What did you want to be when you grew up? It’s probably not the same as what today’s young people say they are after. The ideal career choices of kids right now might not even be recognizable to previous generations.
Travel company First Choice surveyed 1,000 young people between 6 and 17 years of age about what job they would most want to have. For one third of them, the career path of choice would be to be a YouTuber.
YouTube stars create their own YouTube channels, vlog (video blog) regularly and build up lists of subscribers. When their channel gains enough traffic, they can make advertising revenue, as well as receive free products and services for review purposes, and legions of fans. The most successful of them have actually become millionaires through their video sharing. (See: How to become a YouTube millionaire.)
Similarly, the second choice of today’s youth would be to become a blogger/vlogger. Bloggers write content for the web – usually on a specific topic about which they become online influencers. (Parenting or “mommy blogs,” food or travel blogs are prime examples.) Vloggers, like YouTubers, produce video blogs rather than text. This was the choice of nearly 20 per cent of young people surveyed.
The top 10 careers today’s kids want when they grow up
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1. YouTuber – 34.20 per cent
2. Blogger/Vlogger – 18.10 per cent
3. Musician/Singer – 16 per cent
4. Actor – 15.7 per cent
5. Film Maker – 13.6 per cent
6. Doctor/Nurse – 13.4 per cent
7. TV Presenter – 12.4 per cent
8. Athlete – 11.9% per cent / Teacher – 11.9 per cent (Tied)
9. Writer – 8.4 per cent
10. Lawyer – 6.4 per cent
What most of these career paths have in common is that they show that young people want to express themselves, they’re creative, and they are hungry for an audience.
While ambition for followers can lead to experimentation and innovation to come up with new forms of content to share, it can also be a tough job. Case in point. One YouTuber, hungry for more followers recently lost a testicle while creating a video of a “kiss or kick challenge.” It went horribly wrong. Undeterred, Will Zeven, then allowed the hospital to film his surgery so he could also post that to his YouTube channel as well.
I don’t know how much money he’s making as a vlogger, but whatever it is, you can’t say he hasn’t earned it.
Alternately, you might want to look into the 10 best jobs in the world right now. (No injuries required – ‘safe working environment’ was one of the top criteria.)
