Engaging Hearts & Minds: The Power of Career Exploration in High School

By Karen Glum, director of experiential learning, and Leesa Pruett Ceron, entrepreneurship teacher, at The Seven Hills School

Today more than ever, imbuing students with perspectives on careers is fundamental to college preparation. In a rapidly evolving world of work, coupled with colleges requesting interest in what you want to study, students want to explore careers and understand how they might fit with current interests and career aspirations. 

The days of college being a true ground for exploration are narrowing — students are asked to declare direction earlier, leaving exploration to occur more in the margins. 

Here’s the paradox: much of current career exploration focuses on tangibles: job titles, responsibilities, industry growth projections. These matter, but they don’t capture what it actually feels like to live a career day after day. 

Students pick “marketing” or “engineering” without understanding the texture of those days — the rhythm, the people, the decision-making patterns that will shape much of their work life. 

A more nuanced approach to career exploration will help students move beyond what they can research about a particular career path, painting a more complete picture. 

Hearing when professionals first engaged in their career path is a helpful perspective. You can see students immediately relax when they hear it wasn’t in high school. Students need a more detailed look under the hood, and some real talk about career decisions.  

High schools can help bridge this gap. But how? The answer lies in shifting from traditional “internship or bust” thinking to something more flexible and revealing: career exploration.

Keep It Simple, Yet Powerful

Career exploration doesn’t require a formal internship. It’s any experience that reveals the day-to-day reality of a career, from a 15 minute phone conversation with a professional to a job shadow day to managing social media for a local nonprofit.

The goal isn’t always clarity — sometimes it’s productive elimination. A student might discover that engineering seems boring until they see the problem-solving rhythm and realize it matches how their brain works. 

Students can have a decent idea of what a field is, but they don’t know yet who they are in that field, or what immersion would be like.

Career exploration also reveals breadth students didn’t know existed. “Marketing” isn’t one job; it’s brand strategy, content creation, consumer psychology. “Medicine” isn’t just “doctor;” it’s research, public health, clinical practice across dozens of specialties. 

Exposure helps students discover what’s actually drawing them in. Is it the problem solving, the people, the impact, the creative thinking? And from there they can find the specific pathways that amplify those elements. 

Understanding both tangibles and intangibles helps students begin to match careers more closely to their working styles, not just interests. 

We see that students are then able to:

• Ask better questions during conversations and experiences.
• Make more informed choices about majors and early moves.
• Recognize that mismatches could be either the work or the conditions.

How Parents Can Help

Parents can open doors students cannot access on their own. Connect them with someone in their field of interest, help research organizations, make an introduction. Your network is a gift, use it.

You don’t need contacts in every industry. Your greatest gift might be your professional fluency. What seems like common sense in the corporate world — how meetings work, what questions to ask — is often brand new to teenagers. Role play a meeting with them and show them how it’s done.

We’ve coached students through what a professional conversation looks like, so they’re prepared and confident. Students sometimes need to hear: the person you’re meeting with wants to hear from you. They want to help. A little coaching goes a long way.

Let Them Lead

When students take initiative — even just reaching out for a conversation — it matters. Encourage your child to bring up their interests in conversations with and see what connections emerge. Have them research what’s available in their school and community. They need to drive this, and they need to know you believe they can.

And don’t let them fear the cold call. We’ve had students get into research labs by just picking up the phone.

Here’s the thing: if a student shows real interest, articulates what they want to learn, and demonstrates they’ve done their homework, cold outreach can be more effective than a warm introduction. It signals initiative, maturity, and seriousness — exactly what professionals respect and want to support.

Career Exploration Early and Often

The purpose of career exploration isn’t just discovering something about a career path. It’s discovering something about yourself. It’s building the confidence, discernment, and professional maturity that will serve students long after they’ve chosen their first job. 

In a world asking teenagers to declare direction earlier than ever, giving them tools and opportunity to explore with intention isn’t just helpful, it’s essential.