Summer Activities, Part I: Career Exploration
Spring is in the air and summer will be here before you know it. Now is an excellent time to start planning for summer activities. Summer is the optimal time to explore and deepen your interests in an impactful way. Colleges want to know what you do when you are not in the classroom, and some colleges will outright ask what you have done during your summers. Admission officers seek out students who demonstrate passion and intellectual curiosity, but also students who take initiative and help those around them. Summer allows you ample time for exploration, expanding your passions, and giving back to your community. The goal for summer is to gain experience and also develop your interests. In the next three weeks, we will break down some wonderful summer options for students to stay on track with their college prep, while also learning more about themselves. This week, we tackle career exploration and why it can be an impactful choice for summer break.
Work experience is very valuable, and it’s particularly valuable if the work experience is related to your potential major. Certainly work experience allows for you to apply your skills in a context that could potentially be a future career choice and it allows you to become familiar with that industry. Understanding that career in a tangible way can help sharpen your interest in that field, or let you know if that field is no longer of interest to you. Either way, you are gaining hands-on knowledge if this is a field of study you can see yourself doing in the future, and will help you choose majors in colleges. Similarly, interning for someone who is in your field of interest is equally as advantageous as holding a paid job in that industry. The added benefit of working and interning is that it allows you to improve your soft skills and teaches the importance of communicating with others, working as a team, problem solving, and other important life skills.
If working in a field of interest is not possible, job shadowing is a great option. Job shadowing allows you to test out possible careers, learn from a professional’s experience, and gives you a glimpse into a job’s perks and challenges. Job shadowing is a no-cost way to deepen your understanding of the role of a particular career. Many times, students have a certain idea of what a career entails, but seeking out professionals in that particular field allows you to learn about the work cultures of different fields and organizations and provides a realistic view of what the career really requires. It’s an excellent way for students to learn about a job that they don’t have experience in. Likewise, conducting an informational interview with professionals is also very helpful in clarifying your own vocational interests, needs, and values, while also demystifying job duties and abilities that are required for certain careers.
Whether you choose to take a paid position, intern, job shadow, or conduct informational interviews, all of these give you practical experience and knowledge to better help define your potential majors and career paths in college. Here’s one thing to consider: If you attend a public high school, your education is free. College is not. That gives you a lot of freedom in high school to really explore your interests and choices in different fields. Once you get to college, switching majors multiple times could potentially add more years (and tuition) on to your undergraduate program. Exploring careers in depth during high school provides you a chance to really dig deep and explore your many options, and summer in particular provides a great opportunity to do just this.
Stay tuned next week as we talk about academic coursework as another way to make your summer break a productive one.