Somebody asks
A grown-up asks what you want to be when you grow up. You have no idea.
What can you say?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
A job you have not seen
Somebody tells you about a job you have never heard of.
What is a good thing to ask?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
A job is a thing somebody does. Fixing, teaching, building, driving, growing, helping, making.
Why jobs exist
People need things. Somebody has to grow the food, drive the bus, mend the pipes, look after people who are ill.
There are lots you have never heard of
Most jobs are ones you have not seen. You do not have to know yours now.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Who Does What?
Tap a job, then tap what they do.
Match each job to the thing they do.
Tap a card on the left to start.
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
Do you have to know what job you want now?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Ask about a day
- Ask a grown-up what they actually do all day.
- Ask what the best bit is.
- Ask what the boring bit is.
Why: Every job has a boring bit. Knowing that early is useful.
Step 6: What You Learned
- A job is a thing somebody does.
- Jobs exist because people need things done.
For the grown-up
Describing what you actually do all day — the ordinary tasks, not the job title — is far more informative to a child than the title, and it is the version they can imagine themselves doing.
"What do you want to be" asks a small child to pick an identity. "What kind of things do you like doing?" gets a better answer and is a better question about work anyway.
Worth including jobs that are not visible to children — the people who maintain water, sort post, write the software. Most work is invisible from a child’s vantage point.