An annual “Adecco Children’s Career Survey 2014” of children living in Vietnam has again revealed that becoming a Doctor is the top career choice amongst Vietnamese school children. Also, they believe that it is more important to ‘spend time with family’ than ‘making lots of money’ – showing that our children care about family bonding instead of financial wealth.
The survey, conducted by Adecco Vietnam, a subsidiary of the world’s leading human resources company, asks children aged between 7-14 years, five simple questions:
1. What do you want to be when you grow up? Why have you chosen this and how much do you expect to earn?
2. What is the best/coolest job that you can think of?
3. If you became President of Vietnam, what are the first three things you would do?
4. What is more important: to make lots of money or to spend time with your family? Why?
5. What is the best/most enjoyable thing to do in Vietnam over the weekend?
For the question “What do you want to be when you grow up”, 24% of the children responded stating that they want to become a Doctor when they grow up, showing that our children start thinking about good career choices at an early age. They revealed that their monthly salary expectations ranged from VND 1 million right up to VND 250 million!
The Top Five “What do you want to be when you grow up” Jobs, as identified in the survey, are:
1. Doctor
2. Teacher
3. Business Executive
4. Singer
5. Police officer or Scientist (tied in fifth place)
Other children surveyed wanted to be an Artist, Astronaut (and working for NASA), or Firefighter to earn only 2 million VND per month!
For the dream job question, 48% of the young respondents answered stating that they want to save and help people (by being a Doctor or teacher Teacher).
9% of those surveyed thought that becoming Prime Minister is the ‘coolest job’ they know – showing that the children want to take care of the country and want to contribute to society in Vietnam, a good sign for the future and our future leaders!
Becoming Prime Minister of Vietnam may be a daunting task for many adults – but clearly not for many of the children responding to this survey. When asked what the first “three things they would do” if they were fortunate enough to become the President of Vietnam – the answers were both poignant…as well as amusing. Some of the responses included:
- Reform the country to prevent bribery and corruption
- Play games more and travel around the world
- Develop diplomatic relations with other countries
- Protect the environment and plant more trees
- Ban homework and monthly studying reports!
The survey revealed that 83% of the children stated that they would choose to spend more time with family than in making money. However, the 17% choosing to earn more money was because they want to have money to take care of parents and other family members – proving our children have their hearts in the ‘right place’ and that they understand family values. Some of the reasons including:
- My family is the most important thing in the world.
- My family gives me the most happiness.
- I love my family.
- I want to save time to take care of my family.
- Money cannot buy everything.
For the question “What is the best/ most enjoyable thing to do in Vietnam over the weekend?” the respondents generated some interesting answers:
- Going out with family and friends
- Spending time with grandparents
- Playing games and watching movie
- Going swimming and shopping
- Travel or playing sport: fishing, tennis, football, basketball, etc.
- Studying, doing homework, researching new things
Over 35% of children like going out with family and friends providing that the parents are taking care of them and spending time with them. This is consistent with the result in other countries where the kids want to spend quality time with their parents.
When asked which country they would choose to live in, the USA gets 37% of children’s dream country votes - followed by Vietnam at No. 2 with 21%. Other countries that followed are England, Japan, Australia.
Nicola Connolly, General Director of Adecco Vietnam, commented “Through the survey, it is fascinating to see what Vietnamese children think about their futures. The children are creative, imaginative and very forward thinking. We can also see that the children deeply care and appreciate their families. Many want to help others that may be less fortunate than themselves.”
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Adecco Career Survey of Children living in Vietnam in 2014