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Career Exploration for High School Students

Exploring Your Interests

High School is a great time to start thinking about careers. All your life you've bee asked what you want to be when you grow up, and high school is when you begin to work towards making these dreams happen.

Many high schoolers may not yet know what they want to do, and this is perfectly fine. Students often change their minds multiple times, even after they enter the workforce. Setting on just one occupation or career i high school isn't necessary, but exploring different types of careers might help narrow down your search.

Part of this process includes learning about yourself and understanding what you enjoy, what you're good at, and what you like to learn about. Ask yourself these questions to help identify careers that may have similar tasks or goals.

Get Experience

If job shadowing gives you a taste of what an occupation is like, imagine how helpful getting experience could be. Students can begin getting career-related experiences in high school through internships, employment, and other activities. Taking part in different experiences is another step toward helping you to figure out what you like—and what you don’t.

Completing an internship is an excellent way to get experience. Internships are temporary, supervised assignments designed to give students or recent graduates practical job training. Sometimes, internships or other experiential learning positions are built into educational programs, and students receive academic credit for completing them.

Planning Your Future

Planning what you do after graduating high school can be daunting. While you may wish to research different career paths or begin by exploring your specific interests, you may wish to use a student guide to help organize and isolate your unique interests. By reviewing different programs of study and reviewing common career paths, you may begin to narrow your search.