Fear

As we start the new school term and embark on the careers meetings for, mainly, year 11's, I started doing some reflections on previous conversations with year 11's. Some times I've found that fear was present, as they were unsure what they wanted to do and felt under pressure to choose; choosing the right pathway or career, what if they don't like what they choose, etc.

Then I started reflecting on some of my own past feelings of fear. Particularly, when it was careers related. One that stands out a lot, is when I had a slight career change and a very different specialism. Even the week before I was due to start, I was panicking that I had made the wrong choice.

This helped me to link the two and have a strong feeling of empathy towards these fresh faces that are just starting in their career journey.

However, through my many years of experience, I have seen that we will learn from these fearful moments in either a negative or positive way.

It can still be very hard to have that balance of reasoning, when we are faced with these fearful moments in our lives, no matter how many times we have seen it before.

So, moving forward, I think that everyone should show some empathy and understanding for people going through fearful moments in their career journey, particularly when it is the first time that they have felt it.