If you have a teen who has recently graduated from high school or who will be graduating within the next year or two, you might make arrangements for them to meet with a career coach. Many grads hope to go to college, but they also have a limited scope of what they will actually study when they get there. Career coaching can provide a number of the following benefits for your high-school graduate:

1. Increased scope of possible careers.

Many young adults who graduate from high school have an idea of what kinds of jobs will be open to them after getting more education at the college level. However, these careers are usually limited to ones they have been exposed to. For example, many students automatically default to "known" career choices, such as being a doctor, lawyer, nurse, or teacher. However, meeting with a career coach can help them see the other jobs they might never have thought of or known about, such as being a physician assistant, ultrasound technician, construction manager, content producer, or graphic designer. 

2. Understanding of what a career might actually be like.

Furthermore, some students have an idea of what a career will be like, but their knowledge only comes from second-hand experience. For example, a student might like the idea of becoming a police officer without realizing that a large portion of an officer's time is spent at a desk doing the necessary paperwork. A career coach can set up job-shadowing opportunities for students to get a feel of what it is like to actually work in the job they are interested in pursuing. This way, they don't spend thousands on training only to enter the workforce to discover they hate their job. 

3. Knowledge of different fields related to the type of education and interests your student might have. 

Some students can feel discouraged because, even though they find something interesting, they might feel as if they don't have the smarts or the skills to pursue it as a career. For example, a student might love to learn about biology and the body, but they can't stand to look at an open wound. The idea of being a doctor is fascinating but impossible. A career coach can help a student to see what other career paths lie within the scope of their interests. For example, the student who can't see themselves cutting open skin might enjoy becoming a lab technician who runs tissue samples to check for pathogens.