What now….? High School to College to Career Transition

Remember reading about the Industrial Revolution during history class? Remember learning about those farmers who had no idea that the work world was radically changing?  As such, they advised their children to follow them into the family farming business, unwittingly setting them up for a life of economic hardship.

“We”  – as in the bulk of parents today – are those farmers.

When “we” set off to college, we were reasonably assured that we would figure out what we wanted to do for work or some company or organization would hire us to help us figure it out.  Regardless our career training and exploration was not particularly critical during high school.  The Golden Age of US Prosperity was our reality.  Most every college graduate wound up with a “good job” by which I mean one that was full time, with benefits, into the indefinite future, and on a career track.

Now, those who plan effectively – often as they approach college and certainly in their first few years of college – also do well enough.  But those who aimlessly move forward find themselves struggling mightily.

My college counseling work has always spent a reasonable amount of time on all the life experiential issues that create fit between my clients and their colleges.  However, I used to urge my clients that they ought to consider the career issue as well.  I did so, in part, because of what I saw in my career counseling work through Career Counseling Connecticut

Twentysomethings are struggling.  Their struggle could have been avoided had they started the high school to college to career discussion far earlier.