Welcome to High School, What is Your Vision?

Let’s talk about high school.  I love teaching high school because that is where I feel the action is.  So much hinges on the decisions made during high school.  In a way I think it is unfair, because most kids have no clue what they want to do, but they are expected to make this decision.  Most college students are also unsure, so if you aren’t sure you are not a freak.  In a perfect world you would know your career and your desired major.  Then you would take the best high school courses to make the transition to that field of study more easily.  You would then choose a college and a major in line with that exact career.

The problem is a concept of vision.  Look at the picture below taken from inside a forest:

Now look at the same forest from a different vantage point:

You can see that the higher vantage point allows you to see how large the forest actually is.  If I were lost I’d rather have a view that allows me to see more.  Career identification is a lot like this.  As you begin to interface with the working world, you will begin to see the immense career choices available to you.  There are thousands of jobs you can do.  If you take apart any organization you will see this.  Did you know that McDonald’s employs statisticians?  In the same way, IBM employs day care workers.  How do you get a clearer vision of what you want to be?

One thing is to just start paying attention to what you see around you.  You have access to quite a few adults who do many different things.  Ask them about their jobs, what they do, what they like and dislike about it, the conditions, the outlook, and the best way to get qualified to do such a job.  As you meet adults soak up as much as possible and you will get a clearer vision of what may be your dream job.  You are forcing yourself into a better vantage point that doesn’t appear fast enough if left to itself.  It takes effort to get a handle on what is a good career fit for you.

Volunteering at multiple organizations can help.  One student of mine volunteered with a local hospital twice a week.  He got a real look behind the scenes and found out that he didn’t want to be a doctor but rather a nurse.  In addition, by working in many different wards of the hospital he discovered the exact sub-field that he wanted to pursue.  When he went on to college, he sought a college with that exact major.  He is going to end up where he wants.

Your high school classes are a good indicator of career possibilities.  As you take your classes ask yourself if you enjoy the material and if you are good at it.   Competence and enjoyment are two powerful indicators of where we should be going.  They are mutually reinforcing.  When you are not competent in your job, people complain at you all day long, there is less pride in your work, and you will not be promoted.  This will lead you to be unhappy with your job no matter how much you initially enjoyed the job.  We need to have the basic skills required in order to pursue a college major.  A person weak in math should not pursue a math degree, nor should they pursue a career that demands a lot of math.

Life is a Lot Like Frogger

There is this game from the eighties called Frogger, and I wasted a lot of quarters on that game.  The object of the game is simple.  You try to get your frog across a highway and a moving river to the lily pads at the top of the screen.  There are cars you must avoid on the highway, and you must hop on logs and turtles to get you across the river.  The logs and turtles must be abandoned before they reach the side of the screen or you die.  The turtles have an additional peril in that they regularly submerge, and if you are on them when they do your frog dies.   

http://www.arcade-museum.com/

All games have strategies for winning and so does Frogger.  One strategy is that sometimes the way to move forward is by temporarily moving backwards.  This aspect of the game is a great analogy of fiscal livelihood.  You must move forward through education, training, and hard work.  Sometimes you can look down into the future and you can see an end of a job coming (like the log or turtles) and you must alter your course.  Sometimes you must accept a short-term career path or job that holds you until something more stable comes along.  


Taking a low paying job may feel like going backwards, but that may be the best strategy for that moment.  You may look down the line and see that the job you have is about to become obsolete.  In this case you need to “hop off the log” and begin preparing for your next move. All analogies have their weaknesses and Frogger is just a game and not real life, but in life you will be blindsided occasionally.  Layoffs and health issues are two areas that catch people off guard.  It is very hard to recover financially when blindsided with something big, so preparation is the best measure. 

My son Bryce had a condition called Kawasaki’s Disease.  This disease is a temporary inflammation of the arterial system.  Since the heart is a part of this system, extended inflammation can lead to an aneurism or even a heart attack.  Bryce was very fortunate to have an alert doctor catch the subtle signs, and he was quickly medicated with two treatments of an anti-inflammatory called gamma globulin.   Bryce recovered quickly and had no major aftereffects of the disease.  When we got the bill in the mail we were blown away that each treatment would cost us $20,000!  


