career advice Archives - Dad of Divas

Guiding Your Child onto the Right Career Path

July 23, 2019 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

As a parent, you invest a considerable amount of time into your children’s education in the hopes that they’ll enter a rewarding and financially secure career. Unfortunately, kids have to choose what they want to do with their lives at a time when they’re going through some seismic personal changes that can make even the most stable child irrational.

If you’re lucky, your son or daughter will have known since they could walk that they wanted to be a doctor, paleontologist, or submariner, and they have a clear career path ahead of them. Not all parents are so fortunate, though, so how do you help your child find the right career path when it’s not all clear cut? You have two main options:

Watchful waiting

You could adopt a kind of laissez-faire attitude and just let them work it out on their own. That doesn’t mean abdicating responsibility, but for some families avoiding constant conflict or nagging is the option that works best. You’re still there when your kids need you, offering advice and providing information, counseling them and giving them your thoughts; however, you don’t try and push them into making decisions before they’re ready or force them to follow the path you think is best for them.

Taking the lead

Alternatively, you could adopt a more proactive stance by making suggestions and recommendations, organizing attendance at college open days, and supporting any positive activities that could help your child make a decision about their future. You probably have a good grasp of the kinds of things that interest them and what they’re good at, and you may have some great ideas about how they can turn their talents and interests into a career. With this knowledge, you may be able to direct them towards opportunities they were unaware of or hadn’t considered.

In both of the above scenarios, you as the parent are supporting your child without putting them under undue pressure on the one hand, or leaving them entirely to their own devices on the other. If they’re stuck because they can’t find a course that fits with what they want to do, help them look for other opportunities such as completing a degree online or studying abroad.

You can also suggest alternative routes to a rewarding career, for example, if your child is interested in architecture and design, they might be considering taking a higher qualification in the subject. Courses such as the IPAL (Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure) combine everything your child needs to qualify for professional architectural licensure into a single, accredited program, including the Master of Architecture degree, Architectural Experience Program (AXP) hours, and the Architect Registration Examination (ARE). This might sound like a much better way of achieving their goals and will give them a real confidence boost.

Kids are like snowflakes – every one of them is different, and they respond to different forms of motivation. Some are better left alone, some need a bit of pushing, but there are many different approaches to achieving career success, and with the right kind of help from you, your child will find theirs.

Prepping for a career in medicine + supporting your kids

June 21, 2019 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Preparing for a career in medicine is always worthwhile, if this is something that you are particularly interested in and if it intrigues you. The question is, what steps do you need to take in order to enter the healthcare industry, to begin with?

Alternatively, does your career allow you to properly support yourself and your kids? If you have a family, or if you want to start one down the line, these questions are critical to consider. Therefore, here are a few tips to keep in mind that will both prepare you and put your mind at ease that you will be financially well off throughout your life.

Deciding if it’s right for you

Is a career in medicine right for you? Take some time to imagine yourself in the role of a nurse, a physiotherapist, a pharmacist, or some other healthcare job. You could even opt to speak to a professional that works in one of these fields, and better determine whether or not this is something that you can also imagine yourself doing and would want to do.

Knowing that you will have enough money

There are plenty of medical jobs that are incredibly high paying, and by knowing this, you can also rest easier at night knowing that you will be able to support your loved ones, whether that is your kids, your significant others, or any other family member.

In other words, you are picking a career path that you know will result in you being financially stable. Who doesn’t want that, after all? Being unable to make ends meet only causes you and everyone else a lot of stress.

Completing an undergraduate degree

To go into healthcare, you always need to choose an undergraduate degree, and sometimes this will require additional certifications and specializations after you are done. In the meantime, it’s best to choose a degree that you know will set the groundwork for the type of work that you want to do, so a science-related degree is often advised.

Preparing for the MCAT

If you want to become a doctor, you should take the MCAT class to help you get into medical school. In order to pass it and be eligible to attend medical school, however, it’s important that you put in as much practice beforehand and take advantage of any resources provided for you.

Work and life balance

Another consideration to keep in mind is what you can do to maintain your work and life balance. After all, you will want to spend time with your family and work at the same time. Make sure that you always choose a job that will let you live the life that you want and imagine for yourself.

The most important thing to keep in mind when you want to embark on any new career path is whether or not this is something that suits you. Even if obtaining a job in healthcare is known to provide you with a good salary, that shouldn’t be enough to tempt you to work at a job that you do not like. If you feel that this perfectly aligns with your personality, then this is exactly what you should do.

Returning To The Fore: Picking Your Career Up Where You Left Off Before Your Children Came Onto The Scene

January 28, 2019 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

In life, you are, as a parent, dedicated to nurturing your children to follow their dreams. Whether you are helping your children stick to their guns, forging their own path in life, and generally encouraging them to do what they want, as far as their career is concerned, we could learn a lot from our own advice. When we are dedicated to our children, we can easily neglect our own needs, especially in a professional sense. Before you had children, you might have been on your own path to career fulfillment, but this had to go on the backburner as you had kids on the way. But as they get older, they don’t need this as much. As such, what’s the best way to pick up where you left off before you had children?

Throwing Yourself Into Your Old Career

As you may already be working a job, your options are to start all over again or to throw yourself into your current career. You may have been holding off on applying for those high powered jobs because you didn’t know if you could feasibly do them based on your parental duties. But now, taking an opportunity to go back into your career with new enthusiasm can reinvigorate you. You actually have the time in which to pursue your professional goals. Of course, it’s not as easy as that. And if you are planning your return to the fore after so many years of “coasting”, it’s all about planning your return. It can take a while for you to build up your profile again, but also think about how many years it could take for you to acquire new skills. This is where the next point is integral.

Starting Again

Starting all over again can feel like a very intimidating prospect. After all, if you don’t have the experience in a certain sector, and you feel that you are past it, you’ve got a lot of competition up against you. But this is where we can take advantage of being a parent, and spending a lot of time at home because there are so many resources online that we can make the most of. Even in the medical profession, there are DNP FNP programs but you can take while being at home, meaning that you are acquiring the necessary knowledge. As a result, when you start to apply for these roles, you won’t find yourself facing rejection after rejection. Starting again is intimidating, but if you want to do a complete 180-degree turn on your career, you’ve got to acquire the skills necessary. This is, at the very least, an essential.

As a parent, we can feel like our children are the priority, especially for the first few years of their life. But, there comes a point where we have to think about our needs as well. We need to pick a career that is fulfilling, makes us feel like we’ve done something at the end of the day, and as such, this will make our life outside of work all the better.