Young Adults’

Pursuit of

Happiness

Euna Son * The information in this presentation can be used

and printed for your personal use only.

Reason I am Here

• Help young adults make a career decision and find a job with hope and confidence.

Why Should You Listen to Me?

• 10 years searching for true passions and an ideal career

• So I asked two questions: What am I truly passionate about? What kind of a career would allow me to live my passions?

• After spending years researching and committing myself to

find answers…

Why Should You Listen to Me?

• I had an epiphany. • My epiphany came from people and resources I’ve studied

and also from my own personal experience.

Why Should You Listen to Me?

• What did I discover? I asked the WRONG questions.

• I have organized this session into three parts and each part contains a desperate question often asked by young adults. 1. How can we figure out what our passions are? 2. What should we do when we have multiple interests and can’t

just pick one career?

3. How can I find a job with limited connections?

My Story

• Since I was in kindergarten, I was often asked what I wanted to do when I grew up. • Many years had passed by and I went to high school in Canada. I was still the same girl that didn’t know what she wanted to do when she grew up.

My Story

• More and more people were asking more questions about my future:

– Which college or university do you want to go to?

– What program do you want to study?

– What kind of work do you want to do?

• I felt pressured and this is when I delved myself into finding answers to my two questions. Some of the resources I used:

countless number of free & paid assessment tests,

books, scholarly journals, magazines,

audio programs, counseling sessions,

libraries, Career Centre, and real people

My Story

• I couldn’t easily make a decision because I had a fear of making the wrong decision.

• After studying and acquiring all the information, my brain became overloaded and I became even more confused, tired and frustrated.

• Then, I thought too much information was causing more problems so I decided to think simply instead.

• I knew I liked helping and thinking creatively so I decided to become a social worker or psychologist or philosopher…

My Story

• In Gr. 12, I changed my mind again. I decided to study Business Management.

• It actually didn’t really matter what I studied as long as I didn’t hate it.

• One interesting reason for choosing this program was that it was the least restricted program as I could take a wide range of non major courses to count towards my degree requirements and changing major was easy.

In Gr. 11, I finally decided to become a designer

My Story

My story about career indecisiveness and fear is not

just my story

My Story = Story of many other young adults

Our generation (Generation Y) grows up in a society where we are encouraged to find what we are passionate about and align our passions with our career.

But what if we tell you…

We Don’t Know Our Passions

• “Follow your passion and Money will follow”

– Chase after your dream

– Future = Fantasy

And Guess What?

It’s ok if we don’t know what our passions are - Nothing stays the same anyways. As we evolve, our passions also evolve. - Our passions change as we gain more experiences and exposure

How to Find General Interest

Ask your students simple questions.

“What do you care about?”

“What is important to you in your life?”

“What do you enjoy doing?”

“What don’t you like doing?”

“What are you good at?”

Although we may not know our passions right now,

we can know what we like at a general level and see

part of the bigger picture.

How to Choose School

After you figure out what your students value and what they are interested in, you can help them brainstorm which school would fit them the most.

ASK:

• What is most important to you about college/university? – Reputation of school?

– Location?

– Diversity?

– Hands-on learning?

– Co-op experience?

• What else is important to you?

We Can’t Just Pick One

If there are these young adults that do not know what their passions are, there are those that can’t make a decision because they have multiple interests.

We Can’t Just Pick One

We don’t need to know the one thing that we are truly passionate about.

– On average people change careers 7 times

– Horrifying stories of people who committed themselves in a single career for 30 years and got fired a few years before retirement.

It’s actually a privilege.

Having multiple interests means you are not

picky and you have more options to choose from.

Guess What?

We Can’t Just Pick One

• Everything we are interested in does not have to become a career

– Some hobbies are meant to be hobbies

• Not all passions or interests will provide financial security

– Find the right balance

We Can’t Just Pick One

We can be doing a lot of things but we need to

start somewhere.

– Do what we can do now. Take Baby steps.

– We can’t find the most delicious food by just thinking about it. We have to go try it.

We Can’t Just Pick One

As we try different jobs and narrow down our choices to discover our ultimate career, we will realize we can always use our profession one way or another. - Our strengths and skills are applied in any job.

- It’s about finding the right fit for your skills.

Finding the Right Fit

• It’s like climbing a mountain. You can’t find the right fit by just standing on the ground and feeling overwhelmed by its towering presence.

• The higher you climb, the closer you get to the top of the mountain which is your right fit (your ultimate career).

• There is also no one right way to get to the top.

Now that we know making a career decision is not an one-time event, how can we help them find a job with limited connections?

Finding a Job

1. Embrace yourself and make your job search a game.

Finding a Job

• My Story of Finding a job…

– Pretended I had a job

– Didn’t always WFH

– Networking was my wild card

– It was super challenging

• Stop complaining about the job market.

Put all your effort and passion in finding a job.

Start appreciating.

Gratitude can help you change your state.

Finding a Job

2. Ask the Right Questions

Don’t Ask

• How come I can never get interviews?

• Why do employers never call me back?

Do Ask

• How can I stand out?

• What else can I do?

• How can I improve?

• What value can I provide?

Finding a Job

3. Learn from every experience

no matter how small or big it is

– Can’t get pass the interview stage? Practice!

– Record (Create a job search and contact log)

– Do it with a friend.

Finding a Job

4. Connecting with people is important

– Be yourself not who you wish to be

– It’s not about you. It’s about them

– Be open-minded

• There is no one best way to find a job.

• Every employer looks for different things in candidates

Try as many different job search methods as

possible and focus on the ones that work the best for you.

Let’s Go Back to the First Slide…

Young Adults’ Pursuit of Happiness

We all want to be happy and we pursue happiness. Our young adults say the following statements during their career or job search I’ll be happy when… -I know my passions -I know where I’m heading -I work for XYZ company

But you know what…

YAP of Happiness

• Happiness comes when we find things to be happy about in our current situation.

• There is a time for everything and delays are sometimes needed to help us prepare and grow.

Thank You

Please give our young adults hope when they are doing their best to make a career decision and/or find a job.

• All they need is time to explore, grow and reflect on their experiences until they see all puzzle pieces come together.

– What do I like about this experience?

– What don’t I like about it?

– How can I make it better next time?

Thank you. Let’s keep in touch! Euna Son YAPofHappiness@gmail.com