“I am never going to ask young people What do you want to do when you grow up? Ever again” said our CEO Silvana Muscella in her welcome speech to our Digital Careers event.
Why? Because, as clearly stated by Dr. Meg Jay in her book “The Defining Decade”, the question implies that there's one perfect answer, one fixed path, or a singular identity to grow into. Our early career and academic choices are often a time to explore, experiment, and figure out who we are, not the time to create a rigid plan.
Instead of pressing young people to choose one future, to decide where they should end up, we should encourage young people to start from their passions, or just start from what comes easy to them, in other words: to take action, any action that increases their understanding of what they like and dislike. The Digital Careers event was inspired by this view and was built to give students access to real stories and a range of pathways they might not have considered yet. This was made possible by the wide array of backgrounds COMMpla and Trust-IT bring together: from international relations to UX design, from media and journalism to computer programming.
However, what emerges from the conversation is that the questions students have about the digital job market and the future of digital careers are more universal, less to do with a job’s daily tasks and more to do with the broader challenges of choosing one’s path.
- How hard was it to get here?
- Did you ever have doubts about your career?
- Have you ever changed your mind?
And the team delivered! Many of our young professionals have varied and complex career paths, some found their passion right away and have stuck with it, some were pressured into a specific academic path and only found a specific interest later in life, some have multiple passions and are finding creative ways to cultivate all of them at once.
When it boils down to it, it is often true that there is no one perfect way to approach a career path in the digital age, with ever evolving technology and new and frequent paradigm altering innovations, but we all experience doubt, uncertainty and fear, often due to the expectations that are put on us.
Normalising uncertainty, our young professionals helped demystify what it means to pursue a digital career today. And if there’s one message we hope students took home, it’s this: you don’t need all the answers now – just the courage to ask questions, explore options, and take the next step forward.
Trust-IT supports the EU objectives to boost its tech competitiveness and innovation capacity, in line with the International Digital Strategy. If you want to learn more about what we do, then reach out to us here.
