“Back to School” season often makes us ask if our older kids are well prepared to make important college and career decisions.
In fact, if you have a junior or senior in high school, then you’re probably a little concerned about their ability to figure out what to do after graduation. And news flash – that is totally normal. What parent wouldn’t feel concerned about that big life decision?
Similarly, if you have a student in college, you may be wondering whether he/she will be able to find work in their chosen field of study, and/or to translate what they have learned into real-world, marketable skills. And again – that’s totally normal. Of course we worry about those things. We want the best for our young adults!
At North Star Learning, we are here to help you prepare your teenager or graduate to face the giant (and often scary) world of work, including figuring out how we each find our place among the thousands of careers available to us.
How do we help you do that? First, we model how to ask intentional questions to get young people thinking well. Next, we offer robust career assessments and highly personalized coaching sessions to help them think clearly.
If you are ready to guide your learner with 10 intentional career questions that help them think critically, see our list of 10 back to school career prep questions below!
- Instead of asking “What do you want to do when you get older?” ask “What are you passionate about?”
- If you had to solve a problem, would you rather solve a problem focused on math (numbers), health (the human body), or human conflict? Explain.
- How strongly do you want to engage in work that involves working with your hands every day or focused on constant movement?
- Are you more interested in gathering data/research to solve problems or in explaining to others how they collect data/research to solve problems?
- What interests you more – work that involves serving people every day or work that involves creating systems and procedures that people may use?
- Do you prefer working alone or do you thrive working around others and engaging in regular dialog?
- If you could spend a full day engaging in activities that you really enjoy, what would you do?
- Would you rather fix appliances, people’s relationship problems, problems with warehouse systems and delivery, or the human body when someone is sick?
- Can you envision yourself listening to and helping other people in a job? If yes, what does that look like in your head? If not, why not?
- Are you better at arranging furniture in a room, building furniture in a shop, or designing the look of furniture? Explain your answer.
If North Star Learning can help you support your young person this school year with effective career planning, let us know!