The pressure we put on young people to make definitive career choices

 

When I graduated from college in 1992, I had what I thought was a pretty clear career path.

I had been working full time as a sports writer for The News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio, since the previous November. I started four years earlier as a sports clerk at the paper (and subsequently spent a year at the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Lake-Geauga Bureau), and figured journalism was what I would do for the next 40+ years.

As a sports guy, my thought was that eventually I would take over a professional beat at a local paper (Browns, Indians, or Cavs), travel with the team I covered, and maybe someday even become a columnist. I loved what I was doing, and that was the obvious way forward.

Except, as is almost always the case, the path had some unforeseen twists and turns.

For one thing, Terry and I started having kids. Covering sports is, as you might imagine, a night job. Games take place in the evening. The paper is put together then, as well. It was clear that, if I remained a sports writer, I was going to miss out on a whole lot of kids activities.

There's also the little matter of salary. Well, the matter itself was not little, but the salary certainly was. I needed to make more money.

Those were the two factors that drove me to leave the newspaper biz in 1996 and get into technical writing and editing, and eventually move into corporate communications, where I enjoyed better hours and better pay.

It all worked out for the best.

The point is, I could not have known what was going to happen when I was in my early 20s. No one can.

That's why I never understand why kids are forced to make potentially life-changing career decisions at the ages of 18, 19, 20, etc. Through no fault of their own, they can't begin to imagine what life will be like when they're in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, let alone how they're going to make their living then.

People change. The job market changes. Technology changes. Sometimes in ways we can predict, most often not.

So if you're 20 years old and worried about the fact that you don't seem to have a life plan like some of your friends, may I offer you some advice?

Take a deep breath and relax. You're just fine. I understand the need to gain some sort of focus so that you begin to prepare yourself for the world of work appropriately, but as you do it, take it all with a grain of salt.

Your life is going to evolve. There are certain skills and work habits that will help you no matter what vocation you choose, but when it comes to specialized knowledge, understand that you'll never stop learning.

Nor should you.

What you choose to do now may not be what you choose to do in 10 years. Or 20. Or 30. Or maybe it will be.

The point is, your life will not be ruined if you eventually deviate from whatever career path you select here at the outset.

That's OK.

And so are you.