Who Do You Think You Are?

2What Are Your Interests and Strengths?

It's an age-old debate: Should you pick a course of study based on what you love, or should you pick a course of study based on what you think will improve your career prospects? A quick online search will turn up more than 1 million articles and more than a few books that support one or the other view. But let's be honest: if there were a simple answer, the debate would have been over long ago. The truth is that for most of us, college and career success is about making trade-offs. Those trade-offs could be about timing—taking advantage of short-term opportunities that set you up for long-term success. Or they could be about economics—agreeing to accept lower potential earnings to work in a job you truly love.

To make those trade-offs wisely, we think it makes sense for you and your child to think about what she loves, what she's good at, and what work means to her. Understanding each of these in detail will help you find a pathway for college and career that makes sense for her. In this chapter, we start with helping you think about interests and strengths.

Assessing Interests

What do you like to do? It's a simple question, and we think it's a great place to start the conversation. Before we get to anything more formal, take a few minutes yourself and with your teen to think about what each of you likes to do. Ask yourself what you spend your time doing when you're not being required to do anything at all. Jot down the top five or six ...