Career Counselor Advises Teens to
Plan Now for Future

Cheryl McCarthy
Daily Herald
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Ninety percent of today’s high school graduates go to college. Roughly 60 percent of those college freshmen start with an undeclared major.

The minimum cost per student for a post high school education is $50,000. The average student debt upon college graduation is $20,000.

Peg Hendershot, director of Career Vision, a consulting service in Glen Ellyn, provided those figures when she spoke recently at Neuqua Valley High School to parents and high schoolers about researching careers.

“Know why and in what you’re investing,” she said.

Having a career choice in mind from the beginning steers your search for college majors, which, in turn, guides your choice of college, academic criteria and environment.

“Career-focused students are confident, motivated to persist, and earn their degree on time,” Hendershot said. “Every extra year spent in college is a year out of the work force and a year’s lost income.”

Practice backward planning. Envision the career, then the major, then the college. Colleges are only too happy to have freshmen enter undeclared and just explore the curriculum.

Career planning while in high school results in a college student who is motivated and confident, feels less frustration and anxiety, and spends less time and money achieving the degree. That’s true even when they change majors, a common practice, Hendershot said.

“There’s nothing wrong with changing a major if you’re working a plan,” she said.

How is a high schooler to imagine how he or she might fit into the work world?

Start by understanding yourself. Narrow the field somewhat. Tap into your parents’ knowledge of the work world. Tap into your parents’ friends, and your friends’ parents, to widen the scope. Research a few careers — enough to do short interviews with someone in the field.

Interests and aptitude guide career choices, but high schoolers can’t know much about their interests because they have not been exposed to much. Students choose from a limited palette of what they know: medicine, law, forensic science.

There are many more law and medicine students today than there are jobs in those industries, Hendershot said. Television crime shows display interesting careers that solve the problem in 30 minutes.

Another hot job choice is sports therapy.

“It’s what they can see, what they can touch,” she said. “They aspire to a job that is tangible.”

But most of the work of today’s information society is hidden, and parents are a student’s best resource for getting a peek in.

“Adolescents are occupationally and educationally ambitious, but lack basic information on educational requirements. Conduct information interviews for several different jobs. Know how many years you’ll need to achieve your goal,” Hendershot said.

“Meteorology is a long road in school, leading to a highly competitive field. A bachelor’s degree in psychology will not make you a psychologist.

“Select majors that support careers that appeal to you, and fit what you know about yourself. Start thinking ‘tool-kit.’ What can you put in your tool-kit?”

Not only are high schoolers unaware of the work world, but that world itself is changing at increasing speed. Neural networks, sensory recognition, green businesses, gene therapy, distance learning, weight management and gerontology loom large. The ability to get knowledge and stay connected will be ever more important.

“Understanding yourself is key,” Hendershot said. “Aptitude, interest, temperament are the best predictors of career success. Parents want their kids to be happy, to know success. Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”

Direction. Decisions. Satisfaction.