Parents

• College Student and Career Path
• Career Services Center Help
• Resources
• Parents of Teenagers
• Middle Schooler and Career Path
• Frequently Asked Questions

Your College Student

You remember teaching your child how to tie their shoe laces. You held your breath hoping that everything would be okay when you sent them off to summer camp for the first time. You hoped they would choose the right friends and worried when they were late for curfew.  You may be thinking now that your child is an adult and off at college what more do they need from you?  The answer is “a lot.”  Your students will need career advice.  Parents have life experience and can point to problems they have encountered both on the job search and the job itself.

Here are some tips to help you:

• Encourage your student to create career goals, as well as develop a concrete and strategic plan of how to obtain those goals.
• Students and graduates need to be informed about their majors and prospective fields and share this information with their parents.
• Career decisions can be overwhelming. Encourage your student and give them the time and space to make their own decisions.
• Ask your student about the kinds of careers they are considering and do not worry if it is accounting one day and nursing the next. They're thinking things over and imagining themselves in different roles. Encourage them to take this exploration a bit further. Help them learn more about these choices. Find out why these careers are attractive to them and look at other careers they may not have considered that could offer similar rewards.
• Encourage your student to think about the educational path they will need to follow to pursue the careers they're considering. Will they need to take certain subjects to keep these options open? What kind of post-secondary education will they need? Will they need a graduate degree? Where is the program offered and how long does it take to complete?
• Know where you and your student can go to explore options or get more information. A great place to start is SCSU’s Career Services Center website: www.stcloudstate.edu/careerservices. This web site offers up-to-date career information, links to career and personality assessment tests and complete information to help students research careers.