It is estimated that the vast majority of people on this planet do not lead successful happy lives.
In fact, by all estimations, 99% never obtain anywhere close to the success and happiness that they set out to achieve early on in their careers.
Most people get to their forties and feel stuck, unfulfilled, not even sure how or why they are in the career that they are in.
Worse still, they do not know how to change careers or find fulfillment in their careers.
There are reasons for this, but let’s explore the typical approach to career planning and why it is not working.
The typical high school student who plans to go to college does so by the following approach:
1. Pick a college based on one of the four or five following criteria
- Go to a college within 30 miles of my home
- Go to the college my parents went to
- It has my favorite college sports team
- Go to the college my boyfriend, girlfriend or best friend is going to
- Go to Community College because you have no better idea yet!
2. Then, pick a major that maybe they have thought about growing up, or start attending as “undecided” or “undeclared” – the colleges will love you for the undecided approach… hmmm
3. May end up changing “majors” one or more times (read- increased cost and timeframe)
4. Then hope that it is a marketable major and they can find employment in this chosen field.
5. Then hope that they like the career and do not feel “stuck” or frustrated with their job or chosen profession
6. Finding the right major, but ending up in the wrong position in a career, e.g. a person who pursued an RN degree, ends up in a doctor’s office, but is better suited to be a surgical nurse. Both positions have the same degree.
So they start out basically guessing and hope that their guessing will result in a happy and fulfilling career. I think that there is a better way.
Birkman Assessment
The Birkman Assessment is the most advanced in-depth behavior assessment tool that we know of. It covers over 70 areas of human development and is the basis for knowing yourself.
It is the foundation block for finding the best fit career.
There are three components to it if you complete it with a certified Birkman Consultant who specializes in career assessment.
It is a simple online assessment link. It will take the student about 45 minutes to an hour to complete.
There is a student suitability form that is completed that basically covers the main points of their high school experience such as GPA, coursework, sports, volunteer activity, personal goals and so forth.
The results of the Birkman Assessment along with the student assessment are combined.
This is to give the student an extremely accurate and well-defined plan to find the best fit career in the best possible way that will meet their own behavioral strengths.
Understand that the result will be an assessment that has three components:
- The actual Birkman report that is over 50 pages in length and covers over 70 points of human development that show the student their own particular strengths, stress points, weaknesses, and needs.
- A companion report that matches the results of the Birkman Assessment and the Student suitability to the best-fit careers with some of the best-fit college’s design to obtain the best fit career.
- A one-hour coaching session designed to help the student understand it all and put it all together.
The best place to get all of this accomplished is by going to Learning Enrichment and Assistance Program. This program has been used by thousands of students.
It is proven to be the most successful program for finding your best fit career in the best possible way.