CAREER AND EMPLOYMENT PLANNING

How to Get Started

If you know during high school that you want to pursue a particular career, your school counselor will help you plan your course selections to prepare for that career. If you are unsure about what you want to do, and most students are unsure, your counselor can introduce you to lots of ideas about kinds of careers.

There are many ways to explore possibilities for future careers. There are also many ways to pursue those careers. Most people change their minds and change their jobs even as adults. What does not change significantly is our personality, and those personality traits often affect the kinds of jobs we will be interested in or do well in. At Thetford Academy, sophomores complete the computer program Do What You Are, which is designed to help them begin to link their personality traits with career choices.

Another computer program available at TA is Choices, designed to provide information about particular jobs and the education path to those jobs. It can then link to particular colleges offering that education.

The Guidance Department also offers job shadow programs for eighth graders, a Career Carnival for juniors, in which they can interview a variety of professions, and trips to career exploration events at various colleges. The school counselors can help arrange other job shadow opportunities throughout your high school years as a way to sample the atmosphere and tasks of particular jobs.