Career Exploration Course

[mmasc]

Has anyone used one that they can recommend? My DS, almost 14, has stuck with a potential career choice for a couple of years now and we’ve done some research on it (firefighter/emt). He’s also mentioned plumber and we’ve researched that a little a well. What I’d like is something that shows careers that he’s maybe never even heard of, or one with skill sets/what you enjoy doing matched with possible career fields? I’m perfectly happy with him being a firefighter or a plumber, I just thought it might be good to do one of those exploration things. (I have noticed that both of his choices are 1) helping others 2) not sitting behind a desk and 3) jobs that are more training than college) I find this interesting because he does want to go to college though. 

[Lori D.]

Side note about college + firefighter:
If at ALL thinking of moving up the ranks as a firefighter/EMT to a supervising position of battalion chief or fire chief, most fire departments now *require* a Bachelor degree (usually in something like Business Management, Criminal Justice, etc.) The son of a homeschooling friend went this route -- got a Bachelor AND a Master degree and THEN got on the fire department. He is definitely on the fast track to moving up in the department. 😀

re: Career Exploration
You might try the Interest Profiler at the CA Career Zone website. (You do not need to register to use the site's tools; it just won't save your results if you stop mid-test, or save your explorations on the site.) This Interest Profiler is based on finding your top 3 of the 6 work interest areas, and then you can plug those in to the "Assess Yourself" tool, which then pulls up a list of occupations that use those top-ranked work interest areas. Then you can research the different occupations through the descriptions and videos on the website. The 6 interest areas were developed by psychologist John Holland, so a person's top 3 interest areas are sometimes called a "Holland Code".

Right out of the chute, it sounds like your DS's top interest area is "Realistic" <-- this Wikipedia article I linked explains the Holland Codes, but especially gives you a description of the "Realistic" type AND a list of occupations, some that are "just Realistic", and many others that are combined with 1 or 2 of the other interest areas.

Enjoy exploring! Warmest regards, Lori D.

PS:
There are links to past threads with more ideas and resources for Career Exploration at the bottom of PAGE 6 of the big pinned thread  "College Motherlode" at the top of the College Board

Edited June 10, 2019 by Lori D.