If I tell you that your signature may mean someone else makes a right choice, would you sign?
“Had I known it would be this way, I never would have chosen it”, “You’re lucky, you still have time, it’s too late for me”, “I wish I could also go back, I would’ve done it differently.”
Every time I told someone that I had quit my job and decided to change my career path completely, these sentences echoed around me. My coworkers, my friends, my superiors. They were all happy for me of course, but I remember being surprised at the amount of times I heard these sentences. Why is it that the news of my career change is met with envy and regret?
Over the next few months, this question stayed in the back of my mind, and eventually, my curiosity took the better of me. I had to dig deeper: is this regret widespread? Are people actually regretting their choice of career? If it’s the case, then why and how can we prevent it? Today, I answer all these questions.
There is hope, but it won’t work without your help.
After studying Lebanese professionals, the numbers confirm my initial worry, career regret is indeed widespread.
Here’s the cold hard truth: today, 51% of Lebanese professionals report that, if they could go back, they would have chosen a different career. The solution seems too obvious right? Why don’t they just change if they’re not happy?
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it sounds. We’ve all heard the same tales “don’t worry, if you don’t like it, you can still change”, “you still have time to decide, nothing is set in stone”, “it’s just a job, you’ll find a career you like eventually”. I believed it. I made my choice lightly and bet on the fact that, whatever happens, I will still have an exit strategy. But once push came to shove, every door I knocked at was closed. This is where you realize, you’ve been fed a broken promise. Change is not that easy, at least, not anymore. Today, as companies get more and more specialized, career mobility shrinks.
But how are we making our career choices in the first place? What dictates the career paths that are available to us? Well, much of it has to do with the degree you choose to pursue. Companies have extremely rigid and specific requirements in terms of experience and skills. They don’t only look at general experience and general degree field anymore. They focus on a specific degree, with specific specializations within that degree, the classes you took, they assess specific skills, the gaps you have, and how long it will take them to get you up to speed. So, trying to make a career change if you don’t have these requirements is extremely hard. I’m living proof of it. After I realized that my current career path was not what I really wanted, I tried to apply to other jobs that would put me on a different path. Today, I’m taking a masters’ degree to make that change. Fixing a wrong choice is not only hard, it’s costly. I’m not alone in this, 60% of the people who were able to make a career change had to update their skillset. That’s the cost of making the wrong choice. And it’s expensive. So, I’m one of the lucky ones, those who can afford change, not everyone has that option.
Most people report that they ended up in their career because it was the only thing that aligned best with their skillset and background, and therefore, the only option they had.
Therein lies the problem: In a world where career mobility is shrinking, and where degree has a strong influence on career opportunities, we are asking students to make a choice that will have a huge impact on the path their professional lives will take, at only 17 years old. When I was 17, I didn’t even know that some of the fields of study even existed, didn’t even know what half of the university majors meant, but I was expected to know exactly what I wanted to do.
So how do we address that? With the professional world being what it is, preventing regret means choosing the right degree. But how do we make the right choice? Are there factors that enable better decision making?
In trying to answer these questions by mapping out how people made their degree choice and which factors led to less reported regret, one variable stood out: guidance counseling for informed decision-making. The numbers are clear: of the people who reported career regret, 75% did not get counseling.
Guidance counseling is the bridge between blind decision-making and informed decisions. It equips students with the facts of their choice. That information is priceless.
Getting counseling means getting the facts and choosing accordingly. Those who got counseling were more informed of the career opportunities tied to their degrees, and their career expectations matched reality much more once they entered the job market. They made their decisions knowing what was in store for them, what their choice meant, and what it will lead to, and chose accordingly.
In contrast, unmatched career expectations and opportunities leads to unpleasant surprises. Not being aware means expecting one thing and getting something completely different, something you did not necessarily chose, but got anyway. Because you simply didn’t know.
Hence the regret … “This is not at all what I was expecting”, “I didn’t know this is how it would be like”, and the hardest of all “Had I known that before, I never would have chosen this”.
When we ask 17 years olds to make this decision, we need to equip them with the right tools. We need to teach them how to choose instead of simply telling them to choose. We need to guide their choice, give them the information, the hard facts. 17 years old have little to no exposure into the professional world, their whole lives has revolved around school at this point. So they operate on perceptions and beliefs, not facts. It’s no wonder this is leading to regret. And who can blame them? It’s not their fault. In case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t get counseling either, maybe if I did, things would have been different.
