For Students: A fulfilling and successful life
"...a tremendous resource for discovering the right career."
- Connecticut Department of Higher Education
If you want to have a fulfilling and successful life, the traditional
methods of selecting a career will probably not get you
there the way Rockport will.
The usual method of selecting
a career goes something like this:
During your junior
year of high school, the tribal elders, consisting
of your parents and your guidance counselor, initiate you into
ancient secrets learned over many generations. They whisper
the secret in your ear: “Start to think about what you might
want to do.” You don’t
notice that this meager advice might be insufficient to plan a
brilliant future. You begin your quest. That night you try to follow
their sage advice. You “think about what you might want to
do.” Perhaps some ideas for potential careers appear out
of the mist or come to you in a dream. Perhaps they don’t.
You get no really useful guidance from school guidance counselors,
who just don't have the time or the tools to help you understand
which careers would be the best fit with your natural, inborn
talents, aptitudes and personality traits.
Much later, you
find yourself in a line at college. You are queued up to pick
a major. You remember
the mantra, “Start to think
about what you may want to do.” By the time you reach the
head of the line you decide. Years later you tell friends
that your major in Polynesian philosophy “seemed like a good
idea at the time.” Years pass. Like the majority of college
graduates, you are in a career that has nothing
to do with your college major. “Well,” you say, “It seemed like a
good idea at the time.”
If you are a student, you may think that we are exaggerating.
We wish we were. Ask some mid-career people you know how many of
their friends really love the work they do and how many are hit-and-run victims of the traditional career selection process. Look
closely. You will know them by the tire tracks across their souls.
Here are the results of two surveys done by
Rockport Institute: More than 70% of successful
professionals surveyed thought they could have done a much better
job of making decisions
about their careers. They said that they
had not known how to go about making choices in a competent
way.
In another survey, 64% of college seniors questioned
said they had serious doubts that they had picked the right
major.
 Here's what we recommend for students
For more information: 301-340-6600 or pathfinder@rockportinstitute.com |
