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Parenting (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/) » School life (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/category/school-life/) » What Do You Want To Be?
Parents and Counselors Give Teens Career Guidance

What Do You Want To Be? Parents and Counselors Give Teens

Career Guidance
High school students need direction on their career path, and parents and counselors each play a key role.
by: GreatSchools Staff (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/author/greatschoolsstaff/) | March 4, 2010

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Values, interests, skills, personality, aptitudes – these are all
factors for teens when thinking about their future careers. At the high school level, career guidance involves
three participants: parents, counselors and students themselves. But with increasing caseloads of school
counselors, parents must play a bigger role.

Who am I? Self-Awareness is the First Step

Psychologist Erik Erikson believed the challenge for adolescents is discovering who they are as individuals.
Their intellectual interests and moral reasoning are more developed, and they are ready to think about what
they are going to do with their lives. They also want to be independent and self-reliant. It’s important for
parents to be interested and encouraging, but also let their teens be in control of their own career explorations.

Role of High School Staff

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends one counselor for every 250 high school
students. In most public and even private high schools, this ratio is not possible. In some larger high schools,
over 500 students are assigned to one counselor. To work with all students, counselors often meet with groups
of teens.

“If the school counseling program is able to implement a comprehensive program that delivers a curriculum
piece to all students, it helps to cut down on the need for individual meetings. Students are given the pertinent
information and assistance in beginning the career search process in a classroom setting; then the school
counselor is in a position to follow up with individual students as needed,” says Julie Hartline, the 2009 ASCA
School Counselor of the Year and Lead Professional School Counselor for Campbell High School in Smyrna,
Georgia.

After classroom guidance lessons, Hartline directs her students to the Campbell High School Career Center, the
focal point of their counseling program. She adds, “When a student visits the center, they usually start by
completing a career interest inventory. From there, they explore colleges or training programs that would help
them to get into their fields of interests.”

Hands-On Experience
Many teens start high school wondering what they want to do for a career. By senior year, “I would guess
approximately 75% have an idea of what they want to do after high school,” says Hartline. What(/my-school-list/)
helps teens
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become more decisive about their career interests is meeting individuals working in those occupations.

Burlingame High School’s EXPLORE program, in Burlingame, Calif., places approximately 500 students in job
shadowing assignments with firefighters, lawyers, nurses, plastic surgeons, FBI agents, civil engineers and
more. EXPLORE program coordinator Beth Pascal comments on the program’s success, “I have had students
through the years decide on career paths and actually follow them through. I had a student interested in event
planning and now she has started her own business in her second year of college.”

Pascal also arranges for entire classes to visit job sites and learn about specific industries. For example, a
biology class visited a science institute to learn about different careers in marine biology.

Connecting the Classroom to Careers

“How is this class going to help me later find a job?” This is a common question asked by high school students
about their Western Civilization texts. History and literature are important subjects for teens’ intellectual
development; however, attention has been given lately to the need for curriculum that will also prepare
students for work.

In April 2009 California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell launched the Multiple
Pathways Feasibility Project to study the success of academic and technical curriculum so that teens feel better
prepared for college or starting a career by the end of high school. He commented in his remarks announcing
this project, “Through instruction using a project-based learning approach, multiple pathway programs can
prepare students for a wide variety of employment training, or entry into a particular career field.” This project
will serve as a model for high school programs, preparing all students for success and closing the achievement
gap.

Partnership with Parents

Even with support of counselors and individuals in the community, parents are still the biggest influence on
their teens’ work attitudes. Meeting with your teen and the school counselor is a good start to developing a
plan to reach early career goals. Hartline adds, “Parents need to be encouraging and supportive throughout the
process. The main thing to realize is that society has told students where they will be going to school for 12
years. They need help in determining where to go beyond high school. For many, it is the first major decision
they will make in their lives.”

It’s important to keep in mind that career development is a continual process and many individuals will have
several different careers across a lifetime. Your teen’s first idea may be unrealistic but serves as an indicator of
interests to pursue.

Practical Tips for Parents

Find out who your child’s counselor is. How many students does he/she meet with? How much of this time is
devoted to career guidance?

Ask what assessments or career interest inventories are offered at the school? Make an appointment to
meet with the counselor and teen to discuss the results of the assessment.
 Learn what classes will support your teen in his/her post-secondary interests.
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Be positive! Some fields may have hefty educational requirements or steep competition for school
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placement. Familiarize yourself with career clusters or occupations that are grouped according to common
skills and learning.

Talk to your teen about your own career learning: good decisions, what you would have done differently and
continued plans for your own career.

Have your teen investigate online career inventories, especially if the high school does not offer career
guidance.

Encourage exploration of various fields through internships, shadow visits and interviews.

Check in with your teen periodically to discuss post-secondary plans and revise accordingly.

Start a savings plan early, and explore scholarships and financial aid as needed for college or post-
secondary training.

Updated: October 14, 2016

 College prep (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/tag/college-prep/), Teens (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/tag/teens/)

About the author

GreatSchools Staff (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/author/greatschoolsstaff/)

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