Unfocused Kids

Parent Cafe
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<p>Many teens go to college because they have no idea what they want to do or what options are available…and many drop out. Many academically average students, seeing no other alternatives, head off to a two or four-year college, despite being academically and/or emotionally ill prepared. About 70% of high school graduates enter college each fall, but only 30% of them are predicted to earn a college degree. </p>

<p>According to Suzy Wakefield, author of “Unfocused Kids” (Eric Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services, 2004), detachment, lack of hope, and lack of motivation may affect as many as 40% of high school students. Many become “phantom kids”, who get lost in the system and do not make a claim to their right for career education. The “worst case” scenario, over ten percent of high school graduates in 2002, (10.3%) did not go to college and are unemployed. </p>

<p>Unemployability is Exacerbated by Uncertainty </p>

<p>More than one out of ten (12.3%) of college graduates say they “just sort of drifted into their major: </p>

<p>28% changed their majors once
18% changed majors two or three times
2% changed majors four or more times.
A total of 48% change majors at least once. </p>

<p>While being undecided about a major is not in and of itself a problem during college, the lack of decision about a student’s career options ultimately complicate the discouraging employment prospects. There will be 57 jobs requiring a college degree for every one hundred students who earn one. And there will be an oversupply of about 300,000 college graduates who will find it necessary to enter occupations that do not demand a four-year college degree. </p>

<p>Most college students aspire to the professional ranks, yet professional work is only 20% of all employment in the US. And less than 5% aspire to technical careers, which is the fast-growing segment of high-skills employment in the economy. </p>

<p>Parents Can Help Support Guidance Counselors (If They Learn How) </p>

<p>Public school guidance counselors have an average 450-550-student caseload. For college counseling, there is an average 654 students for every advisor. According to the National Association of College Admissions Counselors, the result is that the average public school counselor can devote one hour per year per student to college counseling. </p>

<p>Over eight percent (83%)of parents said planning or their child’s future college or work is the most important of 19 topics about which they would most like information. </p>

<p>Nearly 80% (78%) of students believe that their parents are primarily responsible for helping plan for a career or job. Friends (1 in 3), not counselors (1 in 10), are the most common source of information about the institution they attend. </p>

<p>Yet, two-thirds of college graduates say they had to figure out their career choices on their own. Nearly half (46%) says that no one, outside of school, has advised them on career options or options to further their education.</p>

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<p>It's difficult guiding children into a career choice. I have my grave doubts that parents have not suggested fields of work and majors for their kids, as many folks I know are very concerned about that very thing. The kids tend to loff it off. Many parents have experienced frustration in kids who look like they are on their way to becoming perpetual students because they do not want to commit to any major enough to take the upper level courses in it. Many of the career directed majors and courses are very specific and difficult which is at odd with what undirected kids want to take in college. It's well and good to try to get your student into a field with lots of job available but unless the student makes the commitment, it is not likely to be a success once the going in the courses get tough.</p>

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<p>I encourage students to visit the career center sometime during or after sophomore year.
Its one thing to desire a certain field, but how does one know if they like the courses? They get to obseve the life-style of grad students and academics, but harder to observe other professions. Internships help. A friend's S worked for a law firm and got to see their daily lives, but still doesn't know what law school would be like.
My personal goal is to encourage S to pursue his passions and find work that is interesting. He did that growing up and ended up in a college that works well for him. Now, thinking about long term career goals, is proving harder. Many colleges would have been a good "fit", but is that true of professions?</p>

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<p>At a minimum, it's best if parents pro-actively discuss the topic of careers with their kids. The kids will typically only know what they're exposed to. Many have no clue about the possibilities of certain fields because they've never known anyone involved in those fields. In many cases they don't know the types of work that would be done, the education required, the difficulty of the field, the job opportunities of the field, the financial aspects of the field, the day-today work done in the field, etc.. The parents are unlikely to know about a lot of the fields but they may know more than the kid and they'll certainly have more time and interest than a GC could devote. </p>

<p>I started discussing various careers with my Ds wile they were in the early years of HS (actually, probably before that). I also pulled the lists of majors from several large universities (readily available on their websites) and discussed each with them. I already knew that my Ds were leaning toward the science/math/engineering areas and they each confirmed this. I think by the time a kid is halfway through HS they can probably know enough about themselves to eliminate at least half of the majors offered.</p>

