how can I help my high schoolers figure out what career they might want?

It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes:

What resources would you recommend for high school students trying to decide their future career paths? I have two high schoolers at home and their views of what jobs exist are so … limited. My rising 10th grader has announced they want to be a forensic scientist, even though they “don’t like science,” because a) every other book or show they consume is about “murder” (thank you, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Only Murders in the Building) and b) “I don’t want to be a teacher.” It’s like there are only two jobs in the world — forensic scientist and teacher — and you have to pick one or the other!

I also have a rising senior at home, and because we’re right on the cusp of college admissions, the issue feels all the more pressing. Their high school lacks good guidance counseling, so he’s joined a small group of peers doing career exploration and college admissions prep under a parent volunteer. That adult had the kids do Meyers Briggs tests and an exercise where they brainstormed what kind of job conditions they’d prefer. Based on that activity, my oldest came to the conclusion they should pursue environmental studies “because I don’t want a job where I sit at a desk all day” — even though they otherwise don’t give a fig about plants, animals, or ecology. I think they largely landed on this idea because they just don’t know what jobs exist.

I get that for many people, a career path is a journey. I myself am happily doing something completely different than I trained for as an undergrad. Many of the people I know are in a similar boat. And at our local college, I believe around 40% of all students change majors. But so many universities today insist you apply to a specific program, and those spots are limited and competitive. On top of that, college is expensive, and I’d rather our kids not get to the end of those four years saying, “That was a mistake, and now I need to take out loans to pursue the thing I actually want to pursue,” especially if it turns out the thing they’re really good at has a low return on investment. Are there websites, tests, books, or exercises to do to expand students’ understandings of their strengths, their interests, and a breadth of actual jobs?

I tend to think it’s counterproductive to push kids to zoom in on a career path while they’re still in high school (unless they’re already coming to it on their own) because their horizons are going to be broadened so much in college, along with their ideas of what they might like to do and be good at, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help them start broadening their horizons now. Readers, please weigh in in the comment section!

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