering of various types (plus another 20 or so in IT). Roughly half of these are in the UK.
[video=youtube;NK5-2fPyCjA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NK5-2fPyCjA#t=17[/video]
If I knew what I know now I would definitely have done an engineering degree. Having said that though, I left school at 16 with good grades and decided I wanted to work. That decision has led me to where am I now. I wouldn't have been here if I'd carried on at school/college. Funny how things work out
Wanted to be an astronomer at school but was persuaded to do chemistry, went to Uni & got a degree and am now (36 years later) a University Lecturer. Have had a varied career path but always employed. Not earned a fortune but its been fun. Would recommend it
The internet is after your job. Guardian piece New technology can destroy jobs. In the past, this has mainly affected unskilled jobs, but now it's hitting the middle classes – cutting a swathe across the creative industries and 'professions'. Within a generation we may find that there are no such things as a 'career' or 'job security'. What's driving this disruption to our working lives – and what can you do about it?
Almost any career advice could send a youngster down a dead end due to unexpected innovations in technology. I read architects are under great threat from software which can do much of the work now.
It does really come down to how mobile you are willing to be. They produced a list of how automatable jobs were over the next few years. Things that need a physical presence were obviously the least automatable. As someone who has done a degree in Space Physics, done a stint as an accountant (which I loathed), done a masters in Aerodynamics and am now tying up loose ends on a Mechanical/Aeronautical Engineering PhD, I would tell him to do an apprenticeship or some internship (that will lead to a paid position after a few months) in some field that interests him (or alternatively one of the big employers in Hull such as BP or Smith and Nephew). For those that are advocating the space industry or engineering, I'm starting to feel like it must be me as I've never had any luck with jobs in any of those fields. Regarding student debt at uni, the interest on it kicks in above inflation from year 1 so that, after 3 years of £9,000 tuition fees (plus presumably some living expenses), you'll need to earn over £40k from graduation to even pay off the interest on it (let alone the lump sum) and then pay 9% extra income tax on anything above £21k for most of your working life. Edit to add: Here's a link to the paper (starting at page 57 for the jobs) http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf
Don't get a job, make it into a job. Once on holiday in Luxembourg i came accross a freelance photo journalist travelling around Europe in a nice camper van doing stories for travel mags.
