What Color Is Your Parachute for Teens, 1st edition
Why is career planning for teens and young adults so important? Studies show that you are 100 times more likely to be financially successful, not to mention 100 times happier, if your work interests you.
Shortly after the first edition of What Color Is Your Parachute for Teens was released (2006), an Associated Press article about the book rolled through newspapers across the country. Syndicated articles are given titles at each newspaper. It was interesting to see the variety of titles given to the article; no two newspapers used the same title. One concerned me very much: “Career planning limits choices.” It does?
To avoid that sort of misinterpretation, it’s helpful to understand what career planning is–and isn’t–and why career planning should start early in high school.
Career planning, for teens, young adults and older ones too, is about learning a process that you will use for the rest of your working life. It’s not about making a choice and being stuck with it. Today’s workers usually have had several jobs before they’ve discovered their “dream job.” You will too.
Done right, career planning is an experience in creating options and learning how to use ones preferences to create a career path. The goal is not to limit, but to teach a process for collecting career information. First, you need information about your strengths, skills and interests. Then you need information about world of work: What jobs suit you? What is the demand for that kind of work? Are those jobs happening somewhere you’d like to live? Career planning teaches you how to use information to make decisions that will help you create a life you love financed by work you enjoy.
The economics of career planning One very interesting person I interviewed for my book was an economist. Professor Steve Hamilton, PhD, surprised me when he said, “High school is the ideal time to teach career planning.”
My sentiments exactly! But why did he think so? Many college professors don’t know about career planning or don’t think it’s important until students are near graduation (a very bad idea).
“Opportunity cost zero,” was his response.
My blank stare must have communicated that while I knew he was speaking English, I didn’t have a clue what these three words meant in economic jargon.
Steve was delighted to explain. “When the opportunity cost is zero, there is no extra expense for taking advantage of all that opportunity has to offer. In high school, parents foot the bill for most living expenses. There is no extra cost to use the time to make career plans. Adults can always change careers or jobs, but they must also keep up their financial obligations as they do so. Unless they have a partner whose salary can pay all the bills, career exploration must be done quickly. If teens learn the process in high school they can use those four years to plan for what’s next. Once they learn the process, each time they do it they’ll get quicker and better results”
Finding zero cost opportunities Check out what career exploration, job shadowing, career planning and technical skill training classes or resources are available at your high school or local community college. Not all such programs are mandatory. It may take some effort to find out about them. Also, make sure you learn when they are offered. It’s a shame when it’s not until your senior year that you find out your high school does have a careers class but it’s only offered by one teacher as part of an Introduction to Business class for juniors.
Jobs and careers are like clothing You usually have to try on several outfits to find something you like; jobs are no different. They need to be tried on to see how they fit each individual. That’s why getting to talk with people about their jobs at their worksites is such an important part of developing your first career path.
Finding a job that’s right for you takes time. When I taught career planning at a state university, we had 45 in class hours. Students who received the highest grades in the class spent an equal amount of time doing field and library research. Students were delighted with the results of their efforts, but surprised by the amount of time systematic career planning takes. Developing your career is one of those activities where the more time you spend at it, the more you get out of the process. For the average young adult takes about ten years to negotiate the maze of higher education, the world of work and find a really good job. That’s why the process of learning how to plan your career should start at 15, not at 20 or 25.
With a little planning, during high school you can try out as many jobs as possible. As a high school sophomore, you’ll want to find several fields or jobs that match your interests. By then end of summer before you start your junior year, you should have checked out those jobs and found at least 3 you want to learn more about.
If your high school doesn’t have a work experience coordinator who can help you find people to talk with who are doing the work that interests, ask your parents or members of your extended family to help. If you are considering higher education to help you get further training or education for certain job or jobs, set up half-day job shadowing experiences. If you really like the job, set up additional half-days for job shadowing the same kind of work at different job sites. Ideally, high school juniors and seniors should have 3 to 5 job shadowing experiences each semester. Spending time and money for education or training that doesn’t help you earn a living isn’t a wise use of resources is today’s fickle economy.
If possible, use at least one assignment each semester to learn more about a field or industry. Term paper? If you’re into clothes, instead of researching something of no interest for your World History class, why not do a paper on “Dress and Fabrics of Ancient Rome?” Book reports can be done on a super-star or role model in an industry that you find fascinating.
Extra curricular activities (such as clubs, sports, band or an annual local event), volunteer work, community service requirements and part-time or summer work can all be used to learn more about jobs and industries for free.
Career exploration through part time work. You may want to get an after school or weekend job. There are both benefits and liabilities to this choice. Yes, a fast food or entry-level retail job can establish a work history and references. It may even help you explore a field that interests you. And, to help with family finances, you may need to have a part time job. But researchers have concluded that if teens work more than 10 hours a week, their studies suffer. Can you both work and keep up your grades? Be careful that you don’t make a short term decision that ends up having long reaching negative consequences.
Even if you aren’t planning on going to college, you need to study enough to get decent grades. According to employment experts, employers see grades as signals of ambition and effort. Students who maintain a GPA of 2.6 (or higher) have better chances of getting into apprenticeships or other employer paid learning opportunities.
One of the real tragedies of teens having after school jobs is that they don’t save much of their earnings. A financial literacy study found that 98% of what teens make they spend. Learn good fiscal management by spending only 25% of what you earn. The rest should be put into savings to help fund post high school studies or travel. You’ll be so glad you didn’t fritter away your paychecks on stuff you don’t even want six months later.
Finding an entry-level job in a field that interests you may not be easy. But that experience will contribute much to your ability to make good career decisions.
High school is the best time to begin planning your first career path. According to Marty Nemko, PhD, career strategist, author and US News Magazine’s career blogger (see www.martynemko.com for more of his great ideas):
“High school is the only time when you have the luxury of time for career exploration. You don’t have to narrow down quickly. You can learn about all the jobs that match all of your interests, investigate training or education requirements for dozens of careers, find the best preparation for the work you want to do and make a plan for how to get the best job you can.”
Creating a post high school career path takes about the same amount of effort as a writing a really good term paper. If you start at 15, you several years to pull this plan together. And, there is no better time to do so than when Mom and Dad are paying the bills.
