Jamie gets a Job

I have a sister who is 16 and starting the tough project of deciding where to go to College. Making that even harder, I’m sure, is the fact that she’s not sure what she wants to be in life. And lets be honest here, who really did know what they wanted to do in life at 16? I know I had ideas, but I really didn’t.

At 37 I think that I would have an easier time deciding what kind of job I would life and again, I bet you could as well. As adults we’ve been exposed to the world more. We are aware of so many jobs and careers and possible ways to live our lives. It’s almost not fair that we gain all this knowledge when it’s really hard to change our lives. It would have been awesome to have this knowledge transferred to us when we were 16 and 17. The only ones that could really effectively transfer that knowledge is our parents. And we all know how well that works.

My father wanted me to be a Lawyer and my father thought that I should study Business in College. Luckily I hated the latter so much while I was in college that I finally quit school altogether thus making the former a virtual non-starter. Unluckily it took me a number of years to get back on my feet and re-direct my life. (I did eventually finish college, and also got a Masters Degree). The moral is that parents are usually biased in some way about what they think their children should do in life so children rarely get good career guidance and when they do, I would argue that it’s not very varied.

My solution is a simple one that not only does good for the children, but for the implementers as well (in the form of money). I suggest that one of the teen focused TV networks (MTV comes to mind) produce a show (reality or non) called “Jamie gets a job”. The premise is simple. Jamie (who can be a girl or a boy, possibly changing each week in sex and race and religion) has parents that have a ton of friends in all kinds of fields. Each week Jamie asks her parents about a certain job, say doctor, banker, chemical engineer, test pilot, etc. and the parents say “Oh cool, yea, my friend XXX is a {Insert job name here}, why don’t you go spend a day with them?” and the episode follows a day with that person.

So each week, the show can effectively promote some job and the kids watching it will be exposed to all kinds of ideas on possible career choices. How would this not a) be a hit and b) be a tremendous service to the teens watching it? I wish before college I had had the exposure that this show could have offered me. All those cool jobs I would never have thought of or even imagined could be fun. Don’t you?