FAQs for Parents
College is costly enough as it is. Why should parents invest in career planning?
Research shows that just 1-in-4 of this year’s college freshmen will have a degree in 4 years. (educationdata.org, 2021). This sobering statistic is largely attributable to switching majors, transferring schools, and career uncertainty. Investing in professional career planning and helping students find direction faster than trial-and-error can lead to huge tuition savings for parents in the long run. Even one additional year at a private college at an average of $38,000, and the loss of a first job’s salary at $50,000 represents an additional financial liability of $88,000. Professional career planning costs far less. It’s like an insurance policy to help protect your investment in college.
Continue reading →What is Career Vision?
Career Vision℠ is a non-profit career planning organization that helps individuals reach their full potential by gaining the self-knowledge necessary to make satisfying career and educational choices. As part of our mission, Career Vision also offers free “Career Literacy” presentations for groups of parents who want to guide their high school and college age children regarding college major and career decisions. They are the only organization of this kind in the nation.
Continue reading →When should parents talk to their children about career planning?
There is no magic age for discussing career planning with children, but smart parents start early in the game. Parent should encourage middle-school aged children to learn more about their interests and expose them to a range of different jobs and work environments. Helping children to identify their strengths and encouraging them to ask questions is a great first step in introducing career awareness. At the high school level, a career consultant can help identify a teen’s unique talents and recommend career options and work environments that allow that individual to do their best. Career assessments give juniors and seniors information that can be helpful in choosing types of colleges and academic majors.
Continue reading →My student gets help at their high school. What can you do differently?
We actively support the work of school counselors. Unfortunately most have heavy caseloads; the typical counselor is responsible for almost 500 students in a given year. Our sole purpose is to attend to your child and your child alone. In addition to aptitude-based career planning, we also feature customized career portfolios and personalized career consulting to the student and family. We encourage students to share their results and career exploration recommendations with a school counselor, especially when exploring colleges.
Continue reading →- Are these assessments right for me?
Are these assessments right for me?
A cornerstone of our assessment program are aptitude tests. These are individually timed tests which are used to predict the type of skills, tasks, work environments, and jobs that play to your strengths. The timing is an essential part of this measurement and cannot be adapted.
It is important for a prospective client to know that accommodations are not possible. Background factors such as physical or mental impairment, learning disability, ADHD, autism spectrum, or 504/IEP plans may impact the reliability of the results.
If any of these factors are present, and because every situation is unique, please let us know prior to registration so one of our consultants can speak with you to determine if our services would be appropriate and of value.
Continue reading → Who will I talk to about my results? What are their qualifications?
Our career consultants all have a minimum of a master’s degree and are certified to interpret our assessments. Your consultant will meet with you before your Career Consulting Session to tailor your results to your situation.
Continue reading →My son took career-planning tests at school. Why should he go through your program?
Good question. Our career planning model is designed to incorporate the best assessments and the individual attention necessary to help you understand how to integrate and use the assessment results to make good career decisions.
Typically high school and college counselors do the best they can with their many, varied responsibilities. The time they can commit to each student is limited to course selection, college applications and other issues. For career guidance they typically use self-report assessment instruments that focus on interests and personal preferences. They often provide students with reports and provide a group summary about what the results mean. Their perspective on abilities comes from student grades and performance on standardized academic tests and your child’s personal estimation of their talents. Self-estimates of abilities are shown to be less accurate than objective measures, such as the Ball Aptitude Battery®.
Continue reading →