<p>Your message could be posted by the majority of 11th graders, if they were honest about it. Sure, some say they know they want to be a doctor, lawyer, investment banker (don’t hear that one a lot these days), etc. But they know almost nothing about what people in those careers actually do and whether it would be a fit for them.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly you listed a few common professions; doctor, lawyer, etc. as ones you are “thinking about”. Like many HS students, I bet you couldn’t list more than a dozen or so careers available to college graduates out of the hundreds of options available. Thousands if you talk about sub-branches. For example an accountant could be in public, management, or government accounting, or internal auditing at the top level. And in each of these they could pursue careers in different industries. Said accountant would have many opportunities to enter management at various levels. And that’s just one top-level node, accounting. The point is that you’re trying to make a decision about where you’re going before you’ve even looked at the map to see what destinations are out there!</p>
<p>So what to do? First off, forget the HS guidance counselor. Except at the top ones, they barely know about the college admission process let alone career guidance. And we already know you’re not going to one of those schools, otherwise they’d have been helping you already and you wouldn’t be posting here. So start by learning about the process by reading a good career book; for example, “Get Clear on Your Career” by Maestas, or a similar book. It will outline the process you need to follow to get to from where you are today to a confident person entering the job force.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, it’s going to be about exploring. Starting from day 1 at college, be a regular visitor to the career center. Attend seminars, career days, read thru materials they have, work with a counselor. Learn about what’s out there, and see if its right for you. It would be a smart idea when picking colleges to find one that has a strong internship program; these are great for exploring areas you think might be of interest to you, and are the magic key to standing out from the other applicants when it comes to apply for a job. Every college will say they “have” one; you need to dig deeper and find out if it is a program where companies recruit interns on campus and have loyal alums out there bringing kids on-board, or just a book on the shelf listing “internship opportunities” and everything is up to you. </p>
<p>For the most part, kids can show up frosh year with no idea what they want to do and turn out just fine. And even many of those that claim they know what they want will change their minds; about every 3rd kid you meet frosh year is going to be pre-med, or so it seems. Far fewer actually apply to med school. But for some careers like engineering you need to know right away. And for others such as pre-med it is helpful to know when entering college, since the process of taking the required classes and applying takes 3+ years. So since you listed medical careers as something you might be interested in, its time to stop “thinking about” and start doing. You should get a job starting this summer volunteering in a medical setting such as a hospital. After a few months around doctors you’ll know whether or not its something you’d want to do, well in advance of starting college. And if you end up applying to med school one unofficial but absolutely important requirement is exposure to the medical setting; they want to make sure everyone they admit has a clear view of what they’re getting into.</p>