Even though I had found that career counseling as a potential solution to career regret, I was still not content. Something was not right. Guidance counseling is not a new concept, we all know about it, it has existed for years, and if it helps that much, why do we still have so much regret?
Well, that’s because guidance counseling is having the least influence in people’s degree decisions…
Why is it that something that is so helpful, something that bridges the gap between blindness and information, something that reduces regret, is not being leveraged? Why is it not being taken into account as a factor?
These questions were daunting. It’s not enough to know the solution if this solution has already existed for years but has been largely ignored. Why? Is it an awareness issue? Do people not know of its effects? Or is it something even more systemic?
The reason counseling is not having a major influence is because more than 60% of people are actually not getting counseling. Why is that? They’re not getting counseling simply because no one offered. We can’t expect 17 years old to know they need it and figure out how and where to get it. We can’t expect parents to know how to guide their children into the right decision. They are not equipped with all the facts either. We can’t expect school teachers to guide students correctly either, they might not have all the facts. We need someone whose job is dedicated to collecting the facts and to knowing how to match students with a path, and guide them throughout the process.
Today, this resource is just not available and it’s causing a great disservice to society: 51% of regret is something that just cannot be ignored. Someone has to act, and today, I’m asking you to.
I ask you again: if I tell you that your signature may mean someone else makes the right choice, would you sign? For me, if that means that just one person ends up not regretting their choice, that’s already more than enough.
To make counseling systemic it needs to be passed into law: all schools must to provide this service, and all students must attend to graduate. It’s the only way we ensure complete and total equal access to guidance counseling.
I need your signature to petition the government, to make them listen. Your signature may not seem like much but it carries a lot of meaning.
Your signature means you, your son, your daughter, your friend, won’t make a decision they’ll regret.
Your signature means someone thrives in their future.
Your signature means this article doesn’t need to exist anymore.
In short, your signature means breaking the cycle of regret
Sign the petition.
If I tell you that your signature may mean someone else makes a right choice, would you sign?
“Had I known it would be this way, I never would have chosen it”, “You’re lucky, you still have time, it’s too late for me”, “I wish I could also go back, I would’ve done it differently.”
Every time I told someone that I had quit my job and decided to change my career path completely, these sentences echoed around me. My coworkers, my friends, my superiors. They were all happy for me of course, but I remember being surprised at the amount of times I heard these sentences. Why is it that the news of my career change is met with envy and regret?
Over the next few months, this question stayed in the back of my mind, and eventually, my curiosity took the better of me. I had to dig deeper: is this regret widespread? Are people actually regretting their choice of career? If it’s the case, then why and how can we prevent it? Today, I answer all these questions.
There is hope, but it won’t work without your help.
After studying Lebanese professionals, the numbers confirm my initial worry, career regret is indeed widespread.
Here’s the cold hard truth: today, 51% of Lebanese professionals report that, if they could go back, they would have chosen a different career. The solution seems too obvious right? Why don’t they just change if they’re not happy?
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it sounds. We’ve all heard the same tales “don’t worry, if you don’t like it, you can still change”, “you still have time to decide, nothing is set in stone”, “it’s just a job, you’ll find a career you like eventually”. I believed it. I made my choice lightly and bet on the fact that, whatever happens, I will still have an exit strategy. But once push came to shove, every door I knocked at was closed. This is where you realize, you’ve been fed a broken promise. Change is not that easy, at least, not anymore. Today, as companies get more and more specialized, career mobility shrinks.
But how are we making our career choices in the first place? What dictates the career paths that are available to us? Well, much of it has to do with the degree you choose to pursue. Companies have extremely rigid and specific requirements in terms of experience and skills. They don’t only look at general experience and general degree field anymore. They focus on a specific degree, with specific specializations within that degree, the classes you took, they assess specific skills, the gaps you have, and how long it will take them to get you up to speed. So, trying to make a career change if you don’t have these requirements is extremely hard. I’m living proof of it. After I realized that my current career path was not what I really wanted, I tried to apply to other jobs that would put me on a different path. Today, I’m taking a masters’ degree to make that change. Fixing a wrong choice is not only hard, it’s costly. I’m not alone in this, 60% of the people who were able to make a career change had to update their skillset. That’s the cost of making the wrong choice. And it’s expensive. So, I’m one of the lucky ones, those who can afford change, not everyone has that option.
