One of my gripes with guidance counselors in school and college.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you so much for writing this. Could not have said it better and I am a college counselor. There are very few majors that translate to a career. And you are absolutely correct in that the STEM majors are the best bet for entry- level jobs but the majority of students do not have the interest and/ or apptitude - I see the test scores daily. Even my own DS is not a stem kid. So, I want him to go to a liberal arts college, major in history, english, whatever and get his BA or BS. Learn to think, write, mature and do an internship each summer. From there, he will learn things he likes, does not like and can work at something. Then he can go to graduate school. I also don't want to pay 200k for an english degree. We are lucky in VA that we have plenty of state schools that he can go to. Not the top 3 but the next wrung down is fine. Graduate school will matter more. I have been working with college kids for over 15 years. Very few know what they want. This is not the counselors fault. Also have worked with adults and they still don't know what they want! As a parent, and I am one too, it is up to us. You have to get your kids to engage and experience life. Almost to a one my students fill out their journals on how they spend their time with video games, on- line with friends, hanging out with friends or sleeping.

Volunteer, write, plant a garden, cook, read, coach a sports team, learn prgramming, take pictures! A few do but most don't and that has to start when young and in the home. You can't blame the schools.

I don't doubt your sincerity for a moment and the one thing I agree with you is that parents have a big role to play in this area.

My son, who has wanted to be a doctor ever since he was five or six years old was set on pursing this goal when he was in high school. Come his senior year, he got accepted into several excellent schools as well as an integrated BA/MD program at one of the better universities/medical schools. For those not familiar with these integrated programs, it basically means that as long as the student maintains a certain GPA, he is assured of admission into the medical school usually without having to pass any other tests such as the MCAT.

Enter the high school counselor who asked him whether he really wanted to pursue medicine and why commit to this course of study right out of high school, why not complete an undergrad degree and then decide where his passion took him, etc. So this kid who was pretty sure of what he wanted to do was left wondering if he was doing the right thing. He began to waver about med school. We had to arrange for him to meet with a couple of students who were in the integrated program where he was accepted and he met with them very reluctantly and almost at our insistence. They told him that if he was sure about wanting to become a doctor, he would be nuts to turn down the place he was offered. He accepted the offer at the school and finished med school about a year ago. He is so glad that he went that route. Even after he decided to accept the offer from the integrated program, his counselor told him that he really should have completed his undergrad and then decided what he wanted to do!

You are absolutely right about most teenagers and many adults not knowing what they want to do ...... hardly surprising when it comes to teenagers. But what counselors ought to do is to emphasize that finding a job when they finish college is one of the key goals in getting an education. There is no point in encouraging kids to pursue their passion if at the end of it, they have a degree that offer little or no job opportunities and a load of debt.

The daughter of a friend was not sure what she wanted to do when in college - at one of the state schools in VA - and after talking to her counselor, she majored in religion and some facet of real estate. Why did she select these areas ..... religion because she had a curiosity about different religions and real estate because it was the "hot" area when the RE market was booming. Not one iota of discouragement from the counselor as to what it would mean for her from a job standpoint - in fact, she was encouraged to pursue those areas because they interested her. When her parents tried to dissuade her, she said that her counselor was very supportive and, after all, the counselor did this for a living. She ended up with $60K in student loans and no job. She finally found a job paying her $45K a year four years after finishing college totally unrelated to what she studied - she is living at home because she can't afford to maintain her own place and pay her student loans.

Counselors who don't focus kids on job prospects after they finish a course of study in college are doing an outright disservice to these kids. It is not a matter of earning a huge salary but it is imperative they pursue a college degree that offers prospects of a job down the line ... otherwise they should just look at going to some trade school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, here's the problem, not all students are computer geeks or budding engineers (and those are the majors with the best post-college job prospects).

Not so!

The health care industry offers some of the best prospects when it comes to job opportunities in the next few years. I am not referring to doctors but everything from physical and occupational therapists to pharmacy technicians are showing job growth. So one does not need to be a computer geek or a budding engineer by any means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, here's the problem, not all students are computer geeks or budding engineers (and those are the majors with the best post-college job prospects).

Not so!

The health care industry offers some of the best prospects when it comes to job opportunities in the next few years. I am not referring to doctors but everything from physical and occupational therapists to pharmacy technicians are showing job growth. So one does not need to be a computer geek or a budding engineer by any means.

Well, but to work in that industry, you still have to have an interest in. nursing, in my view, is a service industry job. I don't consider it something I or most people I know would want to do on a daily basis, no matter what it pays. Now, some people love it (usually people who are really compassionate and like people), but there are a lot of horrible nurses out there because they went into that field for the job security, but they aren't really cut out for it.

As for the other stuff, pharmacy tech, et cetera, I really think it still requires a certain aptitude or interest. If a person really has no interest in medicine, they won't get through the programs of study required for those fields.

Some of those jobs are votech jobs -- i.e. they don't even require a 4-year degree. So yeah, that's totally an option. skip traditional college, go to a community college, and get a job. Plumbing, HVAC and other things are also areas where there are huge job prospects. But if you are going to go into those areas, you don't really have to go to a university.

So sure, there are options. But if you aren't interested in being a plumber or a nurse and basically want more of a white collar job, then you go to college, choose a course of study but make sure you also take some courses for computer skills and do some internships to network.

Personally, I would never have been happy working in the medical field. So as hot as it is for jobs, it wouldn't have worked for me. Nor would I have been happy as an engineer. The point is that while you should definitely remember you are going to have to be marketable after college, you also have to keep in mind that this is something you are going to spend at least 40 hours a week doing for the rest of your working life! So if someone hates hospitals, then no, pushing them to go into nursing because there are lots of job prospects is kind of setting them up for an unhappy life.