Vending machine repairman is hilarious. Decades ago our prep school required that juniors take a career assessment test. Surprisingly, mortician /undertaker was a common top match career. Apparently, I came from a tough neighborhood.
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Acquiring some specialized in-depth knowledge and skills doesnāt mean they can be directly applied to a job or they prepare a kid for a certain career. To succeed in a career for the future, one needs not only to adapt, but also to constantly readapt and even reinvent oneself. In-depth knowledge and skills in one area can often be adapted and applied to a new area creatively, and sometimes that results in fresh new ideas and new solutions in the new area. I want to be clear that Iām not advocating acquisition of specialized knowledge and skills without any breadth. A well educated kid needs to be able to clearly see the tree s/he is focusing on without losing sight of the forest.
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US still attracts a lot of talented people (likely not as many as it used to recently) from all over the world. The majority of SV inventors and job creators are actually foreign born. We arenāt as innovative and competitive as many of us think.
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And since we are talking about high schoolersā¦I thoroughly disliked biology in high school and donāt remember why. Thought I would never have to study it again. Guess who is learning about protein folding at a fast clip, at an advanced age (advanced in terms of learning completely different and complex things) for a new project Iām working on? Itās not easy but I sure feel like Iām 16 again in terms of enthusiasm for something new!
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Ha on all the crazy careers. My D was boring. Every assessment she ever took said some kind of engineering.
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One of my friendās nicknames was Morticiaāguess why? 
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My daughterās youscience had engineering (like dad) , social science (like mom), and multimedia artist/animator, all as strong fits. She picked animation. 
She is good at art, math, science, and social sciences. She is really talented at art/illustration. So she is going to pursue multimedia art/animation, which is kinda cool because it incorporates art with all of those others things too.
One of my classmates got that too!!
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I would love to know what career has you learning about protein folding for a new project ā i would love to segue into something like that.
Would you be willing to DM me?
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I recall Sheryl Crow wrote a song about that 
I hitched a ride with a vending machine repair man
He says heās been down this road more than twice
He was high on intellectualism
Iāve never been there but the brochure looks niceā¦
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True I swear - my S got Funeral Director. He is quite empathetic butā¦thatās a bit much.
My Texas 2021 hs grad finished with 3 pathway endorsements: STEM (the one she picked in 8th grade) , Arts and Humanities and Multidisciplinary, just by taking the classes she wanted to take. She is now a freshman electrical engineering major.
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same
We just had some success talking more generally with D23, who does not know what she wants to do in life or study in college. But she did say that she doesnāt want to sit in an office all day - sheād rather have a career where she is out doing things. Could be selling real estate or building houses, could be event planning or marketing. Thatās what we talked about that evening, but Iām sure there are more ideas. When she was younger, she wanted to own a dance studio. I guess she is entrepeneurial. She likes the idea of a college where she can more than one internship. Sheās a practical, hands on kid. I feel like even if we donāt know exactly what she wantsā¦that one conversation brought us much closer to figuring things out.
My S22, like your D23, does not want to sit at a desk. Until recently he hadnāt nailed down a potential path, but heās finally decided he wants to be a physical therapist. It might check a lot of boxes with your daughter as well.
But note that physical therapy does require a long and expensive educational path (3 year DPT after BA/BS).
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Sadly, I am aware of that already, but good to note for the OP.
Good luck to him. My D is just finishing up her first clinical period and the 2nd term of her 2nd year. She enjoys the program and the rigor. I am amazed at just how much she knows and understands. My only advise to anyone applying to programs is to look closely at your instate public institutions. My Ds program is $54k for all three years plus living expenses. Some programs can be triple that.
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My older son applied to college as a History major, then decided it wouldnāt be career-worthy so switched to Undecided. At the Admitted Students day at the college he ended up at (UVM) we attended an info session for the Global Studies program and he was impressed and entered as a Global Studies major. He is set to graduate in December with a dual major in Global Studies and Geography with a minor in Spanish. He has been doing a really interesting internship this semester with a local non-profit, but he is not sure if he wants to go into the non-profit sector because he wants to make money. So basically he still doesnāt know what he wants to do but hopefully he will figure it out soon! I think that his major is actually a good fit for many kinds of professions. That was actually the pitch of the info session that he attended - that kids who graduated from the program ended up in a variety of professions. My younger son, applying to college now, is completely undecided and has no idea what he wants to major in, much less do in life. He is just applying Undecided to the Liberal Arts programs at large universities and hopefully can figure out what he is interested in in college.
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I agree with an early poster who said the only way to really figure it out is to try out areas of interest.
My D is interested in aviation, environmental science, medicine, and languages. She has earned a pilotās license (largely funded through working fast food 25 hours a week), competed in environmental events in Science Olympiad, obtained EMT certification and worked as a standardized patient for the local medical school, and taken some Mandarin classes over the summer (now studying abroad in Taiwan). NONE of these were offered as classes or options at her school; we encouraged her to create her own path and learn by doing. In doing so, she has crossed off some as career options and added others.
IMO, itās fine to have no idea what you want to do in life at the age of 15. Most kids think theyāre either going to be engineers, doctors, or lawyers because thatās pretty much all they know. There are thousands of career options out there and thousands more that donāt exist yet. Have your son get some hands on experience in his areas of interest and see where it takes him!
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