Career Planning for Teens

[author][author_info]This is the first of two articles written by guest blogger Larry Milks. Larry serves as East Region Director with SHARE in Budapest, Hungary.  He has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Michigan State University and a Master’s degree in Science Education from Western Michigan University. Prior to serving with SHARE, he taught high school science courses and after this stepped into an administrative role where he was involved in developing new career-related courses.  Larry and his wife Nancy have three girls, Sarah (23), Jane (21) and Heather (17) and have been living in Budapest, Hungary since 2001.[/author_info] [/author]

As you work with families that have high-school-aged teens, one of their needs is for help in making the transition to lifer after high-school.  A key part of this is getting some direction on what occupational area they might choose to enter.  This important decision will then impact what kind of post-secondary degree or training they will need to pursue this occupational area.

Many high-school graduates flounder during this time and make an ill-informed decision.  This is supported by the fact that approximately 41.2% of college freshman who enter a public or private 4-yr college will not have completed a degree within six years[i].  There are of course many reasons for this, but certainly one factor has to do with the lack of career preparedness resulting in students selecting majors that are not a good fit for them.  This in turn creates discouragement and dropout, or the need to change colleges or majors such that six years is not sufficient for the student to graduate.

So the question is… how to help these teen MKs transition well to the world of work.  To help them do this I think two main things are important.  First they need to understand themselves, and secondly they need to understand the world of work.  Once both of these things are known, they can then think more clearly about what some good occupational fits might be for them and explore those in more detail.  The following paragraphs take a brief look at each of these things needed for a good transition.

To get a handle on understanding themselves, a career interest inventory or assessment of some kind is usually helpful.  These will help the MK to understand what sorts of skills or gifting they seem to have (e.g. relational skills, organizing ability), what mental or physical tasks they particularly enjoy and excel in (e.g. creative out of the box thinking, construction tasks that require good manual dexterity), or what values they hold to strongly (e.g. orderliness, achievement, relating with others).  Some links to sample inventories are shown below.  As an additional source of information, it is also a good idea for the MK to interact on the above topics with a person who knows them well and can reflect back what they see in the MK.

To understand the world of work, it is a great idea to become familiar with the various segments of the workforce.  For example, the College Board web site shows the following slices to the occupational pie:

• Arts & Media
• Public & Social Services
• Business Specialties
• Research & Education
• General Business
• Technology
• Medicine & Health
• Trades & Services

(https://myroad.collegeboard.com/myroad/navigator.jsp?t=careers&i=index)

Underneath each of these broad career segments the MK can find examples of specific occupations in which they might be interested.  By exploring in this way on the internet, the student can examine an occupation they are intrigued with and see how well it lines up with what they have determined about themselves.  The College Board web site above, as well as the sites listed below provide lots of good detail on specific careers.  When using these web sites, the MK should make note of the following types of information:

• Work duties or functions of the career
• Equipment or tools used
• Work environment or lifestyle associated with the career (e.g. physical demands, stress factors, travel expected, weekend work expected)
• Training or education required
• Future demand for this career (growing, shrinking or stable).

After gathering this information, the MK can take those careers that show promise of being a good fit with who they are and dig a little bit deeper into them.  I have provided some direction for this in the attached Career Investigation Project document.  One thing in this project document that I strongly recommend doing is a job shadow in the career of interest.  This involves finding a person who is employed in the career that the MK is interested in.  They then set up a day with that person where they can go to their place of employment, observe the environment and the things that typically happen during the day, and ask the person questions about their work.  I have attached a job shadow docuement which will give the MK a list of questions that are helpful to ask.  Before doing an actual job shadow, however,  I recommend the use of some quality internet sites that specialize in virtual job shadows through video interviews.  See these sights below.

Well, this should be enough to get you started.  Don’t be too intimidated by the contents of the Career Investigation Project.  Most of the information is readily available and it doesn’t need to be done for lots of careers.  It should be reserved for the two or three that show the most initial promise of being a good fit for the MK.

Happy career counseling : )

Larry

Sites for Career Interest Inventories

1. http://www.self-directed-search.com/  (Holland Self-Directed Search, career inventory online for $9.95, click “take the SDS” upper right in orange, I use the paper and pencil version of this at SHARE conferences because it results in a 3 digit code that connects the students to potential good-fit careers)
2. https://secure.careerdirectonline.org/get/ (Career Direct, in-depth, Christian based, $80)
3. https://myroad.collegeboard.com/myroad/navigator.jsp (College Board’s site on careers with extensive day-in-the-life profiles and a career inventory, free to students who have taken the PSAT or $20/yr.

Sites for In-Depth Career Information

1. https://myroad.collegeboard.com/myroad/navigator.jsp (College Board’s site on careers with extensive day-in-the-life profiles and a career inventory, free to students who have taken the PSAT or $20/yr.
2. http://online.onetcenter.org/  (shows skills and tools used in career)
3. http://www.bls.gov/k12/students.htm  (selecting a career area will take you to the wealth of job specific information found in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook)
4. http://www.princetonreview.com/careers-after-college.aspx   (day-in-the-life career profiles, short career quiz to help narrow down career choices)
5. www.wetfeet.com (click on “Guides” in upper right for excellent insider info on certain career areas)
6. www.careerplanner.com (click on “Job Descriptions” along the top, allows you to plug in your Holland code and find careers)

Sited for Virtual Job Shadows

1. http://careersoutthere.com/
2. http://www.jobshadow.com/
3. http://roadtripnation.com/explore/interests

© 2012-2023 PACE
All rights reserved