I’m really worried about my career day at school. The grade ten students are being interviewed by the career counsellor tomorrow and I know it’s not going to go well for me. The whole point is to get a good idea of what university courses we might be interested in, or what other pathways we might take to get our desired jobs. The thing is, I’m worried they will try to push us toward real jobs, away from the arts. I’ve already decided that I’m going to become a bestselling author, writing books about a detective and his pet bunny who go around solving crimes that went cold years earlier. It’s because he and his bunny have a psychic connection which allows them to see into the past. Pretty cool, right?
Anyway, I’ve heard about the kind of interviews there are for student career advice around Melbourne. I’ve mostly been told good things. They say that career counsellors are really supportive and give viable options even for people who want to work in the arts. But I’m sceptical. Surely they can’t be that supportive. We live in a society that is institutionalized, driving children to be the perfect office employee or labourer. They don’t want us to have personality. They want us to toe the line and become good members of society. So I’m not sure it will go well. I’ll update this post once I get back, though.
Update: I just got back from my session of career counselling. Near Melbourne, it seems career counsellors actually do care about what you really want. I’ll admit that I was wrong. I thought I’d be pushed toward doing a science or business degree, but I was given some really great advice. There are plenty of creative writing courses I could do, and the career coach told me all about other successful Australian authors and the kind of path they took to their career. I’m excited about the future and it’s all thanks to this interview.