CAREER PLANNING AND GOAL SETTING COE 8173 By Amelia Treptow Summer 2011

Career Counseling for the Gifted  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?”

 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 Planning

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

Activity! Multiple Intelligences Survey

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

When Should Gifted Children Begin Preparing for College?  Seventh and eighth grades  Self-awareness, time management, work/study skills, and career awareness  Ninth and tenth grades  Decision making and goal setting  Eleventh and twelfth grades  Practical aspects of college and career planning, including the college application process, exposure to occupations and job internships, and mentor relationships

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

Interest tests  Kuder - Career Planning System  Myers Briggs Type Indicator - The most widely used personality assessment in the world  Self Directed Search - PRINTED Form R (English), Form R (Spanish), Form R (English Canadian), Form E, Form CE, & Form CP or INTERNET Versions  Strong Interest Inventory - the most respected and widely used career planning instrument in the world

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

RealisticArtistic ConventionalSocial Enterprising Investigative Activity!

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.

References  Clark, B. (2008). Growing up gifted: Developing the potential of children at home and at school. pp Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.  Neihart, M., Reis, S. M., Robinson, N. M., and Moon, S. M. (2002).The social and emotional development of gifted children. pp Washington, DC: Prufrock Press, Inc.  Whittmer, J., Thompson, D., and Loesch, L. (2000). Classroom guidance activities: A sourcebook for elementary school counselors. pp Minneapolis, MN: Educational Media Corporation. 