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

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.

High schoolers not elementary schoolers

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My daughter and I have begun a project where some high school students can come listen to adults describe their career in somewhat detail, in an effort to help the students choose their career.

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Will they each take turns speaking....if so that seems like a snooze fest for the students.

If you set it up as a job fair you can allow the students to mingle and have interaction with the "guests". Which should make it more interesting for the students.

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

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Got a friend who runs a machine shop in Florida. Mostly CNC now but he still uses a mill and lathe. He pays highschool kids min wage + free lunch if they apprentice with him and if they complete whatever the program is he gives them a huge bonus and helps them find a job. He's gone as far as buying a kid a cheap truck and paying a couple months worth of rent to help him take a job out of town. Last time I spoke with him he was telling me he as a 100% success rate for kids who stick with it and complete his training. One kid did so well in the field he gave my friend $50k to keep help fund more students.

It's pretty cool what can be accomplished with strong community leadership. It takes a village, right?

I'll add that when you actually speak to a room full of kids, especially about careers they don't understand, be careful how you phrase things. Try to be basic and add factoids that will capture their interest.

For example: I am a specification analyst for a manufacturing engineering team (snooze). We design self propelled crop sprayers with a 600 gallon tank-- big enough to hold over 9000 milk cartons from the cafeteria! (Applause!)

I think it's also important to explain to kids how a specific career path impacts the world in a positive way. Kids like to be inspired and want to do a job that they feel in important in society.

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I'm hoping to force feed them some ideas that they previously didn't consider.

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In my experience with teenagers...when you try and force feed them something...you lose their attention.

I think you would have more success letting them mingle around and listen to what peaks their interest.

It will also be much easier to schedule the professions to set up their exhibit than trying to schedule their time to speak.

Also, you might think about a go fund me to make it free for students and could also provide some refreshments. That would also provide funds for advertising.

Just my opinion, Good Luck with it.

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I'll add that when you actually speak to a room full of kids, especially about careers they don't understand, be careful how you phrase things. Try to be basic and add factoids that will capture their interest.

For example: I am a specification analyst for a manufacturing engineering team (snooze). We design self propelled crop sprayers with a 600 gallon tank-- big enough to hold over 9000 milk cartons from the cafeteria! (Applause!)

I think it's also important to explain to kids how a specific career path impacts the world in a positive way. Kids like to be inspired and want to do a job that they feel in important in society.

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Great thoughts, VS.

I'll integrate those those thoughts into my "Speaker Info Sheet".

Shoot me an email if you feel like speaking to our group sometime!

Stormy Daniels.

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I'm planning for 3 speakers per meeting, 15-25 minutes per speaker. I'll see how it goes, might have time to squeeze in a 4th speaker.

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How many hours per meeting?

With 15-25 minute blocks, you can do 3 speakers in 2 hours with a 15 minute break in between one of those blocks.

4 speakers will probably be close to 2 hours but you will probably go over the 2 hour mark by around 5-7 minutes.


Also, from a speaker standpoint....15-25 minutes is not a lot of time and is really easy to go over for good speakers.

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.