We had insurance and after a lot of calls, our insurance paid for all of it.  We were very fortunate to have insurance, but we had always made it a priority to make sure we had medical insurance and so should you.  Besides the importance of having medical insurance, this episode illustrated to me that there are events that can come along that have the ability to immediately turn your world upside down.  It is prudent to expect a couple of these events in your life and prepare to the best of your ability.

Another area where people get blindsided is a layoff.  Are there signs to look for to help you notice an impending layoff?  There are, and some signs can be seen years in advance!  When you are working, it is wise to take note to what is going on around you.  You will want to continually ask yourself if the company you are working for is healthy.  Is your position secure for the moment, and for how long?  Is there a skill you will need in order to progress or continue?  Is this job going to evaporate when a new innovation comes along, and how likely is that?  Am I getting positive feedback?  Are the things I’m doing relevant for this company, and could they decide that I’m not needed?  


Even with watching carefully, you may still get blindsided, but you should still watch carefully and make adjustments.  Using the Frogger analogy, use your footing in the current job to work on your plan to ensure you have current skills that are in demand in the marketplace. 

Crisis of Identity

College can trigger a crisis of identity.  The reason is that you were trying to fit in by being someone that God has not made you to be.  High school has a way of doing this as peer pressures tend to strongly force you to conform to something you are not.  The beauty is that in college there are few identifiable “types” as there were in high school, so this can be liberating, but it also can be disorientating.  College professors tend to enjoy their role of calling all of your beliefs into question, so for students of faith be ready to be challenged.  You may be mocked, but you should be ready to defend your reasons for your faith in a way that draws people to Christ instead of repelling them (1 Peter 3:15).  You may have never been forced to do this, so take this opportunity to delve deeply into the scriptures to find out what you believe and why you believe it.  There are a number of good programs out there, check with your pastor.  I have found the discipleship training materials of the Navigators as a great source of training.  For those of you who have left town to go to school, you should develop a new home church where you are going to school.  This will give you access to people like you who can support you in the spiritual battles that you WILL face in college.  Public universities tend to encourage any philosophy except Christianity, so be ready.  Charles Malik in his article titled “A Christian Critique of the University” found numerous areas where Christian values were counter to the basic culture on most college campuses.  A Christian college allows you to escape some of these pressures, but not all of them.  For the rest of you attending a public university, it will serve you to think of college as a mission field. 

            For those who have unclear goals, you are in the majority.  If you have the ability to do college, go for it.  Any degree will give you a broad set of options, as there are careers out there that do not require a specific degree, just that you do have one.  As you seek God, things will become clearer, but be prepared to walk in a bit of a haze.  God doesn’t always explain himself and make your whole life trajectory clear, He often just lets you know what you should be doing now.  You can live out your faith through many careers and God needs people everywhere to reach people who need Him (1 Cor 7:17).  Working in ministry is not for everyone, but if you do your education will help your ministry as well as your impact in ministry.  If you have been given the ability to do college (and only a few have it) you should not turn your back on this gift.   For those of you who have not declared a major, use your classes to help point the way, ask yourself as you take these classes: “Do I enjoy this?” and “Am I good at this?”  An affirmative in BOTH above questions can lead you to a major and a career path.

Choose Your Destiny Part II

College seems to take forever, but remember that it is a small fraction of your life.  There was this hallway at a job back when I was in college, and this hallway symbolized the glacial pace of college.  Summers were the hardest because I didn’t feel I was actively progressing towards my degree.   I worked at Herman’s Sporting Goods in a mall, and they didn’t want us going through the front gate, so I had to walk along this bare hall to the back, ring the bell multiple times and wait for someone to let me in.  I hated this hallway, because it seemed to mock me every day.  It felt like this was a dead end job that would suck my soul.  It could have been a dead end job, but since it was a means to a degree it wasn’t really a dead end job.  As the summer wore on, I had to tell myself over and over that I was a college student even though I wasn’t taking classes at the time.  I know this sounds silly, but your mind can play tricks on you.  Herman’s was a very short episode in my life and after about two years I found a much better job to finish out college.  When you have the luxury of looking back, it becomes apparent how short seasons of life can be. The problem is that the present can take hold of you in such a way that no other reality seems plausible.  In this state, you will feel that college is taking forever.  When it feels like you are stuck in neutral you will need to challenge that thought.  If what you are doing is part of the plan then dismiss that feeling with truth. Your thoughts (or Satan’s) should not rule you (1 Cor 10:5) (Matthew 4:1-11).

