The Illusion of Knowing: Why Reading Isn’t Enough

Every year, thousands of students make one of the most important choices of their lives: deciding what to study and what career to pursue. Most of them make this decision based on career brochures, job descriptions, salary charts, or the well-meaning advice of parents, teachers, or influencers.

They read about the daily life of a software engineer.
They watch a video featuring a day in the life of a corporate lawyer.
They attend a talk by a marketing professional sharing their success story.

And then they choose.

But what they are choosing is not a profession.
They are choosing a story that has been carefully packaged and selectively told.
At that moment, they fall into one of the most common traps in career planning: the illusion of knowing.

The Gap Between Knowing About a Job and Truly Understanding It

Reading is useful. Secondhand learning has value.
However, when it comes to choosing a future career, information alone will not be enough.

A job is not just a title or a list of responsibilities.
It is a living, dynamic experience that involves emotion, ambiguity, risk, and personal investment.

Here are a few examples:

Law is not just courtroom drama. It includes long hours of legal research, managing ethical dilemmas, and carrying a heavy mental load.
Marketing is not just creative brainstorming. It requires analytical thinking, constant coordination with stakeholders, and the pressure to produce measurable results.
Psychology is not just listening and understanding people. It also involves emotional strain, complex ethical considerations, and navigating difficult real-life challenges.

Reading about these careers is like reading the back cover of a novel.
You understand the genre but not the depth of the story.

Why Students Struggle to Choose the Right Career

The real issue is not that students lack ability.

It is that they are asked to make decisions before they have any context.

Students are told to choose their major quickly and commit to it as if it defines their future.

But how can they stay committed to something they have never experienced?

This creates a frustrating cycle:

Choosing a major based on assumptions or outside expectations
Feeling lost or disconnected once they begin
Doubting themselves and questioning their capability
Feeling stuck or burned out and sometimes switching paths too late

The challenge is not motivation or talent.

The challenge is a lack of real, meaningful exposure.

The Solution: Experiential Learning

The only way to bridge the gap between assumption and reality is to give students real experiences.

When students are placed in settings where they can try things for themselves, the clarity begins to form.
They stop asking what sounds good on paper.
They begin to ask what feels right in practice.

Imagine these scenarios:

Running a mock marketing campaign under tight deadlines
Shadowing a startup founder and observing the chaos and creativity
Writing a legal argument with real-time feedback
Participating in a product pitch where failure is a learning tool
Facing client objections in a role-play scenario

These are the moments when career understanding begins to feel personal.
The students reflect on what energizes them and what does not.
They find out who they are in action, not in theory.

Experience Plus Reflection Leads to True Clarity

Even the best learning experiences can be wasted if they are not processed with care.
That is why reflection is just as important as action.

At Juvenis Maxime, we believe that career discovery should combine outer experience with inner reflection.

Students need to try realistic career scenarios.
But they also need mentors to help them interpret what those experiences reveal.

A great mentor does not simply ask what a student did.
They ask:

When did you feel most focused or engaged?
What moment felt uncomfortable, and why?
Did this experience confirm your interest or challenge it?
What does this experience tell you about your values?

These questions transform activity into insight.
And insight is what leads to confident and informed decision-making.

Seeing Something is Not the Same as Doing It

We often confuse exposure with experience.
But being near something is not the same as living it.

Watching a surgery is not the same as performing one
Sitting in a courtroom is not the same as building a legal case
Attending a panel talk is not the same as solving a real-world business challenge

Real understanding comes from practice.
From frustration. From responsibility. From ownership.
That is what experiential learning offers.
It helps students replace fantasy with lived truth.

Final Thought: Break the Illusion and Find What Truly Fits

Choosing a career based only on what you have read is like choosing a partner based only on a profile picture.

Before investing years of study and personal development into a career, students deserve to experience it first-hand.
They deserve to step into the role, test it, reflect on it, and understand how it fits with who they are.

At Juvenis Maxime, we offer that opportunity.
We create space for action, space for reflection, and space for truth.
We help students move from guessing to understanding, from pressure to purpose.