Why you’re probably not doing your “dream job”

What jobs do 15-year-olds expect to do at 30?

Every few years, thousands of teenagers are asked a very simple question: What job do you expect to have when you're 30?

It's an important question because having an answer helps teenagers plan for the future, whether that's taking a specific class or deciding whether to attend college. That's why the OECD's PISA survey has asked this question since 2000.

But in the last 20 years, we've seen a concerning trend: More and more teenagers name the same basic jobs, like doctor or lawyer, almost as if they're picking jobs out of a children's book. And even more worrisome is that more and more teenagers don't even name a job.

All of this hints that today's teenagers aren't thinking enough about their future plans – and, fair or not, this lack of career preparation will likely have lifelong consequences.

Note: The headline on this piece has been updated.
Previous headline: Why 25% of teens can't answer this question

Sources and further reading:

[CrazedComposure]

I always HATED the question "what do you want to be when you grow up", because how the heck was I supposed to know without trying it out first? It felt like adults always expected me to pick a goal and blindly follow it, even though I didn't understand how jobs worked.

This video doesn't actually cover WHY many teens can't answer this question. A lot of people don't know what job they want to have at 15, and we need to stop telling them it's a "problem"; that kind of pressure is probably why so many teens pick the same 10 jobs, because they feel pushed to give a socially acceptable answer. Supporting kids and their ambitions is important, but instead of demanding that they plan their entire life starting from elementary school, maybe we should ask them what are their interests, what are their passions, what kinds of environments do they want to work with, what kind of change do they want to create.

We're asking the wrong questions to kids, and then when they can't answer, call them "misaligned". Adults are the ones who are misaligned here.

[ashleyk]

to be honest, when you're stressed about passing academic exams, conforming in social situations, managing your relationships with family and friends, keeping up with the latest trends and your own hobbies on top of managing puberty and all the mixed feelings that come with it, figuring out what you want to be kind of takes a back seat.

[Dr._Doppietta]

As someone who was "misaligned" *and* poor at 15, and now at 30 is unemployed, this really hits me deep.

[korey]

I'm 24 and I grew up my entire life wanting to do HVAC as a kid. I grew up thinking school was boring, unmotivating, not challenging and unnecessary for me. I went to a technical school for HVAC and after just 3 years of doing it I went to college for electrical, welding, manufacturing and more. I ended up in automation mechanics as a career and now I'm on my way to automation engineering some time next year despite my poor level of general education capabilities. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to work with my hands.

[drizzlingrose]

its really dark to say as a 30 year old, but when i was 15 i dident expect to make it this far at all.
im glad i did, im happyer then ive ever been these days :)

[Daniel-mfyn]

Part of the misalignment for me was not knowing any adults other than my teachers with degrees. I was always told to go to college by the adults around me, but never knew what for. Wasn't until college that I discovered so many careers, and it was overwhelming because I didn't know so many of them existed. For example, I had an idea of what an engineer was, but never met one, and had no idea what they actually did.

[greasy]

To be fair as a 28-year-old I still wonder this even though I currently love my job😂

[ghoulmania]

"My goal not to wake up at 40 with the bitter realisation that I've wasted my life on a job I hate because I was forced to chose in my teens" -Daria

[timsplosion]

I knew since age 11 that I wanted to be an animator. Even as a kid, it was obvious looking around at kids my own age that everyone had these big dreams, but no one was putting any thought into how they were gonna get there. So many kids just expect stuff to happen, because no one tells them how you make anything happen or goes through the steps with you. I'm lucky that I had involved and proactive parents, who bought me a computer and Macromedia Flash 8 and encouraged me, but I didn't see much of anything like that in the rest of the cohort I grew up with. Kids have dreams and ambitions, but it takes so much more than individual effort to make any of those dreams and ambitions happen. No one reaches their full potential alone.

[Azel]

When I was 15, the number of jobs I knew about was very limited. If you were to ask someone who only has a limited pool of knowledge, you will get limited answers

[sleavsloth]

As much as I think it is crucial for students to have opportunities to explore various career fields before deciding what to pursue, I wish re-education/reinvention of oneself was also more commonly accepted in our society. We aren’t the same people at 30 as we were at 15, and for the most part that is a good thing. Having people who passionately spend their lives on a subject is incredible, but some of the best discoveries come from those that are multi-disciplined.

