Will Your Kid Grow Up to be in HR?

The website BookofOdds.com had an interesting article titled “Hey Kids, Pick A Career“, in which they give certain odds on what occupations your child (or any child born for that matter) will become a certain profession. This is of particular interest to me since I have one son entering college this year, and another, next year.  Both of my sons are weighing those normal options of doing what they think they want to do vs. how much money can I make.

As you can imagine the article gives some of the obvious careers first, like the odds my kid will be a:

  • Surgeon: 1 in 2,872
  • Professional Athlete: 1 in 9,684
  • Fashion Model: 1 in 81,440
  • Fire Fighter 1 in 452
  • Elementary Teacher 1 in 87

Because you know, we all thought we were going to be one of those when we grew up!

I don’t know about you, but I when I took the career interest assessment in my junior year of high school it didn’t say I was going to be a HR Pro.  In fact, mine gave me my top 3 “best” career choices, which honestly in order were: 1. Teacher; 2. Floral Designer; 3. Sales.  Not sure how the Floral Designer got in there, but to this day I love working out in the yard! There wasn’t even a category for HR or Personnel or Hiring Guy or anything.

So, Book of Odds really got me thinking about what my 3 son’s will be when they grow up. I know their personal choices right now (oldest to youngest) are: 1. Exercise Science or Accounting, 2. Musical Theater, 3. Stay at home with Mom.  Fairly normal given their ages of 18, 16 and 11.  In reality they are more likely to be:

  • Administrative Role: 1 in 5
  • Sales: 1 in 9
  • Food Service:  1 in 11
  • Healthcare: 1 in 19
  • Education: 1 in 16

What about HR?

  • Human Resources: 1 in 656.9
  • More interesting: 1 in 10 HR Pros make under $28,030 per year (ouch!).

Well, I can hope, like most parents that my kids find careers that pay the bills and make them happy. The odds are I’ll probably have at least one living with me until their late 20’s!

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