<p>My niece, with whom I'm very close, is waiting to hear back from colleges. She is applying to 11 small liberal arts schools and thinks she'll major in English, although she likes Environmental Studies too. She knows what she wants from the atmosphere of a college but, despite all of the supplements requiring her to outline why the schools are a good fit, I don't think she has a clue what she wants academically. She has no idea what she wants to do for a career -- it all feels distant and, I think, disconnected from the idea of "reading great books" and going to college. She's not a partier, don't get me wrong, but I think she views college as more of an experience than a place to prepare for her future.</p>
<p>I believe in a liberal arts eduction but I also don't want her to get to the end of college without having focused on learning what will help her in a career. She has friends with very specific career aspirations -- actuary, speech pathologist, doctor, etc. But she's grown up in a smaller town and hasn't been exposed to a wide range of career options. Sure, she knows nurses, doctors, insurance agents, police officers, teachers, and business owners but it's hard for her to understand what the range of options that might fit her talents are. And I'm finding it difficult for me to help her with that.</p>
<p>I understand it would have been great if she worked through some of this before selecting schools but that didn't happen. Has anyone worked with a career counselor? Is it too early? Is there something else that might help her?</p>
<p>While looking at colleges, make a robust Career Center a factor in her decision. Explore what graduates do after graduation. Do most of them go to graduate school immediately following graduation, or do they enter the workforce? How much is the Career Center stressed? Do most students participate in internships? How strong is the alumni network when hiring. </p>
<p>Some LACs do a wonderful job of preparing their graduates for work after school, others don’t seem to focus more on preparing them for graduate work. Regardless of which school she decides to attend, putting the Career Center on her radar now is a good plan. </p>
<p>Thing to look for in a Career Center would be questioning their support services, what kind of alumni outreach do they do. Are they just a place to check your resume and send you off to search the internet, or do they teach business etiquette, resume writing, host potential employers, hold mock interviews, etc. </p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with having no plan before school. Most kids change their major anyway, and it is better for her to find a school that will allow her to grow as a person.</p>
<p>I think it is too early to work with a career counselor. A good college counselor understands career issues and can help a student work through the questions she has about the future. Helping a student understand their own preferences and make choices that allow for exploration is an essential part of counseling a student like this.</p>
<p>Some good books may help her start to think about the issues.</p>
<p>What Color is Your Parachute? has exercises to help her identify kinds of interests. You can help her stay on track with the writing and thinking.</p>
<p>Barbara Sher’s books (Wishcraft, I Could Do Anything I Want if I Knew What I Want) are doing books as well as thinking books. Those titles are approximate. Once she has starting points, they’ll give her ideas about next steps to take. Again, you can be her sounding board.</p>
<p>Your public library may have a career center, too. So might her high school. Is there a chance to shadow a worker in a field she might like? Is there a senior internship program?</p>
<p>If you stay friendly but firm, you could give her a real gift. Good luck! And don’t forget that she may end up doing a job that hasn’t been invented yet. When you were her age, did anybody know about repairing copy machines or selling cellphones?</p>
<p>That’s crucial. A lot of LACs do a lousy job at giving career advice. Go on line. Most colleges put at least some info about career centers on line. Which companies, if any, come to campus to hire? Is there on-campus interviewing for summer jobs? Does the school offer mock interviews, preferably videotaped ? Is there a list of alumni broken down by occupation and city available to undergrads?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the thoughtful replies. It’s too late for us to add to her list of colleges – she has two more apps to complete and then she gets back a little of her life from this insane process – but if she’s lucky enough to be accepted at multiple schools, we will definitely make an evaluation of the career center a part of the decision. I’ll also encourage her to get to know the services it offers well. And, thanks for the book recommendations!</p>
<p>And, yes, it’s definitely true about the careers to be invented. I studied peace studies in college at a time when we didn’t use email, never mind the web. Now I’m a product manager for a digital publication. That said, I think the job market is different than when I entered the workforce.</p>
<p>My nephew was an Environmental Studies student at a small LAC before even that seemed too standard for him, and (with the college’s support) he constructed a custom major for himself in Philosophy of Agriculture. When college ended, he, his girlfriend, and some others of their friends took off on bicycles to ride across the country. He had a few hundred dollars to his name.</p>
<p>That was three years ago. He is living where he wants to live, and he co-owns a successful, growing, very green small business that now employs nine other people full-time. Things would have been tough for him if he had had a lot of college debt, but he didn’t (having gotten good financial aid from the college, and also earned enough money during college to avoid borrowing much). He’s not making the kind of money that would impress someone who needs to work for a hedge fund to feel successful, but he’s supporting himself fine and doing something that inspires him. </p>
<p>Nothing he learned in college is directly relevant to what he’s doing now, or hardly anything, and everything he learned in college is directly relevant to making him who he is and helping him think about how he wants to live and work. He wouldn’t have known that before college; in fact, I think he intended to study Computer Science.</p>
<p>My son had a consultation with a “Highlands Battery” counselor when he was in high school. It was expensive, but it identified his strengths and his passions (as well as his weaknesses). It made career recommendations based on on-line timed, testing. It was worth it for us as it explained why he really would not be a good engineer (despite having two engineers as parents!) He is now heading for one of the recommended careers.</p>