Career Path(s)

Shortly after declaring her college of choice and ending a decision period that made LeBron James’ appear instantaneous, my daughter somberly announced at the dinner table that she was worried about post-graduation and what she was going to do.

As I would later find out, no, not her high school graduation, which is roughly four weeks away, but her COLLEGE commencement. I looked at her incredulously and told her to examine the situation both calmly and rationally.

I explained that she had not yet attended a single college class, let alone find herself somewhat career rudderless in the final semester of her senior year.

By coincidence, providence, or a combination of both, I read an article that detailed how college graduates should prepare for multiple careers and about 60 years of work – and no, that’s not a misprint – 60. Today’s graduates will likely hold far more jobs and pursue more careers than generations past.

According to current statistics, Americans seem to have somewhere between seven and 11 or more jobs in a lifetime and work more than 40 years. Considering the very modest size of my retirement portfolio, I will more than likely be forced to launch an Internet start-up when I’m in the retirement home.

But I digress.

The good news is that today’s graduates will have more options – a trend no doubt propelled by the accelerated pace of technology as well as a burgeoning global economy.

That’s something the accounting profession found out the hard way about a decade ago at the height of the tech and financial boom, when it lost of lot of potential CPAs to the lure of Silicon Valley as well as Wall Street. Somehow it was slow to catch on to the fact that requiring a recent grad to work 2,800 hours to make partner was really no match against sharing in billion-dollar technology IPOs or seven-figure hedge fund commissions.

Fortunately the profession launched a significant marketing and educational campaign to draw accounting majors back into the fold.

But back to the concern at the home front. I explained to my bright and very ambitious 17-year-old (please indulge my paternal bragging)  that her father had a number of careers before his current post, so being unsure of what career path to take four years down the road doesn’t exactly qualify as a crises.

She nodded and the conversation turned to a subject with a more familiar ring – such as why there were more clothes on the floor of her room than a display rack at Macy’s. For some reason, that’s a situation she’s never expressed even the remotest concern over.