Welcome to the Career Exploration Series, where we are taking a deeper dive into the forms that career exploration can take across grade school in preparation for the types of careers a given student might be interested in pursuing. In Part 1, we will be taking a closer look at some of the types of career exploration commonly found across school curricula.

The term “career exploration” can evoke slightly different connotations for everyone, and there isn’t necessarily a consistent, unifying definition that everyone will agree on. This genuinely helpful CSESA guide, for example, cites a definition of career exploration that implies trips to workplaces are a crucial component, but also offers plenty of career exploration lesson plans that do not involve trips to workplaces. 

For our purposes, we will define career exploration as any work that is consciously connected to the process of eventually identifying a specific job or career path a given student might want to pursue and/or learning about how to pursue it.

While we want to emphasize active exploration of jobs in workplaces or interacting with professionals are major and valuable components of many career exploration experiences, but also do not want to discourage individuals who do not have immediate access to those resources. With that in mind, let’s dive in!

One reality many students face in the career exploration process is not having a good idea of what they want to do. Even students who have a strong idea of exactly what career they want may benefit from a general awareness of other options that interest them in the event that their first plan doesn’t work out as intended. 

Working together on identifying careers of interest can add helpful structure to the process of evaluating the near limitless possibilities that comprise our modern job market, along with all the potential barriers and requirements that can come with particular choices. 

Students who are not sure what they want might benefit from identifying the ways certain careers connect to their own strengths and interests, while students who have a stronger idea of what they want may be able to identify some additional careers that overlap with their established goals. 

While any type of exploration can happen at any time, identifying careers of interest often comes first, as it can make a big difference in how we navigate some of the other forms of career exploration.

Once students have identified potential careers of interest, or even before, a great follow up form of career exploration is the low commitment kind, where students can learn what a job or career might entail and be able to make a more informed choice on whether they want to take additional steps to pursue that career or they would rather go back to the drawing board and find something else. 

While there is always room to talk about some of the tougher realities of a given job, low-commitment exploration might focus on the types of skills most commonly used and what students think might be a good fit. Career fairs can be a great mode of career exp

This component of career exploration often comes when students have a reasonable idea of what career they might be interested in, and would want to learn more about what it takes to have that career. 

What are the minimum educational requirements? Does it require specific certifications? Does it require working one type of job for a while before eventually landing the job the student is most interested in? 

Exploring the requirements can also build a helpful foundation for incorporating career goals into transition planning for adulthood.

One reality most students will have to face in their lifetime is the process of learning how to go through a job application process, both as a general practice and for some careers, a specific set of requirements. 

Exploring the world of building resumes, filling out job applications, writing cover letters, finding out what constitutes a good recommendation, and more are all crucial components of career exploration and are important to learn whether or not students feel strongly committed to pursuing a particular type of career.

Last but not least, we have one of our most valuable but often difficult to execute types of career exploration, which is all the ways we can learn about a career by spending time in a workplace. 

Whether it is a one-day field trip to see how a space operates, a regular excursion for a work-based learning program, or a special internship, learning how a job really works and what it is like to be in a workspace are experiences that cannot easily be replicated by other means! 

While it may not be possible to match every student to their individual career preference due to the logistical complexity of making on-the-job learning opportunities happen, experiencing a real workspace can be a valuable experience in its own right, both for learning about a particular job and for establishing the types of connections in the community that can make finding work much easier.

One reality of many of the skills we teach in school is that they can be highly applicable to future jobs, but we do not always treat them that way. So what constitutes career exploration in a skill development context? We will be taking a closer look in Parts 3 and 4.

We hope this post has offered some helpful frameworks for different types of career exploration and what types of career exploration you may want to choose based on your students’ needs. In Part 2, we will be taking a closer look at career exploration lessons, and in the meantime, if you would like to share your own experience with the career exploration process at school, then we would love to hear from you at hello@autismgrownup.com.