WRITING YOUR FIRST DRAFT

LIFESTYLE READING, WRITING 'RITHMETIC, AND ZERO ABOUT JOBS LENORE SKENAZY FIREFIGHTER. LION TAMER. Nurse. Teacher. Cop. Those are the careers most young peo- ple are familiar with. In a world where you can spend your life designing beer bottles, thing called "talent-based branching." most said that sometime in middle or high inspecting sewers, prepping cadavers, or Each participant was rotated through school there was some sort of jobs day. programming robot dogs, you'd think we about half a dozen departments. "And At her sons' school, says Andrea Mays, might spend a little more time introduc- then," Epstein says, "they'd reflect on how a professor of economics at California ing young people to the wide, wide world it fit their interests and abilities," as would State University, Long Beach, it's Mer- of work, instead of just leaving it all to the Army. "The retention with people chant Monday: Sixth-graders are assigned Mike Rowe and his Dirty Jobs. who go through talent-based branching to one of the businesses on Main Street. What we need is something beyond has been way better without the retention One of her sons was placed in a Middle career day but a little less time-intensive bonuses, because they end up with a bet- Eastern restaurant, where he got to pick than semesterlong internships. I propose ter match quality." Match quality, as you mint leaves for the tea. The family still Job Tourism, an idea I'm basically steal- might guess, is the compatibility between eats there 15 years later. ing from author David Epstein-and the the person and the job. Lisa Avila, a Florida mom, still remem- U.S. Army. There were two revelations beyond bers the day a Navy pilot came to her high In Range: Why Generalists Triumph in this. First, Epstein says, "The cadets going school to discuss his career: "He said a Specialized World (Macmillan), Epstein through it were often really surprised women shouldn't be in the Navy, much talks about the advantages reaped by folks by their own weaknesses. They thought less be pilots." She went on to join the who switch careers, or at least seriously they would be really good at things they Navy-and become a pilot. pursue other interests beyond the field weren't good at." That's a helpful bit of Other parents mentioned school they're working in. In a chapter on job self-knowledge. On the flip side, the cadets programs where community members dissatisfaction, he homes in on the U.S. also discovered new fields and talents. teach electives such as cake decorating Army, which in the 1980s started hemor- Ninety percent of them ended up chang- or forensic science. A few said their kids rhaging its best and brightest, including ing one of their top two career preferences. attend schools that offer training in spe- its West Point grads. Once these smart These young people had been pretty clue- cific trades. Many colleges encourage and driven folks had served the minimum less not just about the jobs out there but internships-a chance to try out a job over time required, many of them were jump- about which jobs they were best suited for. weeks or months. And some organiza- ing ship (if I may mix my military meta- Now think of the other 99 percent tions are trying to widen the horizon. The phors). In desperation, the Army decided of American teens and 20-somethings Harraseeket Foundation, a Virginia-based to try retention bonuses. In 2007-2008 it trying to find their way. "How we learn nonprofit, gets community members to spent over half a billion dollars on these, to do and be is by paying attention to discuss their careers with young people offering lump sums to active duty officers our social world," says social psycholo and help them network. commissioned between 1999 and 2005 if gist Debra Mashek, founder of Myco Young people need more job sampling they'd stick around for three more years. Consulting. "It's limiting the individual's opportunities. While school is supposed It didn't work. The officers who were ability to fulfill their own purpose if they to prepare them for the world, it mostly going to leave left anyway. The ones who don't have a sense of what's out there, or keeps them away from it. 0 were going to stay just pocketed the perk. what's possible." When money didn't do the trick, the When I asked parents how their kids LENORE SKENAZY is president of the nonprofit Army changed tactics. It started some- were getting exposed to potential careers, Let Grow and founder of Free-Range Kids. 6 MAY 2021 Illustration: Oksana Latysheva/iStock