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How do you do career guidance as a homeschooler?


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I've been wondering about this for a while.

DS1 is a sophomore and DD is a freshman. Neither of them have any inclination towards any dreams of what they would like to do "when they grow up." They do generally well across the board academically. DS seems to love math over other subjects. DD cannot say if she likes one subject over another. And I haven't observed that there is anything that is particularly drawing them at this moment.

 

So some kids grow up with a strong sense of direction. Others not so. Sometimes I wonder, did I miss something? Perhaps I should have them interview our relatives and friends about their respective professions and work?

 

How have you helped your children "find their path" when there doesn't seem to be an overwhelming passion for something? How do you help them to explore the possibilities?

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This week my daughter (grade 9) completed a two session class  called "Career Exploration: Choosing a Fulfilling Career Goal" with Outschool.  I feel like it was a good start for her to start thing about her future.  I was surprised and pleased to see her making plans.  I would recommend the class.

 

 

 

 

 
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In my opinion, you can only do so much. Many children are "late-bloomers" when it comes to figuring out what they want to do for a career. It often just takes time and experiencing what's out there for awhile to find what is a fit for *you*. There's a reason why MORE than half of college students switch majors at least once to something *completely* different than what they started with. ?

Two DSs here, neither of whom had a "passion" for something or "knew" what they wanted to do, even by high school graduation. It honestly hasn't been until about 1 year ago, when they were 23yo and 25yo that they finally figured out what they want to do. And we *did* do some career tests and career exploration off and on throughout the high school years. We talked a lot about "what are you good at" and "what are you interested in". Every year from grade 6-12 they attended the annual big careers day event that *I* helped organize for our homeschool group to bring in a wide variety of speakers to expose the students to all kinds of career possibilities. We went on lots of field trips esp. for the gr. 6-12 students (again, organized by me) to all kinds of workplaces to see occupations up close and personal. DSs were involved in a number of extracurricular activities throughout high school and did volunteering, both of which gave them opportunities to experience new areas that might spark a job interest.

All that to say, while it's great to do more formal things for career exploration -- and I'm super-glad we did ALL of those things that we did -- there's only so much the parent can do. Eventually, it comes down to when the particular student "blooms" and gets it figured out. ?

In the meantime, while you're waiting for students to bloom ;), no harm in taking a class (like homefree3's suggestion above), or doing some FREE career exploration on your own -- say 1-2 Friday afternoons a month. ? Lots of resources linked and suggested in these past threads:

"College and career planning"
"Seeking career exploration books and websites"
"Career guidance books/websites for middle schoolers"
"Ideas for course on career research/planning"

Edited by Lori D.
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Will take a look at the course with Outschool. Thanks!

 

Lori, Thanks for sharing about your sons. It's encouraging to know that the late bloomers will end up find their paths.

I appreciate the links! Will be reading through them.

 

My friends and relatives whose children are in public/private HS have heard from their guidance counselors that the students need to be thinking about their college majors early, and that the colleges really want to see candidates who know what they want to study/major in. For DS, who is strong in math, he's not sure if he's more inclined to majoring in math or engineering....  Is he interested in being an engineer? He's not sure... Should he then apply to the engineering department or arts & science?

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Volunteering, job shadowing, internships, academic summer programs on college campuses for specific interests, and in depth extra curriculars (robotics team and science fairs) helped my ds with this decision.

 

He was able to do an engineering internship with a local homeschool dad engineer for part of 11th. He went to a handful of summer programs run by college engineering programs (RPI, UVM, Cornell) and one for cyber security.

 

He decided he was much more into programming than engineering after years of coding for his robotics team and talking/ working with local mentors in both engineering and computer science.

 

The opportunities we were able to make happen for him as a homeschooler because he had time during the week were awesome and probably the best part of high school.

But we had to create them. And drive him to them.

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IMO, it seems easier to help a STEM-loving child to narrow down options (or open up/explore options) than a more evenly balanced or humanities-leaning kid without a clear passion.

