Picture a sophomore sitting across from her school counselor, looking at the results of her first career interest assessment. “Marketing” sits at the top of the list, and she grins. “That makes sense. I’m always the one making videos and posts for our soccer team’s social media.” Her counselor opens the pathway, and the two of them scroll through it together: social media manager, yes, but also content strategist, video producer, brand manager, and market research analyst, careers she hadn’t realized were connected to something she already loves doing. Ten minutes later, she has three occupations saved and a question for her digital media teacher.
Here is what we want every teacher and counselor to know: career exploration doesn’t need its own class period, its own budget, or its own program. It happens in the small moments when a student connects who they are to what they could do. The more of those moments we create, the more confident students become.
High school is when career exploration becomes career preparation. Students start making real choices about which courses to take, which experiences to pursue, and what comes after graduation. Those choices carry more weight than ever. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of key skills to change by 2030. Students don’t need one perfect answer. They need the habit of exploring.
Exploration also pays off after graduation. As Christina Hlas explains in The Sticker Price Isn’t the Price You Pay, students who start college with a clear direction are more likely to stick with their program, finish on time, and borrow less. Every activity below helps students build that direction while they are still in your classroom.
Below are six activities recommended to support career exploration, planning, and preparation for high school students.
Start with self-knowledge, then move to job research based on recommendations. Ninth graders are curious about themselves, and using research-based assessments as the foundation for career exploration gives them language for what they already sense.
Have students complete the Kuder Career Interests Assessment, Kuder Skills Confidence Assessment, and Super’s Work Values Inventory-revised in Kuder Navigator. Then give them one class period to research three suggested occupations. Students can explore more than 1,000 occupations, each with details on salary, education requirements, and common tasks. Encourage them to start with occupations that show up in more than one assessment’s results.
Before you start
Every student can talk to someone who does the work, and that one conversation often teaches more than an hour of reading. Help each student choose one occupation from their saved list and find a professional in that field: a family friend, a local business owner, a coach, or an alum. Counselors can keep a short list of community volunteers for students who need a connection.
A 15-minute call or video chat can be telling. Time and time again, our team has seen a single conversation reshape a student’s plans: a tenth grader interested in architecture learns that a local drafter started at a community college and spends more time in design software than sketching, and suddenly two new courses appear in her education plan.
Informational interviews are a gift to the professional too, who gets to share their story with a future member of their field.
Questions to help students prepare
This is where every class becomes a career class. You don’t need a new unit. Take a project you already teach and give students a professional role.
Imagine a chemistry teacher opening a titration lab by saying, “Today you are quality control analysts at a beverage company. Your job is to confirm this batch meets the label.” Students complete the same lab they would have done anyway, but they leave knowing a real job title and what that work feels like.
A few more ideas to borrow:
Close with two quick reflection questions: Did this work energize you? Would you like to learn more about this career? If the answer is yes, students can save the occupation in Navigator.
Students often discover what they value once they see the numbers. Ask each student to pick a saved occupation, look up its typical salary, and build a monthly budget for life after school: rent for a first apartment, transportation, food, phone, savings, and fun.
When two students with different salaries compare their budgets side by side, the conversation gets real. One realizes she would want a roommate. Another decides flexible hours matter more to him than a bigger paycheck. Neither answer is wrong. The point isn’t to steer students toward the highest salary. It is to help them connect their values, such as security, flexibility, or helping others, to the practical side of a career.
Math and personal finance teachers are a natural fit to lead this activity, and Kuder Navigator includes financial literacy content and activities to support it.
Before you start
Nothing replaces seeing the work in person. Picture a group of juniors touring a regional hospital’s lab, imaging, and IT departments in one morning. On the bus ride back, a student who signed up for nursing says the IT team was her favorite stop. That afternoon, her counselor helps her look up health informatics. One visit opened a door she didn’t know existed.
Offer a range of experiences so every student has a way in, from virtual chats and workplace tours to job shadows and short internships. Advance CTE notes that the strongest work-based learning experiences are co-developed by employers and educators to meet both sides’ needs. Students gain clarity and skills, and employers meet motivated future talent.
Platforms such as Kuder Connect 2 Business help counselors and work-based learning coordinators organize these experiences so every student can participate, not only those with family connections.
Reflection questions for the ride home
By junior year, exploration turns into planning, and students benefit from seeing that most careers have more than one door that leads to it. Have each student choose their top occupation and map at least two routes to it, such as a four-year degree, a two-year program, an apprenticeship, military service, or direct entry with a credential. For each route, they note the time, the cost, and the first step. In Navigator, students can explore majors and see nearby schools that offer them.
Picture a senior who wants to become an electrician drawing two routes on a single page: a registered apprenticeship that starts right after graduation, and a two-year electrical technology program at the local community college. Seeing them side by side, he and his parents have their first detailed conversation about next year.
These activities work best as a sequence, with each year building on the last:
When every step lands in a portfolio, students can look back and see how their thinking has grown. And when teachers and counselors share the work, career exploration stops being one more thing on the calendar and becomes part of how your school teaches.
What are good career exploration activities for high school students? Effective activities include career assessments followed by occupation research, informational interviews, career-connected class projects, budgeting exercises, job shadows and internships, and mapping postsecondary pathways.
How can classroom teachers support career exploration? Teachers can assign professional roles to projects they already teach, name related careers out loud, and add a short reflection at the end. These small moves connect content to careers without adding new units.
Career exploration doesn’t happen in a single assessment or a single conversation. It happens in dozens of small moments across four years, in every classroom and counseling office. Create enough of those moments, and students graduate with something more valuable than a list of jobs: the confidence to know where they’re headed.
Ready to help your students explore careers with confidence? Learn how Kuder Navigator can support your school or district. Contact our team.
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