How to Build Your Career Strategy as A High School Student
When I was in high school, my career strategy was to play in the Major Leagues for the New York Yankees or in the NBA.
*Spoiler Alert*: That didn’t happen.
Instead, I left high school with the plan of wanting to do something in sports and knowing it wasn’t going to be playing because I had gotten cut from both the baseball and basketball teams in my junior year.
I tell this story because if you’re a high school student I want you to have a better career strategy during your four years. Sure, it’s okay to dream big, but also, it’s good to be realistic.
How can you do this?
You’re in the right place to learn.
What You’ll Get from Reading This Article
· Learn what a career strategy is.
· Understand why a career strategy is important for high school students.
· Get familiar with the steps to building a career strategy as a high school student
What is the Definition of a Career Strategy
To quote a blog we posted on The 5 Foundations of a Career Strategy, “Merriam-Webster's dictionary does not provide a specific definition for "career strategy." However, the term generally refers to a deliberate and well-thought-out plan or approach that an individual develops to achieve their long-term career goals.
Now that we understand what a career strategy is, let’s dive into why it’s important for high school students.
Why is a Career Strategy Important for High School Students
· Clarity: Helps students identify their strengths, interests, and potential career paths early.
· Goal Setting: Encourages setting realistic short-term and long-term academic and career goals.
· Skill Development: Guides students to build the right skills through extracurriculars, internships, and courses.
· Confidence: Boosts decision-making confidence when choosing majors, colleges, or career options.
· Competitive Edge: Prepares students to stand out in college applications and job markets.
So, we understand why a career strategy is, why it’s important right? The only thing left to do is to go through the steps of building a career strategy for high school students.
How to Build a Career Strategy for High School Students
Step 1: Discover Your Strengths, Interests, and Values
This step is where the journey starts….
Finding what’s most important to you.
At this age, there is really nothing that should be left off the table. The important part here is actually keeping track of it. You can break this first step down into three questions:
1. What are you good at?
2. What do you like to do?
3. What’s important to you?
These are three questions that should all have answers to them by the time you are getting ready to graduate at the latest.
The beautiful thing about these questions is that they can stay the same or change however you want them to.
For me, if I had answered these back in high school, I probably would have said something like:
1. I’m good at sports and being funny.
2. I like hanging out with my friends, playing sports, watching sports and the WWE.
3. Family and friends are important to me and also getting good grades.
Based off this, doing something in sports probably made sense at the time because I was really into it.
The point here is to be able to do some self-reflection and understand yourself. As a high school student, you probably don’t spend much time in silence, and this is key for this portion when developing your career strategy.
Step 2: Explore Career Options That Align with Your Passions
Once you’ve made it past Step 1, Step 2 is where you start taking some action. Also, note that there is no timeline on when you should have Step 1 completed by (although I’d say it’s a god idea to be done with it before you graduate)
Step 2 should be fun though because this is where you start looking for jobs in the real world that match what you came p with in Step 1.
There are a couple things that you should keep in mind here:
1. In most states, the legal working age is 16, so if you’re a freshman your options might be a little limited.
2. Unless you need help support a single parent home, you should really shoot for the stars and take big chances when it comes to looking for jobs in your interest area.
Me for example, I did not really take many risks in high school, I spent a summer working at a law office. If you remember my answers from Step 1, none of them would have made you think that I should have any business working in a law firm. But I did, and it was terribly, terribly, boring…shockingly.
Anyway, I can’t stress enough the importance of taking chances because at your age, besides school you don’t have many responsibilities, stopping you from taking chances.
Step 3: Set SMART Career Goals to Stay on Track
You did your self-reflection and landed your first part-time job in an area you’re interested in. Congratulations.
At this point, you can start setting some goals for yourself (if you haven’t already). If you need help with setting goals, check out this article that can help you get started.
You are probably asking, what are smart goals?
S – SPECIFIC
M – MEASURABLE
A – ACTIONABLE
R – RELEVANT
T – TIME SENSITIVE
Let’s give a quick example of someone who might be on Step 3 like you and how they can set a SMART goal.
Jim is 17 years old and realized after some self-reflection that he’s really passionate about making pizza and wants to do something involving making pizza. In the summer of his junior year of high school, he gets a job as a waiter at his local pizza place.
Jim has been working there for a year and now wants to set a SMART goal for himself. He decides that in 5 years he wants to be the manager of the pizza place (being second in charge under the owner).
This goal checks all the boxes when it comes to a SMART goal, and after working hard for 4 years, he reaches his goal and is now the top dog at Napoli’s pizza.
Step 4: Build Key Skills and Gain Real-World Experience
As a high school student, you have a great opportunity to learn as much as you can. Being able to find mentors and coaches should be at the top of your priority list. They will help you build the skills necessary to succeed in the jobs you are targeting.
Here’s how you can do it.
1. Offer FREE labor: This sounds extreme, but let’s say you’re Jim from our last example and you really want to get good at making pizza but have no experience, offer free labor in return for learning how to make pizza. Sweep the floors, clean tables, take out trash, do what you gotta do so when it’s slow, Mr. Napoli will call you over and take 20 minutes to show you, his recipes.
2. Find a friend’s parents: Maybe you think you want to be a lawyer. In high school, you have access to lots of friends and maybe one of them has a mom or dad w’o's a lawyer. It’s your opportunity to ask to follow them around for a day or wo to learn about what they do and how they do it. Usually, people are more than happy to talk about themselves and how they got where they are.
With all the time on your side, learn as many skills as you can that will help you succeed in your industry. Take my word for it, once you get some responsibility under your belt in the form of kids and a family to support, the free time you’ll have to build your skills will slowly disappear unless you find time in the early mornings or late nights.
Step 5: Stay Flexible, and Adapt to New Opportunities
The key to a great career strategy is thability to be flexible and adapt to change.
Let me give you an example from my career journey.
After I realized I wasn’t making t to the NBA or MLB, I majored in Sport Management (a terrible major we can talk about in a different blog). I spent my freshman and sophomore years of college at Seton Hall University, thinking maybe I could work for a sports team. I realized quickly, most jobs in sports had to do with ticket sales, customer service or facility management; not my interest.
I made a change.
After volunteering at the radio station on campus, I fell in love with radio. I spent my junior and senior years doing as much as I could at the station, from news reporting to DJing. It was great. It also came at a time, in 2010, when whispers of podcasting were starting.
Fast forward a few years where I was doing local news at an AM radio station (I’m not even sure how to explain what AM is on the radio< ask your parents). I quickly realized the radio industry was rapidly changing, so once again, I made a change.
Maybe you’ll pick a career path that is stable, and you want to have to make dramatic changes, but you should be prepared to make changes on your journey. It will most likely improve your career and get you more money when the time is right.
Taking Your career Strategy to the Next Level
After reading this, you should at least have a better idea of how to build a career strategy than before you read this. Take it one step at a time and don’t rush yourself. Do it at the pace that feels right for you.
If you need help along the way, your friends at Your Career Strategy can help. Make sure your parents are on board, and click here to book a free call with one of our Career Strategists who will help guide you on your career path.