Most People Get Career Planning Backwards. Here’s Why.

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For the average American, thinking about a career is an afterthought to a general education. The process typically goes like this:

  1. A student goes through twelve years of general education.

  2. Around the time of their senior year in high school, the student frantically realizes that they need to make a massive decision about what to do with the rest of their lives. Specifically, they must choose what to do for a career.

  3. Unprepared for a decision of this magnitude, many students make a poor choice.

The fact that many students make a poor decision about a career is unfortunate. We can reduce the likelihood of this happening by changing the way we think about the relationship between the school years and the career years. Rather than being an afterthought, career planning and career education should form a integral part of the K-12 experience.

A better approach to career planning

The approach taken by many families needs to be reversed. While the idea of choice sounds freeing, most students are paralyzed when given unguided or unlimited options regarding their future career. Instead, students should be exploring aspects of careers throughout their general education. When students reach the end of high school, they should already have a strong sense of what they will pursue for a career. In some cases, they’ll already know.

Currently, the way most parents approach career planning with their child looks like this:

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The typical approach

Students typically follow a narrow educational path, especially in the early years. Individual choice plays a minimal role. Most students are unaccustomed to making significant decisions and don’t know how to think about their personality, interests, and experiences in relation to a possible career. At the end of this tightly-regulated education, students are typically presented with an enormous decision: what will they do for the rest of their lives? Inevitably, the average student finds this decision extremely difficult.

This model needs to be reversed, like this:

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A better approach


A better method directs student choice regarding a career in light of personality, interests, and experiences from the K-12 years. Well before the conclusion of high school, students should examine their strengths and weaknesses, explore their passions, and gain real-world work experience. While engaging in these varied activities, students should seek guidance in evaluating the outcomes. For example, if assessments indicate that the student is above average in organizational skills, how does this factor into their future career? If the student loves music, could this passion lead to gainful employment? If the student takes a summertime agricultural job, what can they learn from the experience that will guide future career decisions?

While many students explore interests and strengths during the K-12 years, not enough are using the feedback offered by their experiences to narrow future career choices. Conversation and reflection about the experiences is vital. Students should engage with their parents and mentors about their own development and the awareness of their strengths and weaknesses.

Ideally, students should arrive at a strong sense of what they are suited for before their senior year, and the sooner the better. They should feel confident that their career choices are based on past education, accurate self-assessment, and meaningful experiences. Processing these signals with the help of parents and mentors can direct them to specific career paths.

Avoiding career dead-ends

The unfortunate and commonplace alternative is that students are left to their own devices to figure things out. Most students are in this boat. Their choices are based on poorly informed hunches about themselves and potential careers that they know little or nothing about.

I created Smartcut Careers to help flip the model. My goal is to help students and parents think more intentionally about how education, personal assessment, and life experiences can point to specific career paths. I’m confident that approaching careers with a plan can save families time, money, and frustration, as well as help students find satisfying life work.



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