Q. What, if anything, can parents of high-school-age children do to guide them toward their true professional calling?

A. Some parents are apt to put pressure on their children about choosing a first career, thinking that it will determine the course of their lives. Yet as adults, we often reinvent ourselves more than once, moving among professions. So whatever your children choose now won’t necessarily define their future.

“I see many teens who jump on the first career track that someone recommends just to avoid being directionless, only to find themselves miserable a few years later,” said Tamar E. Chansky, a child-and-adolescent psychologist in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., and author of “Freeing Your Child From Anxiety.”

Ms. Chansky says it’s best to have conversations with teenagers about their strengths and interests, rather than a specific career, and then to listen to what they have to say. “If the parent is putting out all the ideas, you wind up with the parent’s dream, not the kid’s,” she said.

The dream job: Most people long to have one and spend years in school or working their way up in pursuit of one.

But what is a dream job? One that fulfills your every need and always makes your life wonderful? And is there a dream job for everyone? Hiring experts agree that dream jobs are within everyone's reach, though not every minute at your dream job will be blissful.

Read on for the truth about dream jobs and some tips for how to get as close as possible to your own dream job.

Myth 1: For every person, there's just one dream job.

Reality: There are tens of thousands of different types of jobs. Chances are good that you'd thrive in any number of them.

One step closer: Look at the job you've been happiest in, and think about the core qualities of that job and what made you feel so good about it. This experiential knowledge along with the results from a free career test can help you sort out your dream job options and figure out next steps.

It might be a real challenge to find a desired job within normal circumstances, but what if you are looking for a job in the situation of the world economic crisis? Enterprises are getting rid of the old stock, slowing down production rates, trying to lower costs, and consequently, cutting down the workforce. Many companies around the world are reducing their staff. Hiring? Not really.

It might look like a completely hopeless situation – how can anybody get a job, when so many are being fired? But this is not exactly like that. Yes, it is most likely that you are not going to find vacant positions openly advertised on the companies’ web pages or anywhere else. However, Human Resources are looking for people – full of fresh ideas, talented, bold people. People, who will bring positive changes, invent new techniques and rewrite the history of the business development. Who told you, that you cannot be one of those people?

Please, consider the following:

Career transition.

There should be something you have always wanted to do for your living, but never got down to it, because you had another job, because you did not have relevant experience to do this kind of work, because, because… This is the time! Just be bold and go ahead!