Open mind on jobs, parents urged

The survey found 73 per cent of Kiwis were working in different roles from what they had planned as teens. Photo / iStock

Survey on employment changes shows pressure to define career at 18 ‘must stop’

Almost three-quarters of Kiwis are working in different jobs than what they set their sights on at school, with women facing more twists and turns than their male colleagues.

The finding from a survey of 4000 people has prompted online job placement firm Seek NZ, which commissioned the research, to urge parents to be open-minded in helping their teens to prepare to swim in an increasingly fluid job market.

"The pressure to define your career at 18 must cease," general manager Janet Faulding said yesterday, as more than 60,000 high school students swot for NCEA exams starting on Friday.

"Kiwis, particularly parents, need to wrap their head around the concept that having many jobs and careers is not a sign of their child's inability to settle down or make up their mind," she said.

"Businesses value innovative and fresh thinking, and having a broad base of experience equips us with this capability."

The survey found 73 per cent of Kiwis were working in different roles from what they had planned as teens. Almost 80 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men reported mid-stream career changes.

Ms Faulding, who started out teaching before switching to sales and media executive roles, believed that was a reflection of far more career openings for women than were available to their mothers.

"There's a lot more opportunity now than 30 or 40 years ago, when women were generally pushed into nursing or teaching," she said.

"My advice to parents is to encourage your child to make the most of each workplace they enter, even if it may not be their 'dream job'.

"It is through turning up to work highly engaged, asking questions and putting their hand up to take on new responsibilities and opportunities that they'll understand their strengths and weaknesses."

The research indicated a lot of effort goes into preparing for the workplace, with 76 per cent completing tertiary education or training, and 60 per cent taking on new skills during their careers.

The survey was welcomed by a co-director of Massey University's upgraded bachelor of arts curriculum, Professor Richard Shaw, as an endorsement of the value of a general education to which specialist skills could be added later. "We know lots of future jobs don't exist [yet], so we should be training kids - and older people - to think well rather than to master skills that will soon be obsolete," he said.

"We need to think differently about what counts as a 'skill'. Skills are things you do with your head as well as your hands."

Dr Shaw pointed to a prediction by the Institute of Economic Research that about half of all jobs are at risk of "technological replacement" in coming decades.

Northern Employers and Manufacturers' Association chief executive Kim Campbell said that while there were fewer "jobs for life" now, employees could keep themselves in demand by being prepared to grasp new opportunities even without swapping workplaces.

"One of the really important points for young people is that where you begin is not where you will finish," he said. "Any start is a start, and being fussy is a big mistake ... no matter how humble it is, you can build on it."

IT life in rear view for big rig operator

Jane Dowdeswell's truck driving career began with a visit to her sister's farm. Photo / Bradley Ambrose

Jane Dowdeswell is among 80 per cent of New Zealand women who have changed jobs since leaving school - having swapped an IT career for life on the road.

For Mrs Dowdeswell, 54, running the software company she and her husband sold about 10 years ago and now driving a 44-tonne rig around Auckland have one thing in common - a need to be a good problem-solver.

Although she enjoyed a rich career with computers, leaving Pakuranga College in the late 1970s to become a data entry operator before learning programming skills, she is happy with her decision to try something different.

"I love being outside and meeting a lot of people," she said of her life as a fleet driver for Southdown-based Sims Transport. "When we sold our computer business, I thought I needed to do something else - I can't just sit around."

Mrs Dowdeswell studied science at school, hoping to work in forensics, before the chance to operate an early computer emerged during a summer holiday job.

"I was interested in problem-solving and finding out how things happen."

That same inquisitiveness got her interested in driving. While visiting her sister and brother-in-law while they were harvesting crops in Hawkes Bay, she jumped at the chance to operate some of their big machines.

Her husband Barry started his working life as a school teacher before also gravitating towards IT and has returned to university to undertake post-graduate studies.

Mrs Dowdeswell has three adult children, so understands the challenges parents face in helping to prepare youngsters for the workplace.

Her eldest son recently graduated from university with a double degree in chemistry and German and he had no idea what he was going to do, "but now he has decided he is going to be a teacher".