Richard Littler
Just recalled my school work experience.
Career advisor: "What's your dream placement? Think big!"
Me: "I'd like to work in TV, film or..."
Career advisor: "What's your dad's job?"
Me: "Sales rep in a menswear firm"
Career advisor: "Ok, so I'm placing you in a dept store in menswear. Have fun!"
Mar 24 at 10:18amWeb
Show threadArratoon3d ago
@Richard_Littler Ha. Our careers officer was obviously on a kickback to get people to join the careers service, and became increasingly deflated after hundreds of sarky Geordie kids said no way to that.
Show threadHelen LH3d ago
@Richard_Littler careers advisors were terrible when I was at school! I said I wanted to be a teacher or a librarian. My careers adviser said you are too thick, just get a job in a shop.
Show threadCharlie Stross3d ago

@Richard_Littler

That sounds familiar!

Careers: what do you want to do?
Me: I want to be an SF novelist.
Careers: hmm, there's no path in for that. Have you considered becoming a pharmacist?

(Reader: I became a pharmacist. You do not want a pharmacist with undiagnosed AuDHD, and the pharmacist with undiagnosed AuDHD does not want to deal with two police stake-outs in one month. I went back to study computer science, which hadn't been available first time round ...)

Show threadAdvanced Persistent Teapot3d ago

@cstross @Richard_Littler they told me I should be a librarian, and this was when comp sci *was* already a thing (presumably because my answers to their quiz said I liked books)

Those things are so desperately inadequate I've had a repeated urge to go back to my old school and tell all the current kids not to be disheartened by it

Show threadColman Reilly3d ago

@http_error_418 @cstross @Richard_Littler complete perplexity when I said I wanted to do a mathematics degree but had no interest in being a teacher.

In those days Maths in Trinity College Dublin was minimum points entry due to lack of demand: no one had invented “STEM” yet. If I didn’t get that I wasn’t getting anything else. They still insisted I fill out nine other options. Would I consider applying for actuarial training? <sigh>

Useless.

Show threadQuinn Norton3d ago

@cstross @Richard_Littler I was told that I'd never be a writer by my guidance counselor, who suggested I get a low wage job that I could hold down and focus on staying out of prison.

She expected too much of me. Never was able to hold down that day job.

Show threadChris Hanson3d ago
@quinn @cstross @Richard_Littler All of this potential wasted at the alter of profit for the aristocracy. Federation communism now.
Show threadCharlie Stross3d ago
@eschaton @quinn @Richard_Littler I'm holding out for the Culture.
Show threadQuinn Norton3d ago

@cstross @eschaton @Richard_Littler word.

Though I really don't want to end up in Use of Weapons thankyouverymuch

Show threadChris Hanson3d ago
@cstross @quinn @Richard_Littler I don’t want to let the better be the enemy of the good.
Show threadMatt3d ago

@Richard_Littler

Me: I want to be an electronics engineer.
CA: Oh an engineer, like being a metalworker.

I honestly kid you not.

Show threadThat’s a moray3d ago
@Richard_Littler Career advisor down the pub afterwards: fookin kids, like I would know anyone who works in telly. If I knew anyone who works in telly d'ya think I'd be working as a career advisor?
Show threadBez Lightyear3d ago
@Richard_Littler Careers officer to a room of us 3rd years: "You want to be an artist, an actor, a writer, a singer? Don't bother, there are already people much better than you will ever be."
Show threadTony Hoyle3d ago

@Richard_Littler Mine was:

'I want to work with computers'
'We have openings in the library. That's more your level'.

Somehow careers advisers, based on knowing you for 5 minutes, knew exactly what you were and weren't capable of more than you did.

Show threadCharnock3d ago
@Richard_Littler My school made us do a JigCal which was meant to be an occupational suitability work inventory, and they did it *after* you'd already selected your O-Levels so it was a complete waste of time and told me I should be a Historian.
Show threadStrange Quark3d ago

@Printdevil I got airline pilot.

Computer Scientist was not on JiigCal's top 10 list because it hadn't been invented yet.

Which was odd, because the system ran on a giant Thinking Machine in Edinburgh.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7463561.stm

@Richard_Littler

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | The computer that predicted the future

How the Jiig-Cal computer predicted pupils' career paths more than 20 years ago

Show threadCharnock3d ago

Actually Computer Operator or something similar was on it. It was probably called something quaint like VDUmonkey.

It noticeably didn't have Occultist.

