<p>I actually don’t agree with “backing off” advice people are giving for montegut’s situation. Her son is looking for a job and applying for graduate schools the first time. As his parent, I would tell him that he should go to the career center about job search and speak with his advisor about applying to graduate schools. I would coach him about what to do, but have him do the actual work. </p>
<p>I consider myself to have a lot more experience when it comes to job search than my kids. Why shouldn’t I pass on my wisdom to my kids? Why should I have my kids learn the hard way? I wish I had someone to go to when I first started out. </p>
<p>When D1 was interviewing for a finance job, I prepped her and coached her. She ended up with multiple offers. She continues to seek my advice about various work related issues. Now I’ll go to her sometimes with my work problems and she is a good sounding board for me. </p>
<p>The analogy would be, you could just throw someone in a pool and that person could learn the hard way of how to swim, but probably would never have the best strokes to go very fast, or you could teach the person how to breath in and out of water, how to move his arms and legs so he could swim faster and longer. I learned the hard way. I could certainly pass on some of my experience so my kids could go further.</p>