Ready to start exploring potential careers, but not sure where to start? Today, I’d like to recap some tips and resources from one of our recent counseling sessions on “hot” jobs and career interest planning for high school students.

1. Relax. Be flexible. If you feel “clueless” about what you’d like to do for a living, don’t worry. High school and college is a time to explore your career options and interests. Besides, the career landscape is changing so rapidly that it’s more important for you to be open and flexible. For a little perspective, consider this:

• • The average person will change his or her job 10 to 15 times in a lifetime.
  • Some of today’s top careers didn’t even exist 20 years ago. (Cybersecurity, anyone?)
  • New careers will emerge—and your interests will evolve—in the future.

So, don’t panic if you don’t have a career plan yet. Just take a few of these steps to get started.

1. 1. Identify your interests and the careers that match. As the saying goes, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” So, start your career exploration by asking what really interests you. (We’ll talk about identifying career aptitudes in a later post.)Using the O*Net Interest Profiler and questionnaire, you can quickly identify your interests, select the level of training/education you’re planning/willing to pursue, and get a list of careers that match your interests and background. For example, if your interests point to engineering, you’ll see different careers depending on whether you go for an associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degree—or higher. You’ll even get a detailed list of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for each career, plus a link to apprenticeship information (where available, by industry).
   2. Find out if your ideal career offers good employment prospects. While choosing a career that you’ll love is important, your earnings need to support your lifestyle. So, once you’ve identified one or more careers you’re interested in, you’ll want to evaluate the average salary and determine whether those careers will be in demand when you graduate. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, you can explore occupation profiles by median annual salary, education requirements, current job availability, and future job outlook (usually for the next 10 years).Keeping an open mind about other potential high-demand careers, you should also check out general lists like The Top 12 Jobs for 2014.
   3. Explore careers based on required training and education level. If you’re not yet sure of your educational goals, it can be very helpful to explore careers by education and training requirements. To get you started, we’ve compiled job openings outlooks for several occupations in the tables below to show you the most in-demand jobs by education and training. Just follow the links for requirements, salaries, expected job growth, and more.

Occupations with the Most Job Openings:

Graduate Degree

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics & bigfuture.collegeboard.org

Occupations with the Most Job Openings:

Bachelor's Degree

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics & bigfuture.collegeboard.org

Occupations with the Most Job Openings:
Associates Degree
or Postsecondary Vocational Certification and/or Licensure

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics & bigfuture.collegeboard.org

Talk to your school counselor. While we’ve covered a few tips and resources to get you started, your school counselor can offer you individualized help in finding your ideal career and the path to take you there. Get started and contact your counselor today!