The Importance of Career Guidance & Career Choices

Welcome back. Now we've spent this morning, it's been so engaging, chatting about the bridging of that gap between high school or possibly tertiary education and your career, your calling. Now is the time to delve a little bit deeper into this topic, chatting about the importance of career guidance and those career choices. And I hate the fact that they kind of loom above us. It should be seen as an opportunity to start something amazing. And you're going to, trust me, start a few new things in your life as you progress. So don't get too locked in one lane. Now, career guidance plays a vital role in helping young teens and adults to shape and nurture their futures. And joining us for this conversation is psychometrist, career guide, and author Melanie Williams alongside three incredible young people who have been involved in the Future Me Career Festival in various ways. We've got Angel Mandviliwala, we've got Jonathan Mongala and Lalita Pendu. Guys, welcome to our curved couch this morning. It's so good to have you guys here. Thank you so much. Melanie, I'm glad that you're here. First of all, thank you for working in this space because I think this is where we need that light to shine. Let's start off by establishing the importance of career guidance because a lot of the experts that we've spoken to today have spoken about a sore lacking of the right kind of career guidance. Why do we need this in high schools and what is that role, do you think? Thanks so much, Graham. Yeah, I think that career guidance is vital for these young folk and just, you know, we all wish we had had someone to guide us back in the day. It's really tough in the school system right now. We have a great subject called life orientation, which is compulsory and everyone gets to do it. But that means that so many teachers are kind of forced into teaching life orientation and maybe that's not their area of expertise. So, you know, you could have a geography teacher teaching life orientation, which is fine, no offence to geography teachers, but yeah, there's a gap in our schools. And I think that the way to close that, Graham, is really for our young folk and teachers to realise that the experts are the people in industry doing the job and just calling them in and asking them, how did you get here? How did you find your calling? How did you get onto that path? Because that's the real deal. That's the call phase. People are people. And this is the crazy thing. You might think you're working with a company or working within an industry, but ultimately you're working with people and all of us are completely different. And it's often finding the right cultural fit that will determine your long term success in a company rather than you being the best skilled person for that job, which might sound a little bit strange. But we kind of see this narrative playing out where within school, some subjects are kind of door openers, others might be taking you down a specialised path. Is this even a way of thinking that we should allow ourselves, because in my mind, all learning is good. No learning will ever be bad. But how should we approach subject choice when we don't really know what it is we want to do long term? How do you choose subjects to set a future that you don't know yet? Yeah, I'm sure the folk on the couch will have lots to say about the trauma they went through in grade nine when they had to choose their subjects. But just a couple of tips is to first not do what your friends are doing, or don't choose your class based on what your friends are doing. And also don't run away from subjects because you've got a dodgy, scary teacher, you know. But it's really about what is research have you done? What do you know about yourself? What do you know your strengths are? And there's a really awesome website out there, GoStudy.net, a really awesome website for grade nines and grade eights to be doing research around their own interests. So there's a great questionnaire on that website. But also around what does this career entail? Jonathan is thinking about doing engineering, and I'm sure you've done lots of reading on that. So yeah. I think you've got to know, but you've also got to be passionate about it. Because ultimately, you get to a point in your life where it's no longer a career, it's a calling. Yes. And you've got a job to fulfill in terms of what you want to achieve. Lalita, I'm going to start with you. Bachelor of Social Science at UCT. How did you go about choosing the right kind of subjects to take you here? And what about this makes you excited? Why is this your passion? Well, it started in high school. I guess everything starts in high school because I had this teacher, this history teacher called Miss Williams. And the way she taught history, she was very passionate about history. She came to school, she enjoyed the subject. And that made me interested. This is something I could do. This is so interesting. I could learn this. And then from the youngest I could remember, I always wanted to be a lawyer. And I'm like, what's the important subject in high school for you to become a lawyer? That's history, to know about history. And then when I got to varsity, I was like, I'm going to do law as a degree. But then I got introduced to Bachelor of Social Sciences degree, which is a pathway for you to actually get into law. So when I got to do the Bachelor of Social Sciences degree, I had to choose majors, like many subjects. And I chose philosophy, sociology, and history, which are perfect for law. Because history, that's a given. Philosophy is answering difficult questions of the world, that's beneficial for a lawyer. And in sociology, the study of society, that's very important for law. So that's how those subjects worked for me in my career choices, and how they're working well for me at BCT. And I can literally see in your eyes, when you talk about these things and making these discoveries, how excited it makes you. You went on that journey of discovery, and it's often, you might not see the first step, you might see step number five, and where you want to be 10 years from now. How do you get there? How do you get the job that gets you the job that gets you the job that you want? That's how life works. These amazing young people aren't going anywhere, we're going to chat to these, I'm going to call you kids, but I mean that with all due respect, because I'm really, really old. We're going to chat to these kids in just a moment. You can drop us a WhatsApp voice note, 063 408 8863, weigh in on the conversation, we'd love to hear from you. It's my feel good weekly show. Welcome back, you beautiful souls. Thank you so much for keeping it locked as we continue our discussion about the importance of career guidance. And now it's time to chat about something quite controversial, gap years, but ultimately finding your purpose, I think seems to be the underlying current here. Now, gap years are becoming more and more popular, giving individuals time to find themselves through traveling, through volunteering or other personal growth activities. But is it good or a bad thing for you to take that gap year when we've got psychometrist, career guide and author of The Good Gap Year, Melanie Williams, alongside three incredible young people who have all been involved in Future Me's career festival. I'm talking about Angel Manviwala, Jonathan Mongala and Lalit Pendu. Thank you so much. Angel, I'm going to start with you because we're having an amazing little conversation earlier. You know, when people consider taking maybe a gap year or they've got their plan, they want to go into