            When you view the length of life within the context of eternity, you will experience something wholly new and groundbreaking.  The eternal perspective can help you through periods of life that seem disappointing, boring, or unglamorous (Rom 8:25).

Choose your Destiny

Take a good, hard look at the timeline. The right side portrays a path of life that involves quickly getting through college successfully, working hard at your career, and making good money choices.  On the left is an alternative destiny.  It involves having fun and living it up under your parents’ house.  If you choose the party life, there will come a point where your parents will get tired of this.  I call this moment the “deadbeat threshold.”  At that point, your parents will kick you out because they finally get it that by supporting you financially they are not helping you mature.  You are not progressing in life and are stuck.  Fed up, your parents serve your eviction papers thus ushering in a life of poverty that will ensnare you and the generations to follow Proverbs 10:1.

I don’t think people say, “Hey I want to be stuck in poverty all my life, how do I go about doing that?  The reality is that poverty is the natural outcome of a life that is done out of order.  If you have children before you complete your schooling, it will be very difficult to finish your schooling.  Do life in order, it’s education, career, then kids.  Get it out of order and you will be in poverty.  Looking at the graphic, please notice how a person who starts work immediately is getting things out of order.  The party life will lead you to the poverty life, because you will be neglecting the things that could enrich your life in the long run Proverbs 21:17.

            Living for God and being a partier is incompatible (Eph 5:18) (Gal 5:19-21) (James 4:4) (Prov 23:21).  Partying will not make you more popular, because people are popular because they have traits that people value.  Don’t get caught envying the “beautiful people” who are having a great time, God has other plans for you (Prov 23:17).  Their lives are a mirage, because the glamour will fade away and you will have purpose.  People who like others because they are attractive are vain, so why would you want those types of people as friends.  Find people who share the same values as you and you will be happier.

Career Planning Part III

When starting out a career you need to be aware that at this point you are more of a liability to most companies.  Experience has taught most business owners to view young adult workers with an extra dose of suspicion.   Most young adults don’t know how to work hard and expect their bosses to cater to them.   I hope you know this but when you go to work you are paid to work VERY hard.  The amount of work demanded of you will seem unreasonable at first, but you will grow into it.  As you gain experience, you will become more productive and able to get more done in the same amount of time.  Add this to a good work ethic and over time you will become a very valuable commodity.  As a future star, you may have the wonderful experience of having companies bid for your services.  Listen to this verse:

Proverbs 22:29

Do you see someone skilled in their work?  They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.

It feels good to be respected and highly valued, but you are going to have to pay your dues by working hard at your craft or profession.  This will take time, patience and hard work. 

Career Planning Part II

Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

Think about this, you were exposed to whatever your parents did, teachers, police, firemen, doctors, and nurses.  These are the people you interacted with, but there are so many more professions out there.  I have known many foster children who wanted to become social workers, or rebels who wanted to become probation cops.  When we are blessed by one of those transformational people in our lives, it is natural that we consider their profession.   Television also matters.  A few years back all the girls at our school wanted to be interior designers with the rise of shows like MTV’s Cribs or Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  Recently I have seen a wave of wannabe forensic scientists following the hit shows like CSI, Law & Order, and Forensic Files.  Cooking shows have recently also increased the visibility of that profession.  If you are considering one of these careers, you must do due diligence to see what the career is actually like.  Television has a way of making a lot of jobs look enticing.  I enjoy the show, Deadliest Catch, but I don’t want to be a crab fisher.  I don’t like the cold. Even though that show tries to illustrate the cold, I don’t think it is possible to get it until you are in that harsh environment.   I hate cold and want nothing to do with it; I learned this about myself early on.  So when I watch Deadliest Catch I know I want no part of that industry.  As a teacher I work with student teachers quite often.  A student teacher has completed a bachelors degree and a full year of teacher credentialing courses.  Before getting paid, they must do an unpaid semester of teaching, and some colleges require more.  What breaks my heart is that these young adults have never tried the job prior to actually teaching.  Substituting does not teach anyone how to teach, nor does it give you and idea of what teaching is.  When a student teacher is awful, the kids attack like sharks. Some tough it out and learn methods to get better, others quit.  According to Cynthia Kopkowski of the National Education Association half of all newly hired teachers quit within their first five years of teaching.   This is proof to me that many people are entering professions that are not a fit for them.  You must find a career that is a fit with the gifts and calling of God.