 

My eldest who is a junior in high school this year is starting to feel pressure to already pick a major and she just doesn't know what she wants to do with her interests yet. DH and I have both assured her that we don't expect her to pick something now and stick with it no matter what. While it is helpful to have some sort of major declared when applying, there are lots of options that you don't know you are interested in until you experience them (or cross off lots of others).

 

It was so much easier for DH and I because we knew we wanted to be engineers. I had to narrow it down to which kind of engineering, but that is much easier than staring at thousands of possible (job types and) majors in all sorts of fields.

 

Edited to fix a typo.

Edited by RootAnn
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IMO, it seems easier to help a STEM-loving child to narrow down options (or open up/explore options) than a more evenly balanced or humanities-leaning kid without a clear passion.

 

My eldest who is a junior in high school this year is starting to feel pressure to already pick a major and she just doesn't know what she wants to do with her interests yet. DH and I have both assured her that we don't expect her to pick something now and stick with it no matter what. While it is helpful to have some sort of major declared when applying, there are lots of options that you don't know you are interested in until you experience them (or cross off lots of others).

 

It was so much easier for DH and I because we knew we wanted to be engineers. I had to narrow it down to which kind of engineering, but that is much easier than staring at thousands of possible (job types and) majors in all sorts of fields.

 

Edited to fix a typo.

 

My youngest is really struggling with this, too.  She's a sophomore.  Two of her brothers knew exactly what they wanted to do and the third was pretty sure by senior year (all engineers).  She has lots of interests, strengths, and talents but none of them match up with a career or major in her mind and she gets anxious about it.  

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IMO, it seems easier to help a STEM-loving child to narrow down options (or open up/explore options) than a more evenly balanced or humanities-leaning kid without a clear passion.

 

My eldest who is a junior in high school this year is starting to feel pressure to already pick a major and she just doesn't know what she wants to do with her interests yet. DH and I have both assured her that we don't expect her to pick something now and stick with it no matter what. While it is helpful to have some sort of major declared when applying, there are lots of options that you don't know you are interested in until you experience them (or cross off lots of others).

 

It was so much easier for DH and I because we knew we wanted to be engineers. I had to narrow it down to which kind of engineering, but that is much easier than staring at thousands of possible (job types and) majors in all sorts of fields.

 

 

My youngest is really struggling with this, too.  She's a sophomore.  Two of her brothers knew exactly what they wanted to do and the third was pretty sure by senior year (all engineers).  She has lots of interests, strengths, and talents but none of them match up with a career or major in her mind and she gets anxious about it.  

 

Yes! I feel your pain! My oldest is finishing up his associates and is still struggling with this. Not for lack of trying (I did a semester course in high school, had him do testing through the Career Center at college, have had him talk with people, endless conversations and researching things...). I was humanities-oriented, but I loved writing, so it wasn't hard to pick a major even though I didn't know how my interests would translate to a job or career (I wasn't interested in journalism, LOL!) Ironically my son may be getting close to choosing something and it may not be humanities-oriented at all...could be an interesting year here as things play out!

 

My daughter spent her high school semester of career exploration fixated on becoming a coroner! (If you knew her, you'd know what a mismatch this is for her personality-wise, but TV shows like Bones and NCIS can have a strong pull, LOL!) Thankfully she's leaning more towards nursing now!

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My eldest who is a junior in high school this year is starting to feel pressure to already pick a major and she just doesn't know what she wants to do with her interests yet.

 

 

 

My youngest is really struggling with this, too.  She's a sophomore.  Two of her brothers knew exactly what they wanted to do and the third was pretty sure by senior year (all engineers).  She has lots of interests, strengths, and talents but none of them match up with a career or major in her mind and she gets anxious about it.  

 

DD is a freshman this year. She does well in her subjects across the boards. She will study, and from time to time she will find certain topics interesting. But she hasn't found a subject that has held her interest overall. She used to enjoy studying Latin. But as the material has gotten more difficult, she has lost much of that joy.

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