Should you follow your passion or make a “sensible” choice of study? This dilemma has always preoccupied young people seeking a fulfilling future. But today's career questions are not limited to this one choice.
Sometimes there are bright students whose future seems all mapped out — only to be overtaken by their passion. Such was the case with Alex Wieczoreck. With a degree in journalism and commercial engineering from Solvay, he could just as easily have become a consultant, private banker or CFO, but in the end opted for stand-up comedy and a career as a comedian and columnist. Singer Axelle Red earned a law degree from the VUB before achieving fame.
Giles Daoust, who is also a regular contributor to this magazine, was a film producer before taking over the family business... Conversely, SangHoon Degeimbre dreamed of being a pharmacist when he was a teenager, before turning somewhat accidentally to culinary school and becoming the iconic, two-starred chef of “l'Air du Temps”.
Afraid of making the wrong choice
How do you balance professional reason with passion? Behind the dilemmas and questions that these individuals have faced are thousands of others, as evidenced by the continued success of career fairs and workshops. "We can't meet all the demand. Young people often say they're afraid of making the wrong choice and not being able to change direction later", explains Joséphine Mondry, advisor and project manager at SIEP, the Service d'Information sur les Etudes et les Professions (Study and Careers Information Service).
These young people, who are often accompanied by their parents, are afraid of wasting time or committing themselves to a path that will determine their whole life and from which they will not be able to escape afterwards. Faced with this uncertainty, many opt for university courses such as transitional bachelor's degrees, for example, that are likely to keep as many ‘doors open’ as possible for as long as possible. ‘But the risk is that after a few months they lose their sense of purpose or desire, and drop out in their first year of higher education’, points out Joséphine Mondry.
Satisfied, frustrated, fatalistic or rebellious
However, the choices these young people make are no longer limited to questions of opportunities and deep personal aspirations. "Young people sometimes find it hard to project themselves into professional environments. Even if they have an idea of the prospects offered by a degree, they can't really grasp what their day-to-day professional reality will be like", continues Joséphine Mondry.
This finding is corroborated by a recent study published by the Institut Montaigne, a Paris-based think tank. It reveals a young population that, far from being disengaged, remains attached to the value of work, but for whom the first few years of employment are often synonymous with disappointment.
Alongside the “satisfied” group, whose relationship with work is positive and peaceful, the research identifies three other types of young people, to be placed in the camp of the disappointed, who together now seem to make up the majority of generation Z.
'Young people often say that they are afraid of making the wrong choice and not being able to make a change later on' - Joséphine Mondry, advisor and project manager at SIEP, the Service d'Information sur les Etudes et les Professions
The study describes this category of young people as ‘frustrated’ (28% of the sample). This is the result of a significant mismatch between their expectations and the reality of jobs, leading to feelings of protest or demotivation. Another important group are the 'fatalists' (20%) who, faced with this reality, have lowered their expectations of work to a very low level. Finally, there are the 'rebels' (20%), who are satisfied with their jobs but develop a reluctance to accept authority and, finally, a rejection of the company.
Making vocational training a positive choice
The study also notes that this sense of disillusionment affects highly educated young people and those in general university courses (such as humanities and social sciences) more than young people from vocational training backgrounds. This presents a curious contradiction: professional dissatisfaction seems to primarily affect “white-collar” youth, even though technical and manual pathways remain the least valued among students.
“The idea that vocational and qualifying courses are ‘second-rate’ remains deeply ingrained in secondary schools. Because these choices often follow setbacks, they are experienced as all the more constrained and limiting since they tend to be made early in an educational path. What is less well known is that these pathways also lead to obtaining the Higher Secondary Education Certificate and allow access to higher education if desired,” explains Joséphine Mondry. This highlights the urgent need to transform these paths into positive choices.
Autonomy and salary
More broadly, rather than the nature of their job itself, the expectations of younger people seem to be increasingly focused on the quality of life at work, including the relationship with colleagues. A recent study carried out by the Forum des jeunes de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles found that for the vast majority (71%), the good atmosphere in the team is the primary criterion for professional well-being. Alarmingly, 28% said they had been victims of harassment.
More generally, the Institut Montaigne stresses that the balance between free time and work and the absence of stress weigh heavily in their choices. ‘This issue comes up very often, much more so than 6 or 7 years ago’, confirms Joséphine Mondry. Lastly, pay remains a key factor, as the two studies reveal. ‘I'm still quite taken aback by the importance attached to salary and practicalities, even before identifying one's passions and interests’, says Joséphine Mondry. Far from professional ideals, has generation Z become a generation of hyper-pragmatism?
