California CareerZone is great for allowing students to explore occupations and colleges to narrow down their choices, but it doesn't make decisions for them. Their decision will ultimately depend on many factors and discussing these with your child can help them tremendously.

Once your student has completed an initial exploration, they will be able to show you their exploration summary. As we mentioned earlier, it will have the occupations and colleges your student rated, results of their assessments, and even their journal entries. Look through it asking yourself if this summary seems like a good fit. If there are things you are unfamiliar with, feel free to visit California CareerZone again to do more research. We also include some suggestions for more information, outside of the system, where you can delve even deeper into the subject.

As a final check, you can chat with them about their top choices. In addition to finding out why they feel they want to pursue those career options, it can be helpful to share your history to make the process more personal and human. Your child may want to ask you questions like:

• What do you like about your job, what things do you wish you had known when you picked your career?
• Did you go to college? If so, what were the ups and downs?
• Did you consider any of the colleges or occupations on their list? Do you have any stories or wisdom to impart?
• Do any of their choices seem like a longshot? Do you have any experience with that - either positive or negative that you can relate?