President's Letter: Career Exposure Can Inspire

Connecting with careers as a school counselor means exposing students to ideas about careers they have not thought of before, or may not even know exists. Most of us have seen updated lists of the latest careers soon to be extinct and predictions about jobs that do not currently exist. I don’t look forward to the day big cargo trucks are driving themselves on the highway, but the experts tell us that day is coming. This makes working with today’s youth even more challenging. As school counselors, we have to have some idea about what the world of work will look like for our students when they graduate (even our first graders!).

The generations in school right now, the Gen Z-ers (1996–2012) and the Alphas (2013–2025), are clearly the more technologically advanced generations. The Alphas never knew a world where everyone wasn’t carrying around a small computer (aka smart phone) in their hand. These students don’t need us to serve as the vessels of all knowledge. They have Google, Siri, Alexa and, unfortunately, Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram to get their information. They will not hesitate to fact-check us. However, they do need us to point them in the right direction for information, offer opportunities of exposure and ask the right questions to inspire meaningful connections with careers.

Some students are inspired when the Marine recruiter comes and leaves pens or lanyards. A simple trinket can often plant a seed of interest that grows. A career Marine told me that. He was given a keychain in middle school that he kept all the way through high school because he knew from that one interaction that he would go into the Marines when he graduated. Some students are inspired when they see the high school or middle school band perform at their elementary school. They know immediately that music is where their heart lives. But we also know students like my very own sophomore athlete who truly doesn’t have a clue what he wants to do beyond his dream of getting a college scholarship for playing middle in-field on the baseball team. He is not even sure what area he might want to study in college. I know he will do something in the sports field, but for now his options are wide open.

Regardless of where each of our students are, they need exposure to as many ideas about careers as they can get. Once they develop their career interests and discover their aptitudes, hopefully they are able to match those interests with their skills to determine their dream job. Or at least their first dream job, because statistics tell us adults are switching careers much more frequently than in past decades. What this means for us is that we have to prepare students with career readiness skills for the future workforce and we have to get creative in how we bring that exposure to them. School counselors often host career days/fairs, recruit guest speakers, develop community partnerships with local employers, create local internship opportunities, coordinate field trips highlighting career opportunities and countless other ingenious events. Meaningful connections that students create with careers set them up for lifelong success and career satisfaction. School counselors get to do that. We have the best jobs.

Contact Jennifer Diaz, 2023–2024 GSCA president, via the GSCA website.