Jobs your teens went on to do

[folkie]

Our daughter did A levels in Psychology, Music and Theatre Studies and AS English and did a musical theatre degree, it was all she's ever wanted to do. However she rapidly realised that she was a small fish in a rather large pond and although very talented she just wasn't as good as some of the others, and the competition was intense.
When she left uni she started as a Christmas temp at Toys R Us, then was made permanent. After a couple of years she got a job as a TA at a secondary school, then was offered a paid teacher training place so she became an English teacher. However, she hated it - she'd really enjoyed the TA work but being a class teacher was too much for her, and both her physical and mental health suffered as a result. She was eventually signed off on long term sick leave and ended up resigning.
After her health had recovered she got a job at a local gift shop, then was actually offered a professional acting job with a Theatre in Education tour. From that she was able to get her Equity card, something a lot of her uni peers never managed to do, but sadly the tour was cut short by Covid. She then went on to teach English online to Chinese children, and did online tutoring in English for the government's catch-up scheme.
Finally, and most recently, she's got a job back as a TA in our village primary school. She's done a week and so far she loves it. It's going really well so I hope that's it for her - at least for a while!

Our son always wanted to be a computer games designer. He did A level Electronics and a BTec in Computer Studies, then a degree and a Masters in Computer Games Design and Production. He'd always just scraped through at school, but at uni he was very successful and got a 1st, probably because he was, at last, very interested in what he was learning.
He had several jobs as a games tester and while doing this he and his dad/my husband built a combat robot and entered Robot Wars on the BBC, they competed twice. He then entered BattleBots in the US and has also competed twice on that (it would have been four times but they weren't able to travel over to the US for filming last year or this year due to Covid).
To support this hobby he has taught himself CAD to a high level and developed a lot of engineering design skills. Entirely as a result of this he was recommended to a specialist engineering company by a friend. Due to his CAD skills and real-world problem-solving abilities gained from robot combat, he was offered a job. He's now a Mechanical Design Engineer on a much higher salary than he had in the games industry, and has a lot of responsibility. He loves every minute of it. His company have even sponsored his BattleBots combat robot for the next season.
Oh, and last week he and his girlfriend got engaged. She was on the old Robot Wars series as a small child with her dad's team. They met through a dating app as he'd mentioned being a roboteer on his profile, and that was the common interest that got them together. So I think you could say that Robot Wars has been responsible for both his private life and his career!

[sparklegirl]

Originally Posted by fissycist

DD2 aged 17 wanted to study medicine at university until about a year ago but changed her mind and doesn’t know what she wants to do. She loves her football and has been selected to play for a ladies team so now we are thinking about looking into a soccer scholarship at an American University. Scary stuff but I am told it would be her best opportunity if she is serious about football.
She wants to sort it out for herself and doesn’t want my input …. Hard for person whom likes to organise😉
At the end of the day I don’t want to push her in any direction and just want her to be happy. It doesn’t matter if she needs to take a year out to decide. Life is too short and I would rather she didn’t agonise over trying something she really isn’t sure about.
I think it will work out for the best one way or another - my own path to my final career was a bumpy ride so I just need to take a back seat until she works it out.

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I have a friend who did that and she got over 100 caps for Scotland. She went to Florida Atlantic University and had a fabulous time. She is now in her 40's and is a firefighter but what a life experience she has had.

[Princess Alison]

Originally Posted by folkie

Our daughter did A levels in Psychology, Music and Theatre Studies and AS English and did a musical theatre degree, it was all she's ever wanted to do. However she rapidly realised that she was a small fish in a rather large pond and although very talented she just wasn't as good as some of the others, and the competition was intense.
When she left uni she started as a Christmas temp at Toys R Us, then was made permanent. After a couple of years she got a job as a TA at a secondary school, then was offered a paid teacher training place so she became an English teacher. However, she hated it - she'd really enjoyed the TA work but being a class teacher was too much for her, and both her physical and mental health suffered as a result. She was eventually signed off on long term sick leave and ended up resigning.
After her health had recovered she got a job at a local gift shop, then was actually offered a professional acting job with a Theatre in Education tour. From that she was able to get her Equity card, something a lot of her uni peers never managed to do, but sadly the tour was cut short by Covid. She then went on to teach English online to Chinese children, and did online tutoring in English for the government's catch-up scheme.
Finally, and most recently, she's got a job back as a TA in our village primary school. She's done a week and so far she loves it. It's going really well so I hope that's it for her - at least for while!

Our son always wanted to be a computer games designer. He did A level Electronics and a BTec in Computer Studies, then a degree and a Masters in Computer Games Design and Production. He'd always just scraped through at school, but at uni he was very successful and got a 1st, probably because he was, at last, very interested in what he was learning.
He had several jobs as a games tester and while doing this he and his dad/my husband built a combat robot and entered Robot Wars on the BBC, they competed twice. He then entered BattleBots in the US and has also competed twice on that (it would have been four times but they weren't able to travel over to the US for filming last year or this year due to Covid).
To support this hobby he has taught himself CAD to a high level and developed a lot of engineering design skills. Entirely as a result of this he was recommended to a specialist engineering company by a friend and, due to his CAD skills and real-world problem-solving abilities from robot combat, he was offered a job. He's now a Mechanical Design Engineer on a much higher salary than he had in the games industry, and has a lot of responsibility. He loves every minute of it. His company have even sponsored his BattleBots combat robot for the next season.
Oh, and last week he and his girlfriend got engaged. She was on the old Robot Wars series as a small child with her dad's team. They met through a dating app as he'd mentioned being a roboteer on his profile, and that was the common interest that got them together. So I think you could say that Robot Wars has been responsible for both his private life and his career!

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This was a fascinating read, thank you for posting.

[Scotty]

There are at least 3 in this thread whose offspring have gone on to cyber security.
Interesting.

[vanlou]

Eldest wasn’t really sure what she wanted to do so went with her strengths which was English. She did English, English Lit & sociology at A level and has just got her degree in English at Plymouth Uni. She has decided that it is actual books she loves so is due to start her Masters in publishing next week at Kingston Uni.
Youngest has always loved doing special effects make up so knew from quite early on that she wanted to do that. She did level 2 Beauty Therapy and level 3 media make up & nail technician at College and is just about to start her degree in media make up at Taunton.
She didn’t really want to do the beauty therapy but you couldn’t do the make up as a level 2. But actually she enjoyed it, and it has given her a career to fall back on if necessary.
All very exciting (and nerve wracking ).