A Parent’s Role in Career Choices

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The Pathways Program is an education services enterprise that provides career guidance and skill development programmes to high school and college students. More than 5000 students are enrolled in The Pathways Program across schools in Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore and Bangalore. Pathways also contributes a regular bimonthly column – Road Map – to the Education Plus supplement of The Hindu. Dr. Ramakrishnan believes that career guidance is not just about helping a student choose between science and commerce or the right college. It should actually help students understand what working involves, analyse their interests and strengths, and then choose a career that is right for them. When high-schools students are deciding which area of study to pursue at the undergraduate level, who or what influences this decision – peers, parents, or teachers? Parents continue to be the key influencers of this decision. If not parents, it could be other members of the larger family like uncles/aunts or in some cases, friends of parents. Peers are next. Teachers actually play a minimal role. What role do parents play in influencing their children’s choice of career today? Most parents have a plan in mind for their children. The roles played could be proactive, where the parent acts as a facilitator and helps the child understand the options available, or reactive where not much time and thought is given to the decision. Ideally, parents should discuss this in depth with their children, and the specifics of the situation should be addressed. Let me explain the two roles by talking about two situations and the types of interchange that can occur: facts. On probing, it is clear that the son’s sudden interest in medicine was influenced by a television serial (Grey’s Anatomy). But unfortunately what is shown in these serials is not the real picture of healthcare. The father wants his son’s decision to be based on an informed view of a career in medicine and not by the glamour of what’s shown on television. Hence, he arranges a six-week programme for his son, where the latter shadows doctors and tries to understand the ‘real world’ of medicine. In this case, the parents are helping the child understand specifics of the career so he can make an informed decision. Example 2 – reactive/bad conversation: Father – Son, do engineering. Son – I am not interested in engineering. Father – What do you want to do? Son – I don’t know …. Father – Then do engineering! In today’s world, the roles parents play have to expand and more time should be devoted to career-choice discussions. There is a pressing need to increase ‘good conversations’! In your opinion, to what extent should a parent influence a child’s choice of career? Parents have to play a major role as the role of school teachers in our country is minimal, unlike in the west where schools have a counsellor who assists considerably in the process. Since this is not a straightforward decision to make, getting it right is important. It is the parent’s duty to present all the variables to their children, have a frank discussion about their financial assets and investments, and explore and understand the child’s interest and strengths. Sufficient time should be invested in structured discussions. Example 1 – proactive/good conversation: A parent who is running a flourishing business may not immediately warm up to the idea of his son doing medicine. However, instead of dissuading the son, the father seeks to ensure that he makes a fully informed decision based on the right 54 May - June 2013
Are parents more accepting of children’s interest and choices, especially when they are not mainstream? Parents today have definitely become more accepting of children’s choices. The definition of mainstream itself has broadened! Even until just 15 years ago, children could choose only between engineering, medicine or commerce, but now the definition of mainstream includes Hotel Management, Human Resources Management, Business Management, and Languages – making a career as a translator is well accepted. Parents see that there are more options and also realise that they may not be as informed as their children about these choices – hence, they are more willing to consider their children’s decisions. Of course, there is still some resistance to more unusual choices – if the child says he wants to become an actor for instance – as these still fall outside what is defined as mainstream and parents are concerned about the success of the child. I think as long as parents see a ‘credible plan of action’ they will be more accepting of different choices. Do you see a difference in the way parents approach career choices in metros vs. tier-2 towns? In metros, parents (and children) have access to a wider variety of people in different careers. Hence, their awareness levels are higher than those from smaller towns and they, therefore, tend to be more open. However, the approach to selecting a career is not significantly different – in both regions, there is an overwhelming importance placed on the selection of the course and college, and less on the actual career the child is going to pursue. Could you name a few factors that influence a parent’s choice? Do you find these reasonable? • Familiarity with the choice, their experience or a friend’s/family member’s experience: For example, a family of doctors may not resist too much if their child wants to become a chartered accountant, as they may be aware of many successful chartered accountants. • Successful role models: If parents are not familiar with the child’s choice, they will look for successful role models in that field. • The parents’ own unfulfilled dreams: For example, compelling their child into a career in sports; or if their own choice of career has made them unhappy, this will prompt them to discourage the child from choosing the same. Finances are not seen as an influencer, but more as a constraint; and there are numerous ways to overcome these constraints. For example, an expensive professional degree need not be the only path to become an Investment Banker or a Brand Manager – there could be other paths. In many cases, once the child is clear on what he wants to do, he can identify different ways to get there! Dr. Ramakrishnan recommends three areas students and parents should pay attention to when investigating various career options: Interest: Check if interest actually matches with what your child intends to do – for example in the case of medicine, is he really interested in interacting with people and helping them? Skills: Does he have the required skills, or the opportunity to develop these skills? What is required to be successful as a doctor is different from what is required to get a medical college seat. For the latter, you need to secure high grades and score well in an entrance test. But to become a great surgeon, for example, you need excellent hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, the ability to work well under pressure, empathy, and good communication skills. Lifestyle: Does his vision of the lifestyle he envisages actually match the career choice? For example, if you become a management consultant, you may have to travel a lot and be away from your family for a large part of the week. Is this something that he is prepared to do? So your child may need to reconcile his expectations to reality. May - June 2013 55
Page 1: The sheer variety in career options
Page 5: Learnings from a Parent’s Journey

A Parent’s Role in Career Choices

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