Most people report that they ended up in their career because it was the only thing that aligned best with their skillset and background, and therefore, the only option they had.
Therein lies the problem: In a world where career mobility is shrinking, and where degree has a strong influence on career opportunities, we are asking students to make a choice that will have a huge impact on the path their professional lives will take, at only 17 years old. When I was 17, I didn’t even know that some of the fields of study even existed, didn’t even know what half of the university majors meant, but I was expected to know exactly what I wanted to do.
So how do we address that? With the professional world being what it is, preventing regret means choosing the right degree. But how do we make the right choice? Are there factors that enable better decision making?
In trying to answer these questions by mapping out how people made their degree choice and which factors led to less reported regret, one variable stood out: guidance counseling for informed decision-making. The numbers are clear: of the people who reported career regret, 75% did not get counseling.
Guidance counseling is the bridge between blind decision-making and informed decisions. It equips students with the facts of their choice. That information is priceless.
Getting counseling means getting the facts and choosing accordingly. Those who got counseling were more informed of the career opportunities tied to their degrees, and their career expectations matched reality much more once they entered the job market. They made their decisions knowing what was in store for them, what their choice meant, and what it will lead to, and chose accordingly.
In contrast, unmatched career expectations and opportunities leads to unpleasant surprises. Not being aware means expecting one thing and getting something completely different, something you did not necessarily chose, but got anyway. Because you simply didn’t know. Hence the regret … “This is not at all what I was expecting”, “I didn’t know this is how it would be like”, and the hardest of all “Had I known that before, I never would have chosen this”.
When we ask 17 years olds to make this decision, we need to equip them with the right tools. We need to teach them how to choose instead of simply telling them to choose. We need to guide their choice, give them the information, the hard facts. 17 years old have little to no exposure into the professional world, their whole lives has revolved around school at this point. So they operate on perceptions and beliefs, not facts. It’s no wonder this is leading to regret. And who can blame them? It’s not their fault. In case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t get counseling either, maybe if I did, things would have been different.
Even though I had found that career counseling as a potential solution to career regret, I was still not content. Something was not right. Guidance counseling is not a new concept, we all know about it, it has existed for years, and if it helps that much, why do we still have so much regret?
Well, that’s because guidance counseling is having the least influence in people’s degree decisions…
Why is it that something that is so helpful, something that bridges the gap between blindness and information, something that reduces regret, is not being leveraged? Why is it not being taken into account as a factor?
These questions were daunting. It’s not enough to know the solution if this solution has already existed for years but has been largely ignored. Why? Is it an awareness issue? Do people not know of its effects? Or is it something even more systemic?
The reason counseling is not having a major influence is because more than 60% of people are actually not getting counseling. Why is that? They’re not getting counseling simply because no one offered. We can’t expect 17 years old to know they need it and figure out how and where to get it. We can’t expect parents to know how to guide their children into the right decision. They are not equipped with all the facts either. We can’t expect school teachers to guide students correctly either, they might not have all the facts. We need someone whose job is dedicated to collecting the facts and to knowing how to match students with a path, and guide them throughout the process.
Today, this resource is just not available and it’s causing a great disservice to society: 51% of regret is something that just cannot be ignored. Someone has to act, and today, I’m asking you to.
I ask you again: if I tell you that your signature may mean someone else makes the right choice, would you sign? For me, if that means that just one person ends up not regretting their choice, that’s already more than enough.
To make counseling systemic it needs to be passed into law: all schools must to provide this service, and all students must attend to graduate. It’s the only way we ensure complete and total equal access to guidance counseling.
I need your signature to petition the government, to make them listen. Your signature may not seem like much but it carries a lot of meaning.
Your signature means you, your son, your daughter, your friend, won’t make a decision they’ll regret.
Your signature means someone thrives in their future.
Your signature means this article doesn’t need to exist anymore.
In short, your signature means breaking the cycle of regret
Sign the petition.
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