Ideas for "Career" speakers for hi school students in the BR area? Update Pg 3

Contact professional associations and ask them to send out an email to their members. I get emails to speak at high schools every year.

Find people from all sorts of backgrounds like businessmen, doctors, and skilled trades.

I've done this sort of thing at local schools for my last two companies. The best advice I can give is that kids have no clue what range of career disciplines are out there.

Today's job market is so diverse and specialized, that kids need to be exposed to careers that they probably don't know exist before they piss away their first two years of college majoring in English because they think that they need to be an attorney.

Also, don't aim too high. Kids might enjoy a speech from a dentist, for example, but what about the 20 admins that also work in that office? Those kids are exponentially more likely to fill one of those roles after school.

My $0.02

I actually get a few requests for this kind of thing each year, so it shouldn't really be a shock to anyone that you ask.

in my experience, kids really like to see short demonstrations of practical skills...basically, things that they can put their hands on.

for instance, you may want to get a firefighter to come in to demonstrate some of his gear...or a police officer to bring in his drug dog.

what you are really looking for are speakers in fields who have a good mix of office work and field work...maybe get an engineer who pushes projects to come in with a bunch of material samples or something like that.

Stormy Daniels.

For this, I have 2 ideas-

1- either educate yourself to speak, or find someone qualified to speak on helping them make the decision on going to college or not. Hiring blue collar/trade speakers will help, but kids need to understand the dedication, cost, and effort of college. Most 17 year olds can't comprehend that college is going to basically be 1/4 of their entire life up to that point. Remind them how long ago it was at 12 yrs old to now and that's how long it takes to graduate college. Just real life perspective.

2- talk to recruiting services. Get in touch with laid off/out of work professionals. Speaking like this is a great resume builder and they aren't working anyway. It could be a good networking possibility. Recruiters themselves can also be good speakers as they have a good grasp on those careers that they recruit for. They can also speak to pay, education level, writing resumes, key resume builders, etc. It's also an incentive for recruiters as free advertising to a new crop into the workforce.

"How to Be an OT Baller on a High Scholl Education"
by Chicken Motivation Speakers LLC

Do y'all's guidance counselors in your kid's high school just totally suck? Ours coordinate events like this three or four times per year for free, it's in their job description. School foots the bill for everything.

Eta: and the school gets positive PR exposure for doing its job, too.
Props if you're doing this out of the kindness of your heart.