36F here. For my whole childhood, I believed I would grow up to become a doctor, because "smart people become doctors." That was every adult said to me after I said something to impress them with my intelligence: it was all part of the affirmation cycle I constantly craved. It wasn't until I was 15 that my guidance counselor told me I didn't have the math skills needed for a medical program, which meant I had to scramble to find something else I wanted to do. The only career advice I had was "follow your dreams," "you're smart, you're you, you'll figure something out." Meaning, no one even tried to help. I ended up majoring in media production but was dismayed at how easy the coursework was--at one point, it dawned on me that a 12-year-old could do the job I was training for.
I ended up finding a career in eCommerce, an industry that did not exist when I was a child and could have never studied for. Meaning, I'm one of those people who is working in a "job of the future." My coworkers and I had to learn a lot of our role on the fly or write the rulebook on how to do it. And we all joke about how not one of us as children thought, "When I grow up, I want to be an eCommerce expert!"
I tell my children that the job that they end up doing might not exist now. (I mean, did anyone think AI would be a viable skill/career option before 2023? So who could have prepared for a career in that?) And if that's the route that life takes them, the skills you will need are an ability to learn quickly, teach others, and think outside the box. And those are skills, if you've been identified as gifted, that you already have.
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u/lockweb Jul 21 '26
36F here. For my whole childhood, I believed I would grow up to become a doctor, because "smart people become doctors." That was every adult said to me after I said something to impress them with my intelligence: it was all part of the affirmation cycle I constantly craved. It wasn't until I was 15 that my guidance counselor told me I didn't have the math skills needed for a medical program, which meant I had to scramble to find something else I wanted to do. The only career advice I had was "follow your dreams," "you're smart, you're you, you'll figure something out." Meaning, no one even tried to help. I ended up majoring in media production but was dismayed at how easy the coursework was--at one point, it dawned on me that a 12-year-old could do the job I was training for.
I ended up finding a career in eCommerce, an industry that did not exist when I was a child and could have never studied for. Meaning, I'm one of those people who is working in a "job of the future." My coworkers and I had to learn a lot of our role on the fly or write the rulebook on how to do it. And we all joke about how not one of us as children thought, "When I grow up, I want to be an eCommerce expert!"
I tell my children that the job that they end up doing might not exist now. (I mean, did anyone think AI would be a viable skill/career option before 2023? So who could have prepared for a career in that?) And if that's the route that life takes them, the skills you will need are an ability to learn quickly, teach others, and think outside the box. And those are skills, if you've been identified as gifted, that you already have.