By Mr. Speakman

“I’m only in high school. [Maybe even middle school.] I don’t need to start worrying about a Career yet. Right?”

Worrying? No. But when it comes to choosing a career, even middle school isn’t too early to start thinking, dreaming, and even planning.

The good news is that the first step in choosing a career is also the most fun, because the first question to ask is, what would I enjoy doing? Someone once said, “Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Maybe there’s a subject in school that really appeals to you; say, social studies or science. Either field—as well as every other subject in school—offers lots of great job possibilities. Or, maybe you have a favorite hobby or extracurricular activity that could be grown into a career. But choosing something you will like doing is important, because think about it: on average, you will spend a full third of your life at a job.

The next question to ask might be, will a given career make enough money? Everyone has their own definition of “enough.” Whether it’s riches beyond the dreams of avarice you’re after, or simply owning a small home someday, being able to keep up a little savings, and perhaps taking a modest little vacation now and then, you’ll want to choose a career that can pay for your goals.

Those two questions—which career would I enjoy, and would it make enough money—are the obvious ones. And they’re questions you’ll want to ask at least by your second year in college. But there are two other questions that are just as important, but that even a lot of grownups don’t think to ask. They are: what are this career’s job prospects?, and, what is this career’s mobility?

Let’s talk about what those two questions mean.

What are this career’s job prospects?— “Job prospects” means, will the number of jobs in this career field grow or shrink in the coming years? You might not want a career that, over time, has more and more people competing for fewer and fewer jobs. So consider choosing a career field that’s growing. Just as importantly, you should ask, how many jobs does this career field already have right now? For example, maybe you’ve seen all the great action flicks featuring archaeologists—from the Indiana Jones franchise on down through Lara Croft Tomb Raider, The Mummy, and National Treasure. You’re sold. You have found your life’s vocation. But then you look up how many jobs are actually out there for intrepid treasure-hunting types, and you discover that—ouch!—nationwide, there are only 8,500 jobs in archaeology and anthropology combined.

Again, ouch: that’s not a lot of job prospects. That means that you could spend six years working hard in college for the required Master’s degree, not to mention all the money those six years of college will cost, only to find out that those few jobs are already taken, and nobody’s retiring anytime soon. Compare that to two other careers that make around the same amount of money that archeologists make (actually, a little more), and require only a Bachelor’s degree, which means only four—not six—years of college. One such career field is special effects artists and animators, a field that currently has 62,400 jobs. That’s seven times the number of archeologist jobs. Or how about a career as a registered nurse? Currently, across America, there are over three million Registered Nurse Jobs, more than 350 times the number of archeologist jobs. It’s likely that more than a few of those three million registered nurse jobs will be open and ready for applicants on your college graduation day.

Lastly, what is this career’s mobility?— This simply means, where do you want to live, and how stuck do you want to be with your decision? For example, if you might someday want to live in Arizona, a landlocked state that’s mostly desert and mountains, you’ll probably want to choose some career other than underwater welder or commercial deep-sea fisherman.

You can start exploring careers, and get fast answers to all of those big questions and more, right this second. Just go to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, here: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/. Happy exploring!