One of the keys in helping your son or daughter find direction in life as it relates to career preferences is identifying his/her interests and discovering how they correspond to different careers.

The "Strong Interest Inventory" is one of the best professional career tests available to do this. By completing the Strong Interest Inventory, "High School" or "College Edition", your student can:

	Identify the general occupational themes and subcategories that describe his/her interests.
	Compare interests to those of workers in specific occupations to discover how similar or dissimilar his/her interests are to theirs.
	Use the results to explore the careers that would be most similar to your students' interests.
	Understand the personality traits that are most associated with his/her interest categories.
	Identify the top ten careers that relate to his/her interests.
	Know how he/she should ideally divide your work day between working with people and working with things and ideas.
	Identify his/her ideal learning preferences.
	Understand his/her leadership preferences.
	Compare his/her risk taking preferences with those of other people.
	Receive a 7-page professional summary plus a "Memo to Parents and Guardians" that provides a written explanation of his/her results and how to use them

 As a part of the package, you will also have a free telephone consultation with a qualified test administrator who will explain the results, answer any questions you  and your son or daughter may have, and discuss next steps for career planning. In addition, you will receive The Occupations Finder which lists job titles of more than 1,300 occupations categorized according to the coding system used in the Strong Interest Inventory. Your Strong Interest Inventory results will allow you to explore the listing of jobs that relate most closely to your interests. The Occupations Finder also lists The Dictionary of Occupational Titles code for each job title, enabling you to quickly find out more about occupations of interest.

 If your student is feeling uncertain about how to choose a career that he/she will find interesting and fulfilling consider these facts:

 We are living in a time of transition and change. Approximately ten percent of the U.S. workforce changes jobs or careers each year--in a recent year that meant that ten million workers went through the career/job change process!

 Although making career/job changes is something most people will experience 8-10 times during their lives, most people do not know how to choose a career direction effectively. The majority of people do not make an actual career choice; rather, they let circumstances or other people dictate their path. For example, how often have we heard from a friend or co-worker something to the effect of "

 A relative told me about an opening at his company, and I've been there ever since" or "My friend was majoring in accounting, so I decided to become an accountant" or "I was skimming the classified ads, this job caught my eye, they offered it to me and so I took it even though I didn't know much about the job or the company."

 Letting other people or circumstances direct one's course often results in taking the path of least resistance, which usually leads to one or more of the following outcomes:

	Becoming dissatisfied, unhappy and/or stressed (which impacts one's physical and emotional health as well as family/friend relationships and all other aspects of one's life)
	Being underemployed, underpaid and underappreciated
	Feeling unprepared and even "victimized" in the event of a lay-off or other external change
	Having a lowered sense of self-worth and ability
	Struggling with one's relationship with yourself-feeling confusion, distrust and even anger about the career choices you've made.

 So, what is the alternative? Proactively helping your son or daughter PLAN for a satisfying career and a rewarding life! Most people spend more time planning their vacations than they do planning their careers and lives! Why? Usually it is because they either don't see the need to invest time and energy in career planning, or they just don't know how to go about it. Our schools and universities haven't done a very good job, unfortunately, of teaching people how to chart a course for their careers and lives.

Taking responsibility for and learning how to plan your student's career optimizes his/her potential to produce these outcomes in life: 

	Experiencing the satisfaction that comes from using the most enjoyed skills and abilities within meaningful work
	Creating a life that supports physical and emotional well-being, relationships with family and friends, and other important aspects of having a full and personally meaningful life
	Achieving financial potential within a career area as well gaining the respect and appreciation of others
	Developing "employment security" (the ability to secure appropriate employment quickly in the event of an unexpected job/income loss)
	Knowing how to make job/career changes as the marketplace or you son or daughter's career goals change

Call to Action

 Students and parents of students, the time to take control of your career choices is now!

Action Plan:  First Stage-Discover

Who am I? What are my innate preferences?  What do I enjoy doing, what do I value, what motivates me, what brings me a sense of fulfillment and meaning? What gifts and abilities have I been born with and have acquired growing towards adulthood? What needs, issues and/or causes do I find compelling and desire to address in my work? 

Start by taking the "Strong Profile, High School Edition" (for high-school students, naturally) or the Strong Profile, College Edition for those undergraduates who are closer to entering the dreaded private sector!

By taking the "Strong Profile, High School Edition",  your student will identify work environments that are appealing.  The increased awareness your student will gain from the report will encourage positive work experiences.  Customized information on your student's personal styles in work, learning, leadership, and risk taking is specified.  Provide clear steps your son or daughter can take to identify and evaluate career and educational options.

The "Strong Profile, College Edition" customizes information on your undergraduate's personal styles in work, learning, leadership, and risk taking plus provides clear steps your son/daughter can take to identify and evaluate career and educational options.  Also included are campus activities and ideas for internships or part-time jobs that may fit your son or daughter's interests.  The report also offers tips for choosing an academic major, graduate program, or first job out of college.

By taking one of the Strong Profiles, your student will be able to move to:

Action Stage 2:  Which careers or self-employment opportunities potentially fit my student's design? Which would give my son or daughter a sense of mission and purpose in work? And then to:

Action Stage 3: Making A Career Decision(s): Which option best fits my student's design (and other important criteria such as impact on family, salary needs, etc.)  Which career best enables him/her to make a contribution in making our world a better place.  And finally to;

Action Stage 4: Implementing his/her Decisions (Conducting a job search; gaining training/education; beginning self-employment, etc.): What are the necessary action steps to achieving my student's career dream/goal? How would he/she obtain a job in a chosen field?

What are the best job search strategies to use? How do I help my son/daughter best market him/herself? OR What are the best options for getting necessary training/education? OR What is the sequence of steps he/she needs to take to successfully become self-employed? 

So you see the first step is helping your student understand his/her career preferences.  By arming your son/daughter with the advantage of self-awareness and understanding of career preferences, you will have contributed to helping him/her move in a focused and proactive direction.  And believe me, you will have put your student ahead of 95 plus per cent of his/her peers on the road to career success!

Go to "Career Testing" now and review the detailed descriptions of the" Strong Profile, High School Edition" or the "Strong Profile, College Edition".  Check out the sample reports and then take action!