[hehe-jxjk]

I am 15 now, and i feel extremely targeted in this video. All my teachers and friends say that its ok to not have a dream now but I always thought hard abt this question and think that I do not have one but so far I'm not alone. I am one of those high achieves but do not have any ambition and this video make me question myself more.
Edit*: uhhh i didnt expect that my comment would get this much attention but more context on my life is that i am not American like most of the viewers here are but i am from Singapore which has a more stringent and tiring school life.

[tjfm]

I've been screaming to the rooftops that schools don't do enough to actually make kids aware of job opportunities where they can utilize their skills and passions. Up until the DAY I was going to enroll in college, I'd resigned myself to become a pharmacist because I had no goals of my own and it was what my parents wanted me to do. Then a high school friend of my sister's asks me if I'm interested in working at the library.

I'm very good at English. I love literature and research and volunteer work. Not one person had suggested I work at a library. It was all 'English teacher' and 'English tutor.' Now I'm two years into library school and six months into working at the library and I've never been happier!

[melvineatsmangos]

im 17 and just thinking about my future terrifies me. I’m not in school anymore because of some issues so I might never even get my high school diploma. Before the pandemic and online school I was a high honor student and averaged like a 97% in all my classes. I don’t think I ever truly knew what I wanted to do with my life, I just wanted a job that would pay me a lot so I could get expensive things. Right now I’m at a point where none of that matters to me anymore, I don’t want those expensive things anymore or to be super rich. I feel like now my only hope would be to try to graduate and go to a community college but then what after that, go get a job so i can barely afford to own a house? I don’t know what to do with my life, if im being honest I don’t really want to do much with my life. Now i dont really do much but make music for fun (which I don’t really enjoy anymore) or crocheting, I enjoy it but I know I’m just wasting my life. It’s a lot less stressful than school was for me but the idea of the future and the fact that I probably dont have one anymore terrifies me.

Sorry for the long message and rant, I don’t really have anyone to talk to about this all and I’ve been needing to get it off my chest and put it out there for a while now

[Lil.LonLy]

The difference are dream jobs vs actual jobs, those teens will answer it through a perspective of their desires because they never went through the hardships of adult life, but once they're actually 30 its not even gonna be the same if not at all.

[AlexaVonSuess]

I wonder how much societal and parental pressure was considered in this video. I wanted to be a jewelry designer and jeweler for most of my life and in high school, my parents and teachers insisted I couldn't make money in that arena. So I went to college for marketing and UX design. I couldn't complete my degree because I didn't have enough money so I dropped out and started apprenticing with a jeweler. Over a decade later, here I am: a jeweler and GIA educated gemologist making far more than I would have as a graphic designer. So maybe - just maybe - if a kid has a desire and they show discipline and genuine passion for that desire - let them try it? If I had stuck with what I was passionate about, I could have avoided wasting $40k.

[asdabir]

At 15 you generally don’t have an idea what real world jobs entail unless it’s something like artist or singer and even then the reality is much different than what we imagine.

[andypandy]

i went to a science based high school where nearly everyone was overachieving and ambitious to go into a STEM career path, and although many were passionate, there were also many who were the most depressed and anxious kids i knew.

it’s really a decision of whether you let a kid enjoy their childhood and teen years without stressing too much over their future and have a potentially less stable future as they continue to figure it out, or risk kids working hard for a well earning career but they remain overworked and depressed into adulthood.

[RealTaIk]

I'm 30 year old now and at the age of 15 I had no aspiration on any kind of job. At the age of 18 I thought of either trying to be an engineer or a programmer.
I actually went to college for engineering but when I got there and got actual first hand experience in what the job of an engineer is all about, I lost all aspiration and quit college. I then worked in 15 different jobs until I finally found something I liked at the age of 26.
Now at the age of 30 I'm actually a service electrician.
It basically didn't matter at all what I was aiming at, I ended up somewhere completely different.

[alejthagreat]

At 12 years of age, I found out about cardiovascular surgery and became passionate about it. And I’m 23 now. Graduated in the top of my University class and working hard to get accepted into medical school.

So I do feel like it’s important to be exposed to different careers and help young people develop the ambition along with a path to achieve that goal