They say if you love what you do you in life, you never go to work even for a day. Working on something that you are passionate about for a major part of your career is something everyone strives for. But for most high school students, their passion is not super clear to them. They may not have been exposed to different options, so they won’t know what to go for. Yes, sometimes you have some interests, but that may or may not lead to a profession. It’s almost like ordering food in a restaurant without a menu. This was already very difficult. That is why even before COVID, almost 30% students changed their major at least once within three years of enrolling in college. COVID has made things even worse.
Finding Your Passion
As the second semester of this school year starts, my 10th grade daughter is getting nervous. Because she does not know what she wants to be when she grows up. She doesn’t have slightest clue on what kind of major she wants to choose and then based on that what kind of school she wants to go to. I’m sure many of you are in the similar situation. So, I will share with you that I have shared with her. As someone who has been working in high school to college transition pathway for almost seven years and before that spent more than a decade in corporate America hiring and firing people globally, I can vouch for things I share here.
COVID has made your job much harder. In a “normal” normal you probably would have gone and talked to different professionals, you probably would have learned about various careers through college visits in your high school and probably would have talked to your peers and friends at the lunch table that would have given you more awareness, helping you decided your path. But we are not in “normal” normal. And as COVID settles down a bit, we will have a “new” normal. Thing will never be the same again. So, it will be beneficial to look at new ways to understand various options and make your choice.
The new normal has also expanded our horizons. Meaning you can talk to and connect with anyone all over the world through a video call. Video call has become today’s phone call. So here are a few things that you can do. And no matter what you do, maintain an online profile that you can share with click of a button with any college, internship or job application. Cirkled In profile empowers you to tell your holistic story with click of a button.
Virtual Shadowing: There is nothing like shadowing someone who is doing a profession every day. It will be very hard to get an in-person shadowing opportunity so make it a virtual shadowing – aka video call. There may be multiple professions right in your extended family. You can always reach out to them for a 30-minute conversation and ask them about their experiences in that profession. Try asking about their preferences and what they enjoy most about their work. Also explore what motivated them to enter that profession. You can even ask whether, if given the chance to go back in time, they would choose the same career path again. You can also ask them the compensation the salary range of for that profession.
Learn from Doers!
Virtual Internships: I am a huge advocate of internships. I think that internships give you the golden key to the treasure along with full armor and immunity. You are protected and you still get to collect the fortune.
An internship gives you’re a peek into the real life. You will not only learn about the profession of your internship, but it also helps you with the basic understanding of working in real life setting. COVID definitely has limited in-person internships but there are many virtual internships still available. Sometimes it can be hard to get an internship in big companies. But there are plenty small to medium sized companies who offer internships. In fact, working in a smaller company can give you taste of multiple professions as you work with different team members. Many times, your local county government may have internships as well. You can ask people if their employer has any internships you could apply to. And always add your internship experiences in your story. A platform like Cirkled In, even empowers you to showcase your internships in your online profile.
Find YOUR Moon and climb to it!
Virtual College Info session and tours: Lastly these days pretty much every college has virtual information sessions and virtual campus tours. Find a good college search website like Cirkled in and learn about various colleges or even trade schools. Do you know there are almost 7000 colleges and trade schools in the US? In a previous normal you could not visit even a fraction of those. In the new normal, you can virtually be on the campus of any of these 7,000 institutions. You can find out their offerings of majors, the credits of your high school courses as well as financial information right on one page. And here is a secret nugget – if you narrow down your college or trade school list, call their admissions line and ask to talk t a counselor for more information. One thing most students and their families do not know that colleges also work very hard to Have a well-rounded freshman class and they will be more than happy to answer your questions.
Find your NorthStar
Every time Edison failed in making the light bulb, he told everyone, “now there is one more way I know it does not work”. So, process of elimination is as important as process of selection. After your information gathering if you know that you do not want to go to certain majors that is mission accomplished.
Process of Elimination – crucial to success
So go ahead, find your passion and change the world!