Free What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles, Carol Christen, Jean M. Blomquist Page A

learn good skills for finding work they’ll love.

In high school, I wish I’d known there were more options beyond doctor, lawyer, or businessperson. I also wish I’d known that you never have to choose what you are going to do forever. You can always change.
—ALICE PRAGER, marketing manager, age 29

    If your school has a community service requirement for graduation, look for ways in which you can both serve your community and explore your career interests. For example, if you’re interested in being a social worker, perhaps you can fulfill your requirement by volunteering at a social service agency and developing a mentor program for refugee students from different countries. Or if you’re interested in politics, perhaps you could work with the Registrar of Voters and help set up a program to register students who have just reached voting age.
    Extracurricular Activities
    Besides being fun and a great way to make friends, extracurricular activities can also help you explore career possibilities and develop valuable skills. Band, choir, drama, sports, service- or interest-based clubs (for example, language, math, business, teaching), student government, and other activities can provide opportunities to test out your interests and hone your skills. For example, if you think you’d like to teach music, perhaps your band or choir director would let you rehearse a new piece of music with the freshman choir or band. Or if you’d like to be an accountant, taking on the responsibilities of treasurer for a club would allow you to track income and expenditures, create a budget, collect dues, and so on. If you’re active in drama, perhaps you could write and direct a one-act play. Serving as an officer of a club, a class, or the student body will help you develop both leadership and people skills.
    If you have a particularly supportive and encouraging teacher, club adviser, band or choir director, coach, or other faculty member in an extracurricular activity, talk with that person. Ask what you can do to learn more about jobs related to that activity and how you can develop skills that could be valuable in the work world.
    Part-Time or Summer Work
    You may get conflicting messages about whether or not you should work while you’re in high school. Some people, like economist Steve Hamilton, believe you should put all your energy into your studies and get good grades. According to Dr. Hamilton, “Students get more long-term benefit from improving their grades than they do from a job at Arby’s. Employers are looking for signals that a young person is motivated and ambitious. Grades are one signal.”
    Other people believe that working part-time or in the summer can help you develop important time-management, social, and job skills as well as a sense of responsibility. In some cases, family financial circumstances may require that you work while in high school. If you want or need to work, use your job to develop skills that you can use elsewhere. Even better, find a job in one of the areas you’re most interested in, if possible. For example, if you work in a fast-food outlet, develop valuable skills in working with the public. If you have a good supervisor, ask him or her to teach you some basic supervision skills. If you’re interested in child development, look for work at a child care center. Instead of taking a part-time job just to earn money, use it to learn skills that will help you find your dream job in the years to come. In addition, save at least a third of your paycheck if you can. Teenagers typically spend 98 percent of what they earn. Spending beyond our means has gotten our country and its citizens into huge financial messes. If you are able to save one or two thousand dollars from your high school jobs, you’ll have the money for necessary tools—from funding your college textbooks to taking a trip to check out a potential employer or attend a professional conference.
    Savvy Academic Choices
    In high