varsity, they want to get their professional degree and that you've got a plan and then life happens and your plan changes completely. Now, you're one of Future Me's real success stories. They absolutely adore you. And I think as a result, shove you in front of every crowd and camera that they can with good reason, because where you are isn't where you intended to be, but man, it's where you should be. So talk us through the journey, your journey over the last kind of year, because it's been a bit of a crazy one. Yeah, it has been. It's been hectic. I matriculated in the year 2021 and I mean, I had goals for myself. I told myself I want to do this and I had a 10 year plan, you know, and we know plans do not go as we would like. So I closed my doors. I got a diploma pass. I didn't know where to go from there. For the month of January I was at home, February I worked a month. And I applied for a short course, a six month short course at UWC in software programming and multimedia social innovation. And when I resigned from my job, they were not happy with me, I must tell you. Of course. But I know that the decision I made is going to impact me in a good way. I know I'm doing what I can to secure my future. So I applied for the program. I got in. I did my six months from February till July. I graduated in the second week of August and I'm a junior software developer. And then I sat at home for the month of August and I applied again for the App Factory, Microsoft App Factory. And now I'm doing another nine months from this year, September to next year, June. And then from next July to July 2024, I have a one year paid internship. So I mean, I didn't work out how I wanted to, but on the side, I do still want my bachelor pass, you know, I want to integrate the software development with the education sector. I mean, who doesn't like robots? But that's where it's at, girl. But yeah, but this is where the world is moving. And you wouldn't have known if you didn't have the bravery to pick yourself back up and go and change your plan. And I hate to use the pivot word, but we're all pivoting constantly. But you're going to need to be able to do that. So well done for being brave enough to back yourself and go and try something. One failure. Trust me, life is failure every day. Every successful person I interview, when I ask them, what is failure? They're like, it's every day. You've got to do it. You've got to fail to know where you're going and what you do. Jonathan, you look terrified, man. Is the world so scary, bro? Now, I know being on TV is a crazy thing, but you're kind of sitting on the cusp of entering into this bright world of work. What scares you? What makes you nervous, dude? What are you worried about? So I think it's a problem because the way the world makes it seems like metric is a pivotal point. Yeah, because what you do in metric determines your entire lifespan. And it's it's kind of very scary because most most youths like myself are not aware of what awaits them out there. Exactly. Plans that they made have been cut off. Universities have denied the acceptance and they're kind of stuck about what am I going to do next year? And I think that's what youth need. They need a chance to express themselves and to find the confidence and the hope that metric isn't the end of everything. But there is a world out there for them. They just need to keep looking and so forth. It's quite a lot of words, but put it on a T-shirt, man. Put it on the front of the back and you can read it as you come and as you go. No, it's completely true. And I've been counseling so many of my friends through that period of metric because you feel like the world is coming to an end. So let's get practical here. What are those questions I need to be asking myself? Maybe Melanie and you guys can ask yourself this question right now while we are here. What do I need to ask myself when considering a gap year or going tertiary or a different route as a parent? How can I help my child with that question? What do we need to broach? Yeah, thanks, Graham. I think it's really if the if the student is really clear has always known what they want to do, has done their research, has done their job shadowing and knows this is what I want to study. This is where I want to study and is going for it. Then they must do that. They must do that. Follow through. Yeah. But we know we know the world has in quite a lot of upheaval post covid, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it's almost as if we need a gap to breathe. Yeah. And that's kind of what a gap year is. It can be a time just to breathe. But with with structure. Yeah. And so it's a time to explore other options. So doing some part time courses, there's some amazing free, brilliant online courses that students can do, but then also doing lots and lots of job shadowing because covid took that away from this generation in terms of them being in grade 10, 11, 12. They couldn't job shadow. And so gap year is a great opportunity to do that, to build up your personal network, to interview folk who are in the industry that you think you're passionate about. And when you've maybe spent time with them, it either confirms that or contradicts that. So, yeah, just building up your personal network, growing in confidence, studying part time, starting your own little business, maybe walking people's dogs, whatever, you know, all sorts of great life skills can be developed in a gap year, but it needs to be structured. Yeah. And that's it. It's not a year off. Not a year to try different things. I think something that I've used that has helped me a lot in my own model because I'm lucky enough to just be professionally myself. I don't think I know what my job is yet. But see yourself as an expanding sphere. You're not walking in one lane. You're just growing. So learn how to learn so you can continue to learn throughout your career. And that seems to be where you guys are at. And I'm preaching to the choir. But you guys, your responsibility now is to take this into your own network and start your own active networks amongst people of your own age. You need to find your tribe. That's the key thing here, because you all keep pushing each other forward. So keep doing what you're doing. Keep shining. Make millions and millions and millions of bucks. And please come back when you launch your first major company. I absolutely love it. Here's the deal, guys. You'll have an opportunity on the 15th to join us. And that's the 15th of September at Grand West at the Sun Exhibits area. Well, I'm going to be able to facilitate this. You connecting with potential employees, learning about companies, learning about industries firsthand in a safe environment. It is amazing. Last year, we picked up 150 job shadowing opportunities. We're going to double that this year. And you might actually just get your job. So here's the good news. We are going to be giving away five sets of tickets to the Future Me World of Work Career Festival. And we want to hear from you to be able to earn one of those. We'd like you to tell us why you should attend the Future Me World of Work Career Festival and what you hope to learn from it. And you can send through those answers to our on our social media platforms. Alternatively, you can just go and purchase a ticket at WebTickets.co.za 80 to 100 grand. It really is absolutely nothing. I'll be there for the entire day, hopefully enriching your career path. But you can get all of the details on futureme.org.za to this amazing panel. Thank you so much to everyone who's joined us this morning and our experts from earlier. We really do appreciate your work in this space. Let's rock out.