Explore Careers and Academics
Exploring careers and academics while in high school can help students start to narrow their career search and reduce the amount of time they spend on their career search in college. Exploring potential majors can reduce the number of times students change majors in college and increase the likelihood that students will graduate from college on time.
Educ8Fit Consulting offers career assessments using Holland Codes as part of its college counseling services. Holland Codes indicate areas of interest that, when put together, reveal potential careers of interest. The U.S. Department of Labor has compiled voluminous information based on these Holland Codes, which you can use to research careers.
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You Science
One career assessment that Educ8Fit Consulting uses is You Science. You Science is particularly helpful because, in addition to revealing Holland Codes, it includes an ability assessment in addition to an assessment of interests. It is important to assess abilities in part because perceived interests can be influenced by expectations of others, as this article suggests: University Research Confirms YouScience Career Aptitude Assessments Can Close Workforce Gender Gaps | Business Wire.
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Majors
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Majors need not be perfectly aligned with careers for them to work well for students. For instance, a student planning to work in government or as an attorney might want to consider majoring in English as well as majoring in Political Science. The ability to write well is highly valued in both government and law.
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Student Self-discovery
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A helpful way to begin the college search process is to do self-discovery about interests and talents. Here are some resources to help with self-discovery:
Informal Career Assessments
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Interest Profiler: http://www.mynextmove.org/
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Personality Mosaic from Delta College: http://www.hollandcodes.com/support-files/delta-personalitymosaic.pdf
Career Prospects
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Some careers have better prospects than others. You can research careers here: O*NET OnLine https://www.onetonline.org/find/
​Occupational Outlook Handbook
This U.S. Department of Labor handbook provides information related to the outlook for numerous different careers. In addition to searching for information starting with an occupation, you can search for information starting with things like pay and job growth.
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Networking to Find a Career
Please see my blog post on how to network to find a career, job shadowing opportunities, and internships here: From Networking as a Student to Selecting a Career (educ8fit.com).
The tools provided here can be good starting points, but it may help to have additional guidance. Contact us at Educ8Fit Consulting for a free consultation to see how we can help.
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