Some time ago, a mother and her son came for a career guidance consultation. The son was 14 years old and had spent most of his life playing football professionally, with a football club well known in Russia. While I ask about the facts of his life, his interests, academic progress, and achievements, both mother and son are extremely sparing with words. He answers in short sentences, strictly to the point; and she — whenever I ask whether she has anything to add — nods toward her son and says something like, "Perhaps he should tell you himself..."

We look at the test results, and I explain that the boy is closer to introversion by temperament and is generally calm. His aptitudes and interests suggest a leaning toward a “technical profile”: he does reasonably well in mathematics and is interested in technology and in working with different kinds of information. According to his mother and his own assessment, his English is also fairly good. He himself says that he likes tinkering with different kinds of equipment, specifically working with his hands: repairing things when he can, figuring out how they are built and how they work... He is one of the few boys I can remember who, at the age of 14, has learned to use a soldering iron and says he enjoys working with it. People, however, tire him out. A small amount of communication with his closest friends is enough for him. He does not see himself as a coach either, which he confirms through his facial expression and body language, almost leaning slightly away from the table at which we are talking.

We conclude that among the professions that attract him, the popular IT field stands out: programming or system administration. As an alternative, he would also be happy to consider engineering, including robotics. We discuss that for this he will need to improve his mathematics and physics, since these would be his specialized Unified State Exam subjects for university admission. He understands this and says he is ready to try and make the effort...

Then his mother gives her feedback. It turns out that she is shocked and sees her son as being closer to the humanities. Ideally, she imagines him getting an education and building a career in sports management. Because, in her view, anything connected with technology does not fit at all with the effort he has invested so far in sport and in learning English.

I explain part of the test results once again. We discuss possible ways of combining football and an interest in technology in his life. From my point of view — there is no real way to combine them. Football — active, competitive, played on the field — is simply impossible to combine with another profession. He will have to choose: either a career as an athlete, or some other career requiring different skills and opening different paths.

I see something close to panic in her eyes when she then says that all his effort in learning English will also have been wasted, because it would not be useful in the technical fields we have outlined... That surprises me as well. IT is a field that depends on English almost entirely. And if we are talking about serious engineering, being able to read English-language sources is certainly useful both during one’s studies and later, in professional work.

Shortly before leaving, after once again mentioning that I had turned her picture of the world upside down, the mother tells me: "I have something to compare it with. All the teachers at school told my other son that he was a techie. And he kept choosing that direction. From the age of 14 he wanted to attend a particular university. And he got in. Now, though, he is in his second year and says he is disappointed... He is thinking of transferring..."

I thought about those words. Perhaps there really is something to compare it with...