Does what your parents do for a living have an impact on the choice you’ll make for a career? In some cases, the question just doesn’t work. Your parents didn’t have the opportunity to become a social media influencer or a cybersecurity officer

When it comes to other types of jobs, though, it turns out that there’s a correlation between the job choices kids made and what their parents did for a living.

 

Someone’s keeping track

The information comes to us as a result of the General Social Survey (GSS), which for the past 40 years, has kept tabs on what’s going on in American society, measuring changes in our social characteristics and attitudes.

Based on the organization’s information, working sons of working fathers are 2.7 times as likely to have the same job. Working daughters are 1.8 times as likely to have the same job as their mothers – but they’re also 1.7 times as likely to have the same job as their fathers.

The survey concludes that kids are less likely to follow in their parents’ footsteps if they have office jobs. The likelihood increases, though, when it’s a trade.

 

Jobs are Generational Connections

GSS says that there are four top professions that have strong generational connections. If your father was a legislator, you are 354 times more likely to be drawn to that career, too. Kids whose father was a doctor are 23 times more likely to follow in his footsteps. If your father was a lawyer, you’re 17 times more likely to become one, as well.

Jobs in the trades figure into these statistics, as well.

• The sons and daughters of plumbers are 14 times more likely to pursue a job in this field.
• The sons and daughters of electricians are nine times more likely to pursue a job in this field.
• The sons and daughters of carpenters are five times more likely to pursue a job in this field.

And, maybe it’s all that brushing and flossing – but the sons and daughters of dentists are 13 times more likely to become one, too.

If you’re looking for patterns, one of the strongest to stand out is that most of these careers are not highly impacted by changes in the economy. The public needs the services of professionals ranging from plumbers to doctors no matter what’s happening with the stock market.

Exploring a career in the trades as a plumber, electrician, or HVAC technician is also the way to begin a satisfying lifelong career that offers great pay and job security. Learn more.

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