Career Planning

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

There is a serious amount of fear among college students over the issue of selecting a career path.  This is why many enter undecided and why many keep switching majors.  As noted earlier, switching majors is a core reason why college takes longer; thereby reducing the likelihood they will complete their degree. According to Itamar Gati in an article for Career Development Quarterly this indecision is a result of three major areas: a lack of readiness, a lack of information and inconsistent information.  A student may not be ready due to a lack of motivation, an overall indecisive personality, and a belief system that undermines success.  They may not understand who they are or how to go about looking for a career.  In addition they may be getting inconsistent information about careers.   

            What can you do?  There are a number of career inventories.  I have found the collegeboard.com website to be a good one, but there are others.  The problem of personality inventories is that people often do not understand themselves or the questions.  Either of these issues will lead to a list of careers that would not be a good fit.  I would suggest sitting down at the computer with a parent and doing it with them.  This can lead to much better results, but resist the urge to argue.  Note:  I run into a lot of students who “think” they know what they want, but are not aware of the realities of that job.  Please force yourself through a truly objective career search.

Once you have a sense of some options, get to work looking at these careers deeply.  Talk to people who are currently doing what you want to do to find out what the job actually entails, what training is required and the most efficient way to get there.  Ask what new hires now need in order to break into the profession, because requirements change continually.  I have a friend who is a physical therapist.  He got into the profession with a bachelor’s degree.  According to the Bureau of Labor Staticistics masters degrees are now required and doctorates degrees are recommended.  Not too long from now the doctorates will probably be required. This is the changing nature of the career market.  Since new careers are being created continually, it is highly likely you may slide into a career that doesn’t exist at this point.  This may or may not require you to do more schooling.

Internships Part II

 WARNING ABOUT INTERNSHIPS!  If you wait until graduation to begin your job hunt, you will be sorry.  You will be competing for career positions that are being fought over by people with a lot more experience.  You are too big of a risk to a prospective employer, so finding a job can be difficult without first having done an internship.  Once you graduate you will need to be earning entry level money for that career, so an internship at this point will be useless. Just as you worked to get into college while you were in high school, you should be working to secure your career while in college.  Don’t wait until it is too late. 

 An internship would be another great way to show your parents that you are working your plan to become financially independent.  Even if you do not get a job offer from the company that you interned with, you have gotten something on your resume.  When applying for entry level positions, you need to be aware that your competition has probably done internships, so businesses expect to see it.

Some colleges give college credit for internships.  The general rule is that when getting credit you cannot get paid, so you will have to decide if college credit is more important than pay.  You will need to set this up through your career office at your college if you want the credits.  Since not all jobs qualify as internships in the sight of colleges, they will need to follow guidelines in order to be sure to get credit.    BE VERY CAREFUL to do your research.  Ross Perlin in his book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy found that 18% of interns were getting neither college credit nor pay.   You should be getting one or the other.  Part of the research prior to signing on to an internship is checking out what you will be doing and networking with past interns.  If you poke around Facebook, I’ll bet you can find someone who can give you the scoop on a potential internship.  You want to be learning meaningful things and not doing meaningless tasks.  Some “meaningless” tasks can actually have an educational element, so take all feedback with a grain of salt.  Once you sign on to a company, work hard because you are being evaluated, and your performance could be shared with future employers. I share this because if you do a poor job for whatever reason it can hurt you.  When dealing with people who have authority over you remember: obey if unreasonable, disobey if immoral. Not all internships are quality programs, so do your homework.  You don’t want to waste your time.

