Helping Your Teen Find the "Right Career"
(Also Good for Grownups)

by Jim Davis

In my work as a career counselor, when I have worked with college students as they try to decide what to do with their lives, I have noticed several characteristics many of them have in common.

• They have had little or no assistance in developing a career plan prior to college, and often still have no real plan.
• They either don't know what they want to do or they have made choices based on insufficient or erroneous information.
• Much of the time, their career search process consists primarily of changing college majors to try to find a field they like better.
• They are unaware of resources that are available to help them find realistic possibilities.
• Even when they find out about sources of help they often tend to procrastinate about taking definite action to better their situation.

As a parent, you can help your teens in a number of ways:

• Talk to them. Let them know they aren't the only ones who are uncertain about the future. Tell them about some of the problems you went through when you were facing similar situations. Talk about your own fears and insecurities you faced then. And listen to them, too. They probably feel that they are up against problems you never faced and don't understand. And they may be right in some cases. Just try to let them know you are willing to work with them to help, but that you don't want to run their lives.
• Learn about resources that are available to you and your teen (books, the Internet, professional assistance, etc.)
• Help your teen to develop a strong work ethic by learning to make and keep commitments, to strive for excellence ("anything worth doing is worth doing well",) to develop good organization and time-management skills, to be considerate of others, and to always try to "do a little more than you have to."
• "Grow up with your teen." Remember that they are becoming adults and need to be given responsibilities that train them for adulthood. Remember, too, that they are not adults yet, and they will make inappropriate choices at times. Although they need to take responsibility for their choices, they also need to know that you are pulling for them to succeed but are there for them no matter what. Help them to realize that we learn more by making mistakes (and taking responsibility for them) than from any other kind of training.