Are You Afraid Your High School Student Won’t Live Up to Their Career Potential?

By: Phyllis Lehman

All parents pretty much want the same thing. We want our children to be happy and feel confident enough to fulfill their career potential. We want them to be clear about who they are and access their strengths as they attempt to grab the brass ring in life.

Unfortunately, what we’re seeing today is a lot of teens who are confused about who they are and what they want to do. In fact, career uncertainty is quite common these days. In its Program for International Students Assessment (PISA), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that about 40% of 15-year-olds are uncertain about their career expectations. The findings concluded that students suffer from a lack of sufficient career guidance and a similar lack of connection to employers and working adults. The OECD analysis also found that teens with a clear plan typically experienced stronger employment outcomes compared to their peers who remained uncertain about what they wanted to do.

Here’s another statistic: The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that overall, about 30% of students in associate and bachelor’s degree programs who had declared a major changed it within their first three years. Astonishingly, some schools reported cumulative rates of around 70% by graduation (e.g. Arizona State reported that more than 70% of their students changed their major at least once before they graduated, and Michigan State reported a 72% rate among graduates). While changing a major does not automatically signal an irrevocable course correction, when students change their field of study without understanding why the first choice was not correct, it can cost additional time and tuition money as well as lost confidence and slowed momentum.

{Overwhelm and Withdrawal

Lacking appropriate career guidance, the myriads of career options available in this complex modern society leaves students so overwhelmed and confused that they often end up retreating by pulling the proverbial blanket over their heads.

This plays out in avoidance behaviors, such as delaying the decision to go to college, endlessly changing their majors, or simply picking the profession their friend chose since “if it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.”

{The Health Toll

Work is actually more than just a paycheck. Not only is it vital to humans in terms of financially supporting themselves, work is critical in terms of our identity and self-image. It’s where we spend most of our waking hours and consumes a significant amount of our mental energy both in and out of the office.

To haphazardly choose a career path can lead to all sorts of unintended and unhappy consequences. In fact, we know that chronic low job satisfaction takes a real toll on the mind and body. Multiple studies show that people with sustained low job satisfaction through their 20s and 30s are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with emotional problems in their 40s, and report worse mental health, higher depression, and more sleep trouble than those who are satisfied with their job choice.

These findings reinforce an important point: Helping young people understand what energizes them, what drains them, and what kind of work best suits them is not a luxury; it’s crucial to helping them build a sustainable adult life.

Choosing a career path based on an incomplete idea of your strengths and weaknesses (or worse, someone else’s) not only leads to unhappiness and depression, but also to lackluster success.

{Financial Gain

A career plan should be both personally meaningful and economically realistic. Mark Twain was quoted as saying, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” It doesn’t mean it’s easy. It doesn’t mean you don’t work hard. It actually means that you love your work so much that you throw yourself into it with energy and enthusiasm.

When that happens, magic results. You succeed! You become an expert at what you do and meticulous about doing it. You end up exceeding your own expectations, which translates to exceeding the expectations of those who are on the receiving end of your work.

{How Do We Plan This?

I think the answer lies in both starting early and going deeper.

The National Career Development Association describes vocational guidance as involving three connected tasks: increasing self-knowledge, gathering information about the world of work, and finding an appropriate fit between the individual and work. It’s not clear whether these bases are sufficiently covered in school. While our students get a great deal of academic counseling, that does not always align well with career guidance. In fact, they could actually be at odds.

{School Guidance

Picture this: A student may be high achieving in science and math. The guidance counselor might steer him toward medicine or engineering. He could train for a profession that he is capable of, but will it be an authentic fit?

Through deeper exploration, we might uncover that he is highly skilled in collaboration, advocacy, and making complex information understandable. Armed with this information, the student might be able to hone in on a more personalized spin on those typical out-of-the-box professions that would energize him. As such, if he had an authentic fit aligned with his interests, goals, and values, he would likely be more fulfilled.

And an “authentic fit” includes more than a student’s grades. It includes interests, values, preferred work environment, natural strengths, energy patterns, problem-solving style, risk tolerance, and the kind of contribution that makes them feel proud. With a bit of strengths assessment, values determination, and labor market data research, they could figure out a precise niche to start their preparations.

The goal is not to steer a student away from a traditional path. It’s to help them discover where their academic abilities, strengths, values, and preferred way of working overlap, whether in a traditional job or otherwise.

Career guidance is not a one-time conversation, asking, “What do you want to be?” It’s a structured process of self-discovery, labor-market research, career conversations, job shadowing, skill-building, and reflection. In other words, students need more than a list of careers. They need a close examination of their strengths, skills, values, and work preferences.

As part of this, they need opportunities to test their assumptions against real people, real workplaces, and real educational pathways. For that, they need to learn how to strategically network and present themselves in a more professional way. Moreover, delivering a cogent and practiced elevator pitch will help them develop an essential skill and appear more serious and well-rounded.

The goal here is not to force a 17-year-old into a particular career. The goal is to help them make a confident and informed first decision. At that age, self-knowledge rarely arrives on its own. It is filtered through parents, peers, and authority figures. While these contributions are valuable, they shouldn’t be the exclusive source for their vocational considerations.

In fact, the primary source has to be the students themselves. The student should take in the advice and learning from all those around them and then make the time and space to synthesize, process, and derive something organically their own, something that reflects their values, strengths, interests, and goals. When those align and intersect, students can stand behind their decision with pride and present with confidence.

Helping a young person understand what motivates them, drains them, and what kind of work environment fits them is not a luxury; it is part of helping them build a sustainable future career. Parents need to take the initiative. Ultimately, career exploration protects a child’s potential from being defined solely by grades, other people’s expectations, and the loudest career option in the room. Ensuring that doesn’t happen is another gift we parents can give to our children.

Your child does not need to have his or her entire life decided in high school. And, of course, no high-school decision determines a person’s mental health or future happiness. Careers change, people grow, and workplace conditions matter enormously. But our teens do need enough self-knowledge, real-world exposure, and decision-making skills to leave high school with a direction that is genuinely their own. 

Phyllis Lehman Career Coaching helps high-school and college students turn “I don’t know what I want to do” into a clear, student-owned career direction that connects their strengths, interests, values, and real-world opportunities. They leave with a practical plan for education, experience, and economic independence. Please call 516-855-8551 for more information or email Phyllis at: [email protected] where Phyllis Lehman, who holds an MBA from Columbia University and Senior Professional Career Coaching certification from the International Association of Career Coaches, will be happy to guide you and your child.