Career Choices: How Your Parent’s Chosen Profession Affects Your Own

Influence can come in many forms. But if it was a question of career choice, have you ever wondered if your job was ever influenced by your own parent's profession?

Facebook Researchers have asked that question and have taken a closer look at parent-child relationships. Facebook researchers Ismail Onur Filiz and Lada Adamic has created an online blog post that details how "jobs run in the family."

Both staff members have sifted through 5.6 million parent-child pairs in the English-based social network platform to identify if there are trends linking career to family relationships. The date gathered came from relationships listed in their profiles and listed occupations, as well. Ultimately, the two were able to identify a probability of a kid's occupation given by their parent's.

The Facebook research indicates an example of a son's employment relating to his father's. The trend shows that a father who works in the legal profession would most likely have a son that is 4.6x as likely to go into medicine. In the same study, they found that daughters with moms as nurses are 3.75x likely to become a nurse as well. A son who has a father in the military is 5xmore likely to enter the military, but just 1 in 4 sons does so. For fathers who work in farming, fishing and forestry industry, only 3% of their sons stay in the profession, but this probability is 7.6xthe overall rate.

Filiz and Adamic however have expressed a disclosure that this is just a theoretical idea and does not wholly explain a global concept. Though it is always possible that the child may be following his parent's footsteps.

Have you thought about what influences you to your profession? Tell us how and if your parents have influenced your career in any way.

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