“Jeannie, are you serious? We need to talk to 6th graders about career?”
Yes. And if not in 6th grade, then as soon as possible after that. Why? Because when your child is in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade, his or her brain is growing faster than at any time since infancy.
Whatever you tell your daughter now — whatever she experiences — will imprint on her powerfully, very likely staying with her into high school, college, and adulthood. This is why I am so emphatic about teaching middle schoolers college study strategies like how to use a calendar and how to use the time-saving “quiz and recall method” for college level studying. (You can see the emphatic post I wrote on this subject here.)
What should we be telling middle schoolers about career?
Six things:
1. “Wow; you’ve got some outstanding natural abilities that are going to help you have a great career when you’re an adult!”
2. “When you work hard at activities that develop these abilities, your brain grows by leaps and bounds.”
3. “In the old days college kids used to take random college classes to see what careers they might interested in. Ha ha ha — people don’t do that anymore. That career strategy never really worked anyway — and these days college is way too expensive to do that.”
4. “Nowadays there are great ways to figure out careers you’d be awesome at before you ever even pick colleges to apply to. This will help us make sure you don’t waste any time or money on college classes you won’t ever need.”
5. “Jeannie Burlowski wants students to take 3 specific ‘assessments’ in 10th grade (or as soon as possible after that).
This’ll be easy for you, Honey. You’ll sit down at the computer, answer some fun, interesting questions, and we’ll get printouts telling us what you’re naturally good at, what you’re genuinely interested in, and what your top strengths are based on Gallup research. Then we’ll check the book “Do What You Are” out of the library, and we’ll be able to look at whole lists of jobs you’d be good at. Bam! You’ll be well on your way to having a career you love as an adult.”
Finally, the big one:
6. “Caring deeply about others is the “secret sauce” that leads to the ultimate fulfilled life, regardless of your income level.”
It’s hard for me to really express that very important last point in a little blog post that you read on your phone. To really express to your teen this very important part of the career conversation . . .
Join me for this free live event in Minneapolis April 7th!
Want to learn more about how to help your middle schooler or high schooler get a huge jump-start on college? Bring the kids and join me for a free live event sponsored by Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis. I’m guest speaking for over 40 minutes that night, and I’ll be covering these important topics:
- How can kids as young as 12 create one great scholarship application essay, and then use that same essay over and over again to apply for college scholarships, from middle school all the way through high school and college?
- How can we motivate middle schoolers to want to apply for college scholarships?
- Why is it a brilliant idea for kids as young as 13 to keep track of all of their service work on LinkedIn.com?
- What are the names of the three career assessments that are so important for 10th graders? Where can students take these assessments inexpensively?
- Why is “follow your passion” the worst career advice ever?
- Why are “AP” classes not the best way to earn inexpensive college credit in high school?
- How do co-op college programs provide students with fantastic amounts of work experience — while at the same time providing wealthy families with lucrative, money-saving tax shelters?
- What’s the #1 best way to ensure that a student has a list of killer, fantastic accomplishments on his or her resume before ever graduating from college?
- How is caring deeply about others the “secret sauce” that leads to the ultimate fulfilled life, regardless of your income level?
Plus, there’ll be live Q&A at the end.
Get more information and register for this free event here.
For clear, step-by-step help getting your kids through college debt-free, get your copy of my book:
Important—> It’s a reference book, so nobody reads the whole thing cover to cover. Pick out what you need to read in it using the fast-paced, 10-minute video instructions here.
You can see hundreds of reviews of this book on Amazon by going to:
Read just one chapter of LAUNCH every 1–3 months while your child’s in middle school and high school, and you’ll know every viable strategy for debt-free college at exactly the right time to implement it.
And if your child’s already well past middle school? That’s OK; you can run to catch up. But the process of getting your kids through college debt-free goes more smoothly the earlier you start—especially if you’re not planning to save up any money to pay for college.
Let's you and I walk together toward the goal of debt-free college for your kids.
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Do you have very specific questions for me about debt-free college and career for your kids?
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Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie is a full-time academic strategist, podcast host, and sought-after speaker for students ages 12–26, their parents, and the professionals who serve them. Her writing, speaking, and podcasting help parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free, ready to jump directly into careers they excel at and love. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, USA Today, Parents Magazine, and US News & World Report, as well as on CBS News.
Jeannie also helps students apply to law, medical, business, and grad school at her website GetIntoMedSchool.com. You can follow her on Bluesky @jburlowski.bsky.social.
No part of this article was written using AI.