<p>I'm not a pure 'follow your passions' person since I tend to be practical. I think things like job and financial aspects of the chosen career are important and should be considered. I'm not minimizing the idea of 'doing what makes you happy' though. The ideal would be a combo of the two. There's been a bunch of discussion on this aspect in another recent thread.</p>

<p>Although many students don't know enough about what field they want to enter at the time they first go to college, I do think it's important to give a lot of consideration to this area as they start to explore various subjects and fields in college. They also need to have their eyes wide open (and without the rose-colored glasses) as to the attributes of the fields that I indicated above.</p>

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<p>Unfortunately, the only professions our kids see up close tend to be the teaching professions and the service professions.</p>

<p>And the only thing some kids know about other professions is what kind of car the practitioners are able to drive!(that may be a male thing--I have a son--but I don't want to be sexist here.)</p>

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<p>There are lots of ways to do virtual and in-person job shadowing. Here are a couple of resources: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.virtualjobshadow.com/vjs_central.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.virtualjobshadow.com/vjs_central.asp&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.askanexpert.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.askanexpert.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>There should be a career counselor through your school system who could coordinate in-person experiences, but sometimes you have to seek that person out. </p>

<p>Jill</p>

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<p>Aside from looking just at majors, it's good to get real data on job projections from the Occupational Outlook Handbook online at </p>

<p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bls.gov/oco/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Also, the self-directed search is a good way to correlate interests, values, skills and abilities to career clusters: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.self-directed-search.com/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.self-directed-search.com/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Jill</p>

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<p>A funny thing happens when you become a college junior. You realize that you will soon be graduating college- you're soon becoming an adult-and its "expected" that you will join the ranks of other "well adjusted" working adults. Now the real world begins.
I am finding with my d, her friends and my friends kids, -- they seem more unsure NOW about their future than when they were college freshman.<br>
My d is talking law school but she wonders if it is because she wants to be a lawyer or if it is just a continuation of being a student and putting off the inevitable- full fledged adulthood.<br>
My friends too sense this change in their kids- and are giving less advice to their kids now as they sense it is our children who have to ultimately make their decision about their own future. There's a lot of "biting our tongues" going on amongst my friends.<br>
PS- It seems the only kids I know who are acting decisively are the ones who majored in business. I guess if the goal is to make the big bucks, they are ready to forge ahead with their future.<br>
I think we sometimes forget that our 20 year olds are still "big kids", and they are a little scared about entering adulthood.</p>

<p>I just realized the your screen name "Whatsyour major" links us to a website with the same name. Should I assume there's a connection??? I haven't looked at the website yet.</p>

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<p>marny, I think that a lot of this has to do with the fact that one does not know what to do with some degrees. It is easier to have direction when one majored in education, nursing, accounting. What to do with a degree in philosophy, anthropology, geology, psychology, etc. may take more thought.</p>

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<p>Northeastmom--I think you are right- I was thinking that the kids majoring in education and want to teach are also in pretty good shape. I guess when there is a specific field of study that naturally leads to career prospects, it may be a bit easier to transition from college to adulthood.<br>
But I will definitely say, there is a bit more "uneasiness" and indecisiveness with a 20 year old college junior than with an 18 freshman. At least that is the experience I am finding with my crowd. This sort of took me by surprise, but when I think about it- it makes perfect sense. The 20 year old has to make decisions soon that may affect the next 40 years of their lives. The 18 year old just has to plan what courses they are taking next semester.<br>
It's an interesting time.<br>
And while I am on board- A HAPPY and HEALTHY New Year to you and to all my cc friends.<br>
Marny</p>

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<p>Marny, Best wishes to your family for a happy, healthy and sweet New Year! L'Shanah Tovah to you, your family, and to all of the cc posters celebrating the Jewish New Year!</p>

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<p>Marny, fwiw I'm giving less advice but am more often being voluntarily engaged as a sounding board...so I guess it evens out. Of all the possibilities mentioned by my D, I've pointed out pros and cons as I saw them and was discouraging about only two, one in light of what I know about <em>her</em> and one that I regard as a temporizing "sucker's pitch" option for some who don't know what to do after college.</p>