Another really cool benefit of an internship is that you will be building the size of your professional network.  It is important to build this because getting a job is often a function of knowing people who may know of positions or know of people who do.  Do not feel ashamed to utilize your family or friends in order to land a job, because this is how the system works.  If you were a total deadbeat, then even your family would not recommend or hire you, so you aren’t corrupt.  Most of the jobs out there are not posted to want ads, but many companies are always on the lookout for good people.  They do not trust people who walk in cold with no direct recommendation from someone they know.  It’s that risk thing again, and companies are in the business of minimizing risk.  An internship allows you to get to know powerful people who can help.  My wife did an internship with a government agency.  Her father found the opportunity and she went after it.  Each summer while in college, they would fly her out, pay for room and board, as well as provide a nice salary (this is rare).  Because her needs were met she was able to save this money each year to offset her college costs.  She was able to complete school debt free.  Her graduation coincided with the end of my service in the Army, and her plan was to get the full-time position she had been doing as an internship and I would then complete my college.  Unfortunately, the government began a hiring freeze and we got notice right before her graduation that they were not going to hire her.  This was a very scary point in our lives.  Fortunately her former boss was able to pressure a contractor to offer a position to her.  My wife had developed good reputation as a hard worker who showed promise to get even better.  He boss went to bat for her, and although was not able to offer a position, pulled strings to make sure she was taken care of.  As the government hiring freeze was lifted, my wife was quickly transferred to a government position carrying better pay and benefits.  Learn this lesson from my wife.  Work hard, learn, be respectful and things tend to work out. 

Summer 2012 Internships Deadlines Around the Corner

            Many of the top internship positions have application deadlines in the fall and winter, so you should be furiously researching to find out to which companies you will apply.  I know this feels like the runaround you got while applying to colleges, but it is vitally important to yourself. 

So what is an internship and why should I do one?

During your summer months if there are no classes you need to take, go work for someone who will let you get hands on experience at whatever you are working towards.  This is an internship, and it is one of the most important things you can do to ensure that you have a job once you graduate. An internship is a temporary position that emphasizes on-the-job training rather than merely employment making it similar to an apprenticeship. The pay is often low, but some internship positions pay more.  The higher the pay or prestige, the more competition you will face in getting that internship, so work your tail off and get good grades.  Internships provide real-world experience in the career you are planning to do, so it lets you see if that career is really what you want.  It also opens your eyes to other careers you never knew existed.  Internships allow you to try out what you think you want to do.  It also allows you to build business skills so you aren’t clueless on the job.  You will be amazed how many job skills are transferrable or useful at each successive job.  Your various job experiences bring extra value to the companies that you will work for. 

When starting out a career you need to be aware that at this point you are more of a liability to most companies.  Experience has taught most business owners to view young adult workers with an extra dose of suspicion.   Most young adults don’t know how to work hard and expect their bosses to cater to them.   I hope you know this but when you go to work you are paid to work VERY hard.  The amount of work demanded of you will seem unreasonable at first, but you will grow into it.  As you gain experience, you will become more productive and able to get more done in the same amount of time.  Add this to a good work ethic and over time you will become a very valuable commodity.  As a future star, you may have the wonderful experience of having companies bid for your services.  Listen to this verse:

Proverbs 22:29 (NIV)

Do you see someone skilled in their work?  They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.

It feels good to be wanted.  You need to work hard for a long time to become skilled.  Daniel Coyle argues in the Talent Code that it generally takes ten years of determined practice to master the skills of any profession.  This means it’s going to take time.  Take the internship as an opportunity to learn.  Do what you are told, figure out when to ask questions, stay quiet, and work hard.  Your job is to learn, and don’t expect your coworkers to take your advice that seriously.  If you show them you are a hard worker, it will make the decision to keep you a no brainer.  A young worker is a potential gold mine to an employer because they typically cost half as much as a seasoned pro.  Because of the general characteristics of the average young worker, this will still be a risky proposition for an employer.   Internships allow companies the chance to try out workers on a low risk (meaning low cost) proposition.   When you show that you aren’t the typical lame young adult, you will be in a really good place come graduation.