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Why Is This Here?
This is a Postsecondary Counseling website, so why is there information about Career Exploration here? Well, before you can apply for jobs or for college, you need to have a pretty solid idea of what you want to do! All through high school, your counselors have preached that you need to know the what before you can figure out the where, how, and when. This page provides an opportunity to do that.
Over the past few years, you've done some exercises that may have been eye roll inducing, but were meant to challenge your career exploration and open you up to some potential new avenues. This page will link you to those Smart Futures exercises, suggest a few other sites you can navigate to learn about careers, and talk about college visits, job shadowing, and more!
Remember - even if a career exploration experience results in you knowing that you want absolutely nothing to do with that career, that's a win! The goal in high school is to keep narrowing down your choices until you can confidently select the career path you want to follow.
Career Exploration - Smart Futures
Smart Futures is an online career planning and career portfolio that the Lakeland School District uses to meet the requirements for Career Readiness Indicators in the state of Pennsylvania, integrate career education and social emotional learning for our K-12 students, and most importantly, provide each student with a personalized career plan by the time they reach 12th grade.
Each grade level has activities through Smart Futures that are required to be completed. While they might seem tedious, they're meant to help you learn about what you might want to do in the future. One of the luxuries of the site is that you can return to it at any time, and complete each activity as many time as you'd like. You are strongly encouraged to utilize this resource as much as you can. If you would like some help figuring out what it all means, just reach out to your counselor. It's their job to help you!
Click on the button below to view the LHS Smart Futures Website, which will guide you through how you can access the site, and what's important to complete on it.
Career Exploration - Other Useful Resources
O*Net Online
There are tons of career exploration resources all over the internet. The best free to the public site out there is O*Net Online. This is a database of occupations that is supported by the United States Department of Labor. If you have a question about a certain occupation, career, or job you can probably find the answer there! Click the button below to check it out.
PrinciplesYou
PrinciplesYou is a feature of Scoir that allows students to assess themselves and get matched up with potential careers, college majors, and institutions based on interests, skills, and experiences. There are two parts to this: the PrinciplesYou Assessment and the Career Interest Assessment. It's similar to Smart Futures, but less comprehensive. It might be something that works better for you though, so feel free to give it a try! Because it's through Scoir, it's something that Lakeland pays for, and that you won't have access to after graduation. Use the resource while you have the chance!
You can learn more about PrinciplesYou by clicking here or the button below.
College & Workplace Visits
It's always a good idea to visit a potential college or workplace prior to applying or accepting a position there. It's simply good practice to get an idea if it's a place that fits your goals and desires.
For a workplace, contact the employer to see if they are willing to take you on a tour or let you shadow prior to applying or accepting the job. Odds are they will say yes, and if they don't, that might become a red flag for you. If you're serious about the job, and can see yourself doing it for awhile, it might be smart to see it before you commit.
For a college, there are many different ways to visit. Most schools will offer a virtual college visit through their admissions websites. This will give you a look at what campus is like in the most ideal conditions. Sometimes they will have live Q&A's with a current student, but not all the time. You can also schedule an in-person college visit with just about any school. This takes some coordination, and potentially some travel, but the in-person tour is generally very beneficial. Finally, you can simply tour campus on your own at any time. The majority of campuses are open to the public, and you can get a feel for what campus is like at different times of the day/year. For more suggestions on how to plan for a college visit, click the button below.
Job Shadowing
Job Shadowing is an opportunity for students to see a day in the life of a particular occupation. Most employers will be open to students coming in to shadow, but might be picky about the days/times that it happens. If you mention that you're a high school student, they may be more likely to let you in the door.
Job Shadowing should not be done on a whim. It should be a guided practice that you go into with questions and goals. The LHS Job Shadow Guide is a useful tool for any student who wishes to shadow an occupation. You should speak with your counselor about how to best utilize it prior to any Job Shadowing experience.
Choosing A College Major Or Career Path
So you found out what you'd like to do, but you have no idea how to get there. This is common! Smart Futures and Scoir have features that can help connect careers to the paths you need to take to get them. If those don't work for you, these resources might help you make the connections you need:
What Can I Do With This Major?
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