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What Kids Want to Be When They Grow Up?

I was sitting and wondering one day, why children across the globe have similar aspirations for the career they want to be in. Some of the favourites among children are astronaut, pilot, sports person, doctor, teacher and a police officer.

I remember sitting on the terrace with my brother looking at the sky and wondering how nice it would be to sit in a rocket and go to the moon. That was when my brother decided that he wants to be an astronaut.

While on the airport, my son, then around 2-year-old, declared he wants to be a pilot and zoom the aeroplane. Later, when he started watching cartoons, the aeroplane was replaced by the car and he wanted to be a police officer chasing a thief in a car.

The point is, our first dream jobs are about the things that give us a thrill.

Theory of Career Development

Economist Eli Ginzberg gave the theory of Career Development. According to her, every individual goes through 3 stages, before they actually choose their career.

Fantasy Stage

At the fantasy stage, a child wishes to be an artist or space scientist without taking into account reality. This is the stage I was talking about. We want to turn our play into work-oriented activities. For example, girls who love to pretend-play house, want to be a cook or housekeeper when they grow up.

Tentative Stage

This stage begins at age 11 when adolescent children have better focus and can recognise work requirements. Children will try to look for more job options in their area of interest.

It depends on the interest of the child, his/her capacity to align interest with capabilities, their values, and the transition into understanding their responsibilities. The child who wants to be an astronaut will try to analyse whether they like science or not, can they score good enough marks or not, do they really want to go to the outer space or not.

Reality Stage

At 17, when kids are close to adulthood, then they enter the reality stage. They take a decision based on their real abilities, aptitude and occupational interest. They will commit to an occupation and begin specialised training to achieve that goal. The children in stage will also have a backup plan.

 

Thus, from the fantasy stage to the reality stage, a kid who wanted to be an astronaut can become a radio frequency engineer instead. 🙂

We, at Patna Diaries, hope that you find a career that gives you happiness and satisfaction. What was your first dream job as a kid? Do let us know in the comment section below.

Happy Working 🙂

P.S.  On a side note, when I was reading up articles, I found an article on Forbes, that did a survey on career choices of kids on the basis of gender. The boys normally want to be an astronaut, firefighter or police officer. While, the girls want to be a doctor, teacher or baker. It made me wonder how deep-rooted the gender stereotype is in our upbringing that we fall in the trap from our childhood only.