Career Planning & Goal Setting By Carina N. Lindsey

Career Counseling  Helps students develop attitudes for planning their careers and for exploring careers.  Helps students with self reflection  Helps with restructuring their beliefs,  Helps deepening their personalities to answer the big question of “Who am I?”

Who Am I? Activity  Form groups of 2  Ask these questions:  Who Am I?  Who do I pretend to be?  Who I think you are?

Career Planning  Most high school and college programs for gifted students focus mainly on their academic needs.  Stages of Career Awareness and Maturity  Decision making  Development of identity  Exploration

Career Awareness  Additional Psychosocial issues  Asynchrony  Early cognitive maturation  Moral sensitivity  Emotional giftedness  Multipotentiality  Perfectionalism  Stress from high expectations of significant others

Career Indecision  Multipotentiality  Lack of decision-making skills  Pressure to make the perfect career choice  Delaying decision making about career choices  Frequent changes in majors  May result in being the professional student or disappointed college dropout.

Career Maturity  Gifted students are more certain of career choices earlier than other students  This may limit the further exploration of career possibilities.

Suggested Activities  Job site visits  Classroom speakers  Job Shadowing  Dress-up Day  Career Portfolios  Job/Career Fairs  College Prep/ Recruiters  Internships

Goal Setting  Few gifted students are good goal setters  Most do what they are told or what is expected of them

Goal Setting Guidelines  Make your goals specific  Keep goals realistic  Include enjoyment among your goals  Don’t set too many goals at once  Be prepared to achieve some of your goals but not all of them  Revise goals as circumstances change

Goal Setting Guidelines  Be honest with yourself  Trust your intuition  Practice, Practice, Practice  Share your goals with a friend  Be prepared to hold fast to our convictions  Don’t compare yourself to anyone but yourself.

Remember  Guidance Counselors are not the only adults responsible for career education for gifted students  Career Planning should start before high school  Students need time to explore and sort through their interests and abilities.

Holland Code  Used in a variety of career assessments  Occupational Codes:  Realistic :Things  Investigative: Things and Ideals  Artistic : Ideals and People  Social: People  Enterprising: Data and People  Conventional: Data and Things

Group Activity  Choose three careers that relate to your Holland Code and your interests  Research these Careers  Present to the group your top interests

References Neihart, M., Reis, S. M., Robinson, N. M., & Moon, S. M. (2002).The social and emotional development of gifted children. p Galbraith, J., Delise, J. (1996). The Gifted Kids’ Survival Guide. A Teen Handbook. p A Year of School Counseling. Youth Light, Inc. November: Career Development