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<p>Thedad--I think that's exactly it. As my kids get older and start making decisions that really affect their future, I become more of a sounding board and a shoulder to lean on. I guess that is all apart of the natural process of them growing up (as it should be). I agree with you, as I too am giving a little less advice and I am starting to listen alot more. Now, if only my mother would listen to me more. Oh well, that's another story altogether.</p>

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<p>I ditto the 'sounding board' but also it's useful to just present information to the kid regarding various careers and their many attributes. The kid needs to be able to understand the realities of the workforce if their plan is to enter the workforce with an UG degree in 'Ancient Dead Languages' or something. They need to realize that some UG degrees are of 'little commercial value' on their own without either obtaining a graduate degree in the subject (often to simply carry on teaching the same subject to others) or to use it as the vehicle to enter a completely different grad field of study such as law or med school. They also should consider fields they may have never thought about or even heard of before.</p>

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<p>What I'm hearing from my daughters junior and senior college friends are plans for grad, law and medical school. My daughter, the ed major, is keeping her cards close to her chest regarding location but is very ready to begin her career. A lot of her friends have enjoyed college so much that I think they just want to make it last a little longer.</p>

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<p>I do a lot of career development with my clients. It's a revelation and empowering for many when they realize that the world of work is organized into career clusters. And that people "fit" into the clusters by virtue of their skills, interests, values and personality. Most importantly, the 21,000-some jobs out there can be "navigated" across the span of one's worklife, which is an important lifeskill. </p>

<p>It's totally possible to link career interests to job projections to college majors and ultimately to college selection. On the other hand, a liberal arts education prepares kids for a range of occupations. It's just that the onus is on them to be creative in identifying these jobs and networking into them.</p>

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<p>WhatsYourMajor, welcome to CC site, and thank you for your helpful advice and especially for posting this web site in a previous post.
<a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bls.gov/oco/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I happened upcon this stie this week, while researching careers for my D, a sophomore at Muhlenberg and psych major. This week she emailed me questions about possible careers, so I sent her information from this web site about speech pathology, and other possibilities. </p>

<p>What I find extremely frustrating, is how we can guide our children in areas we have little or no knowledge about. Of course, I have suggested she visit the career office at Muhlenberg.</p>

<p>Can you recommend other things a parent can do to assist with such important decisions? You mentioned certain career clusters, associated with personality traits, and perhaps you can share more information with us. </p>

<p>We CCers have done diligence throughout our children's college search, it seems this must be the next phase..................</p>

<p>FYI- My S is a freshman at Notre Dame, and as a math/science kid his options and interests are clearer to him, than my D who picked psych major because she enjoyed those classes a bit more than her other classes! </p>

<p>Thanks to The Dad for chiming in on his D's experience. I read TheDad's (and others) college search for the last few years, and that group of CCers are leading the way......anyone know how SuzieVt's Arch D is faring at Brown???</p>

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<p>Perhaps one of the reasons that our children are indecisive in what they want for a career is that we as adults have taken all the independent learning out of their lives at an early age.</p>

<p>We take them to school where they learn to color inside the lines and the math problems they solve are already defined.</p>

<p>We take them to organized sports where the teams are picked and the rules are already established and enforced by referees.</p>

<p>We don't let them have unstructured play time in the neighborhood where they find problems to solve (build things or make up games) for fear that somebody is going to snatch them.</p>

<p>So when it comes to college, because somebody hasn't led them to their job, they become paralyzed by the unknown, because they've never had to figure it out on their own.</p>

<p>They've never been kids, so how do you expect them to grow up?</p>

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<p>I took a one credit hour course required of all freshmen enrolled in the Ohio State College of Engineering.</p>

<p>Of course the first session we got the "look to you left, look to your right-one of you will graduate in the CofE" talk which was somewhat exaggerated but got the point across.</p>

<p>The remainder of the class reviewed all of the CofE majors, what strengths were critical to academic success, specialties within each major, what personal characteristics might find each major engaging, post graduate career opportunities, etc. It also covered engineering ethics, communication(oral/writing) skills necessary for practicing engineers, a tour of the College's career development center among others.</p>

<p>It was a great help to me in deciding to become a civil engineering major who ultimately zeroed in on a hydraulics/fluid mechanics specialty. Fortunately, this course(Engineering Survey) with expanded options is still a degree requirement in the College of Engineering.</p>