"What are you going to do with your life, William?"
We asked quietly at first, but now that the leavers' assembly has almost been and gone it's getting more urgent.
Some of his friends have firm plans.
Isaac's going to train in hospitality. He is keen to travel and figures that bartending will always be a useful skill.
"I just hope they don't introduce alcohol vending machines into pubs," he says.
His long-term dream involves being an actor.
"But I think I'll be a better one when I've lived a little."
Luke's the brainy member of the gang, they all say. He's hoping to get into Auckland University to study law.
Naturally he, too, has heard talk about technology taking the place of people in the workforce.
"I thought that with law I should be safe but sometimes I do wonder if I'm doing the right thing."
Isaac's determined to be philosophical, though.
"If you listened to all that doom and gloom stuff, you'd never get anywhere," he says firmly.
Josh, meanwhile, wants to get into media studies.
He's worked out that if he can find a way to make money on digital advertising platforms he'll be the most popular man in town.
"And at least it's an industry that will never be boring."
Cam's the most organised. He knows exactly what he's going to be doing, starting with a three-year performing arts degree at Manukau Institute of Technology, then a two-year teaching course, paying his way by working as a barista.
And as for William? Well, he's still not sure.
Like thousands of other teenage boys, he'd love gaming to be a paid occupation, but accepts this probably won't happen.
He can find his way around a computer reasonably well and I often see him multi-tasking on several devices at once.
We've decided to explore this possibility a bit further so we're back at the careers office at MAGS where Kubi Witten-Hannah is a mine of information.
"I started off as a truck driver before I got into teaching, and eventually settled on the careers field," he says.
"You can never have too many skills."
He sees the IT profession as a good bet in a changing world.
"Your cellphone today probably has more power than the computers they used to send men to the moon.
"If you can keep up with technology, the possibilities are endless."
A few months ago Kubi had suggested Techtorium, an IT and computer training institute in Newmarket as a possible starting point.
So William and his father David -- an IT professional -- have checked it out.
David liked what he saw.
"Yes, it's very well-regarded," Kubi says.
"My own son went there and he's now working for Apple in California."
"What did you think of it?" he asks William.
"It looks good," our son replies, with genuine interest.
"William and I have had a few chats and I think he wants some time out from study.
"The course there is hands-on so it might make a nice change for him," Kubi explains to us.
"At the end of the day, nothing you do in the IT area will ever be wasted."
There's another idea that William has been considering though.
It involves attending Auckland University and studying sociology, criminology, psychology and other related subjects for a BA, with a view to helping teens who are addicted to gaming.
"I'd understand exactly how they feel," he says. "But I just need a bit of a break first."
So, at the moment we look set for him to have a year at The Techtorium.
Then, depending on his NCEA marks, for which he is relying on his final exams, a BA might be possible.
As parents, we're keen to ensure he doesn't need a big student loan.
We figure that his generation have little enough hope of owning their own homes without incurring debt at this early stage.
Of course we're hoping he might get a part-time job to supplement our contributions.
My father, Peter Richardson, has been a valuable source of advice.
He started out doing an electrical apprenticeship in the late 1950s in Invercargill, then spent many years travelling the world.
As a young Kiwi in London he was prepared to do anything.
He swears he was the only bearded tea lady pushing the refreshment trolley at a London City bank and at night he was the projectionist in a Trafalgar Square cinema.
He spent time as a courier, riding the Tube carrying large, important-looking envelopes to swanky Mayfair addresses, and worked for a while in the Singer sewing machine warehouse, packaging parts.
"Never too fussy, never too proud," he says.
Back home, he joined the public service and ran a provincial office of the New Zealand Employment Service for many years.
"They say people will do any number of different jobs in their lifetime as if it's something new, but that's often been the way," he says.
At 75, he's still in the workforce and, ironically, now involved in the aged care sector through the local DHB.
On the side, he's a popular radio host and does advertising voiceovers.
His advice to William is simple:
"The days of working all your life for the same company are gone.
"The important thing is to be adaptable and sell yourself well.
"I'd like to see a drone doing everything I've done."
