Nutshell: In this 5-minute read you will understand why college is NOT a place where a student is going to figure out who they really are, and the Personality Expert career guidance professional you need to use BEFORE your student goes to college.
Technology is rapidly expanding the warehouse of educational options. But it is also creating a dizzying amount of choices as a student anywhere in the world has access to 1,000’s of college courses, online credentials or certifications. Students are faced with an Amazon warehouse amount of aisles of educational options to walk through, and the vast majority of students are lost quickly.
How lost is the typical college student today? Valid statistics reveal that – on average – students change their major approximately six times! A key reason is students typically have far less than deep self-knowledge about what I call their “Sweet Spot”; that area where a student’s deepest values, lasting passions, natural aptitudes, and environmental preferences intersect.
Lack of reliable career guidance methods: Amidst working in the trenches with over 1000 people over 15 years, I developed a cutting edge rigorously methodological process called Precisely Engineered Career Guidance™ (PECG). This is a 10-step process which provides students with a way to turn themselves out so thoroughly that they can recognize the full diversity of occupations which tap into each student’s Sweet Spot. My process goes far beyond traditional superficial career guidance methods. See more details below. See my scientific training here.
Most students never go through a rigorous career guidance method like PECG. This is one reason why one of the most common regrets people have at the end of their life is choosing the wrong career!
Typically, people go to college with various ideas about themselves that are not rooted in any kind of scientifically rigorous process leading to Deep Intelligence. And since the typical caseload for college advisor is approximately 400 students, there is no time for a college student to receive in-depth career guidance. College advisors help students choose courses.
Typical “lost in the maze” college experience: College student hit a bunch of dead ends as they change majors, result in life-changing debt for parents. Many of whom dip into their retirement savings just to help their child graduate college. The largest debt for American families, right behind house mortgage, it is college tuition. It is no secret that college tuition costs have skyrocketed to the point where even families with higher socioeconomic status cannot afford college. Is there a good return on this investment (ROI)? No. The problem is, in a globally competitive economy, the college degree is not even a distinguisher anymore. The real distinguisher now is either a sought after credential or certification, or a higher level graduate degree.
Just ask companies themselves, who are so fed up with the big gap between education and what they want from employees, that an increasing trend is companies creating curriculums and then giving them to schools. For many years, colleges, like the great Titanic, did not adeptly evolve to keep up with an ever faster pace of evolution in the world of occupations, but rather plowed ahead on a fatal course of more of the same. The result is now higher education institutions are all trying to offer the cheapest online courses because they are trying to play catch up with non-university institutions that are offering courses and credentials for much less than $930.00 per credit hour.
How to navigate the sharky higher education waters? Find a true personality expert who conducts a rigorous career guidance process, so your students (or your) Sweet Spot is clearly identified.
Typical career guidance processes are Superficial Career Assessment Methodologies – or SCAMs. Here are ways to identify a SCAM:
— the career guidance counselor tells you all you have to do is take a personality test, and then your personality typology will clarify what careers are best for you. As the personality expert, I know this to be ridiculous mythology.
— The career guidance counselor does not utilize a rich combination of deep interviewing of you with integration from credible personality assessment tools. As my research team and I have conducted a global review of career guidance methods, we have been unable to identify one could thorough career guidance process. My PECG™ method ensures people are truly turned inside out.
— An online questionnaire promises to direct you to the careers that will fit you best. There is no online process that my research team and I have been able to identify which can reliably lead to accurate career selection. Online measures suffer from superficiality.
— A career guidance counselor tells you that if you take the Myers Briggs Typology Indicator (MBTI), your career direction will become clear. I have used the MBTI for over 15 years, and know measure is only a small piece of a truly rigorous career guidance process.
Enslaving higher education debt is preventable with appropriate planning: Please feel free to contact us if you wish to save thousands of dollars, by going through a rigorously methodological career guidance process that can prove to be a Life Planning tool. PECG is a cost-effective Life Planning tool that creates a precise educational journey allowing the student to intelligently integrate the most cost-effective online credentials or certifications with college or vocational courses.
Start Early – in high school: After mentoring over 1000 students and professionals over the last 15 years, as a published personality expert, I can confidently state that the vast majority of cases a student’s Sweet Spot is clearly identifiable where they are still in high school.
Follow the Money: You will pay about $112,000.00 just for a 4-year undergraduate degree with a public institution. What you need to understand is sending your adolescent to college without having them go through an engineered career guidance process is like putting them in a boat without a rudder and expecting them to navigate to a shore of employment.
What are the smartest parents doing? Investing in an engineered career guidance process, understanding while that process may cost thousands of dollars, it will end up saving the student in the family 100’s of 1,000’s of $$$$$. Paying for engineered career guidance is like paying an insurance policy protecting the family from life-changing debt.
PECG Book Release
I am excited to announce I will be publishing a book on my Precisely Engineered Career Guidance™ this Fall. If you wish to receive an advance copy of this book, please use our contact form.
Related Information & Blogs:
What is Precisely Engineered Career Guidance™
Combating student depression with engineered career guidance
How to find your needle in the haystack of careers
Ensuring College Results in the Discovery of a Lifelong Career