Have you seen the latest Truist commercials? They’re brilliant. Of all the videos I’ve seen that try to capture the question “What do I want to be when I grow up?”, these come closest to reality.
I’ve always thought the way careers are introduced to us as children is confusing.
I remember visiting my guidance counselor in middle school and seeing a poster of kids dressed as different vocations—firefighter, doctor, teacher, cook, and so on.
I also remember being asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I usually answered “teacher,” not because I knew it was true, but because having an answer stopped the conversation.
Even then, the question felt strange. It implied that I would be my job instead of simply being me. We do our vocations—but we aren’t our vocations.
Some people are lucky enough to know early on what they want to pursue. But that isn’t the reality for most of us.
That question—and that poster with kids dressed as careers—sets up the expectation that we should already know the answer, and that we should choose one career based on it. When, in reality, our systems should be helping us identify what comes naturally to us and what we do well.
Most of us didn’t grow up dreaming of careers in data science, software development, consulting, or product management. Children think in absolutes, not nuance. We couldn’t grasp what people actually do in those roles—either because we didn’t see them day to day, or because those careers didn’t even exist yet.
This is what the Truist commercial captures so well: our vocations can be extensions of the natural gifts we were born with—and those gifts can be applied in many different ways. Just like Tim, who was born with the instinct to care and offer good advice and is now a financial advisor at Truist.
Career direction is rarely as straightforward as: “Your gift is teaching, so you should become a teacher.”
More often, it looks like: “You have a gift for teaching—and within today’s job market, that might lead you to instructional design, training and development, or other paths you haven’t considered yet.”
When you focus on what comes naturally to you, you open yourself up to multiple career or business options—ones that meet your needs, use your innate strengths, and offer a sense of fulfillment. Not just one.
You’ve got this!
Danielle