@strangequark @Richard_Littler

Show threadAnarchic Teapot ⚧️3d ago

@Richard_Littler We didn't get work experience. I think we were expected to magically know about all professions without being exposed to them in any way, same as with sex.

I'd have loved to be able to reply "CPO on a nuclear submarine"

Show threadHugo Mills3d ago

@Richard_Littler I did two tests. The one from the school gave me a list of 19 options, all of which included the word "engineer".

The one from my dad (who was testing it out for his business) came up with a mere six suggestions, which included surgeon, concrete sculptor, landscape gardener, and scuba diving instructor.

Show threadΔLLICΘRN3d ago

@Richard_Littler Mine suggested I become a weather forecaster. This, because my hyperfixation du jour (probably, a few weeks actually) was meteorological jargon.

Could just as easily have been any other field featuring memorizable tabular data that I'd decided I absolutely must put into my brain.

Show threadHelga3d ago
@Richard_Littler I wanted to be a pilot. They suggested secretarial work and had me sit the public service exam.
Show threadPhil Haigh3d ago
@Richard_Littler I avoided work experience. Fortunately it wasn’t a big thing in our school in the early 80’s, I reckon less than 20% of my year group did anything.
Show threadGillinger3d ago
@Richard_Littler
I was assessed in my 3rd year at high school (1966). I was good at Geography, English and Art. I was hopeless at maths and the sciences. One look at my school reports would have shown that.
When asked what I wanted to be when I left school, for some unknown reason, I said Radiographer. So they put me in the science stream.
I never learned another thing for two years.
Show threadMark Mason3d ago
@Richard_Littler I left school in 1979. I was asked what I wanted to do. ‘There’s nothing like that around here’ and I was sent, along with most of the boys, to take aptitude tests for apprenticeships at
3 different engineering works. I didn’t get in but as it turned out all 3 works closed down within a couple of years.
Show threadbazzargh3d ago
@Richard_Littler Career advisor: think big, I know one family where generations of kids like you with unrealistic dreams of being astronauts or cowboys got their start as hereditary rulers of this kingdom at their dad the king's workplace
Show threadWolf in PDX3d ago

@Richard_Littler

I wanted to do something with computers. Build them, program them, learn more about the Internet. This was 1993. In 1995, my senior year of high school, guidance counselor got me an interview with the electronic engineering department head at a local college. She had no idea what she was doing.

Dear reader, I'm red-green colorblind and have dyscalclia. Even if I knew how, I can't read a resistor value to save my life. I could literally kill someone trying to solder a circuit.

Show threadColette3d ago
@Richard_Littler Early 70s, I said I wanted to work with computers. I was told it would never be possible as I wasn't doing maths/physics/chemistry A level. Ignored them (and the people who said 'You're good at English, you should be a secretary') and after a 46 year career in IT I think I've comprehensively proved them wrong.
Show threadadamrice3d ago
@Richard_Littler My high school didn’t have a career advisor. It did have a college counselor. When she saw my standardized-test scores, she was very excited. The sky’s the limit. When she later saw my grades, she suggested I enlist in the military. I didn’t.
Show threadJaime Robertson3d ago
@adamrice @Richard_Littler Same. My high school’s idea of career counseling was to bring in recruiters.
I also scored well on tests, and had bad grades. Turns out that’s common with autistics. Who knew?
Show threadMike Smale3d ago
@Richard_Littler My high school guidance counselor told me I was better off avoiding college and working at McDonald's. I was a straight-A student so why she suggested that is still a mystery, and I graduated college with high honours and started my own business right out of high school.
Show threadPteryx the Puzzle Secretary3d ago

@Richard_Littler
It isn't just school ones either. I tried consulting with the career center in the city I lived in at the time. They did aptitude testing, concluded I could do anything, and asked what I *wanted* to do.

I tried to explain that I wanted a work environment that was healthy and supportive. That beyond wanting to be sure I was doing something *moral* and not working for a tobacco company or something, it only mattered *who* I was working with.

1/2

Show threadPteryx the Puzzle Secretary3d ago

@Richard_Littler
This *did not compute*. They assumed I meant I didn't *know* what I wanted to do because (again) I could do anything I wanted, and kept throwing me at random job visits to see what would stick — again, visits that were centered on *what you do in that job*.

They were so thick and so persistent that after a while I had to start hiding the mailings so my parents wouldn't keep forcing me to put up with that whole charade.

2/2