Ways to teach your children to find the work they love

I like to think I can talk to my two teenagers about anything. But one topic at our house leaves me feeling as if we're shouting from separate mountaintops: Picking a career.

Although I'm glad my son, 16, and my daughter, 19, are thinking about jobs, their deliberations hold none of the curiosity or sense of exploration that I recall feeling at their age. Instead, they seem rushed and grim. My daughter is anxious about building the right résumé to get into med school. And my son talks mostly about finding any job that will enable him to support a family.

My career path was no model; if anyone bothered to draw it, it would look more like an Etch-A-Sketch doodle than the no-exit superhighway my kids seem to envision. But I do recall choosing my life's work with a sense of adventure that seems to be missing in them.

Blame it on career anxiety, college counselors say. For a variety of reasons, many young adults are more anxious about career preparation than previous generations. (Not all young adults share this, of course; many parents wish their kids had a little more career anxiety, to propel them out of the house.) In my family, however, the evidence suggests I need some new parenting strategies.

The apprehension often begins with the college-admissions race. After striving to win acceptance to competitive colleges, many think they should have "an equally strategic approach to their post-graduate plans," says Karen Levin Coburn, assistant vice chancellor at Washington University of St. Louis.

Job competition looms earlier. Employers place far more emphasis on internships than in the past, says the National Association of Colleges and Employers, Bethlehem, Pa.; 62% of new college hires have completed at least one, based on its survey of 276 employers. Campus competition for internships is starting as early as freshman year.

And the entry bar has risen in many professions. Architects, for example, need a formal internship today and must pass a more comprehensive exam to be licensed, compared with 30 years ago. Even auto mechanics, who used to train on the job, often need a two-year degree.

•	Ways to teach your children to find the work they love WORK & FAMILY The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007 Byline: Sue Shellenbarger

	Story also ran in 1 others:  Associated Press (AP)