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Comment by bpyne | Hacker News Reader

" It doesn't include things like lawyers and computer programmers"

When my daughter was in 4th or 5th grade they had a "career day" in which students could meet parents who were in jobs they found interesting. I offered to talk with kids about being a software developer. The organizer contacted me the day before to let me know that nobody signed up to talk with me. I was a bit crestfallen. ;-)

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I had a similar experience. I came in for a "career day" thing to talk about Software Development. I did not get much love. Some of the kids perked up a little when I said I used to work next to Xbox testers and watched them play games all day long.

I'm sure if you would have said you could make video games, you'd have a huge line of kids!

This was exactly the segue my colleague would use when speaking to school children about computer science.

I think this is just a function of younger children not understanding their career goals yet. If you look at children when they get to college, Computer Science as a major has seen absurd growth in the past 10 years. Google, Facebook, Uber and other tech giants are the hottest places to work. So I tend not to overindex on the preferences of 10 year olds.

You'd likely have had an easier time if you called yourself a 'programmer', I feel like the term was more familiar to me as a kid compared to 'software developer'

Sounds like the teacher may have dropped the ball on a learning opportunity in this case. I've learned that I will regularly teach my kids things they don't care about.

ooof :(

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