Middle and high school students often face a daunting question: What do you want to be when you grow up? For many, the pressure to have a clear answer comes far too early – long before they’ve had the chance to explore what options even exist. But what if we shifted the goal from choosing a career to building the confidence that one will suit them someday?
As educators, we’re in a powerful position to open that door. By providing space for students to explore a wide variety of career pathways – without pressure or expectation – we help them develop a mindset of curiosity and possibility.
Exploring Careers for the Sake of Possibility
For today’s students, the world of work is bigger – evolving faster – than ever before. There are jobs in industries that didn’t exist ten years ago, and many more that students won’t hear about in everyday conversation. That’s why it’s essential to offer them guided ways to explore widely, before they feel pressured to decide.
Career exploration isn’t just about making decisions. It’s about building belief: belief that they’ll find something meaningful. Belief that their unique interests and strengths are valuable. Belief that there’s a place for them in the world of work, even if they don’t know what it’s called yet.
Career Finder from Discovery Education
Designed specifically for middle and high school students, this free, web-based tool helps students explore dozens of careers – especially within the wide world of STEM – through short videos and adaptive prompts. It’s a personalized, video-driven journey that puts students in the driver’s seat.
Using a mix of real-life job stories, engaging media, and thoughtful questions, Career Finder gives students a “conversation-like” experience – meeting real professionals and learning what they do, how they got there, and why they love it.
How It Works: A Journey of Self-Discovery
The Career Finder is built around four key themes that shape how students think about future jobs:
- Workplace Environment – Do they want to work indoors or outdoors? With people or on their own?
- Communication Style – Are they comfortable presenting? Do they like collaborating?
- Motivation – What drives them: building relationships, pursuing their passion, learning new skills?
- Level of Education – Are they thinking about college, apprenticeships, or on-the-job training?
Through each of these themes, students interact with the content by selecting preferences, watching short, high-quality videos, and providing feedback. They’ll meet a Minecraft Engineer, a Fire Sprinkler Fitter, a Bat Conservationist, and many more – each bringing something unexpected and inspiring to the table.
At the end, students receive a summary of their preferences, plus links to even more careers and learning resources. This open-ended structure means students can return again and again, discovering new paths each time.
Why It Matters: The Benefits for Students
This Career Finder isn’t about locking students into one “perfect” job. It’s about inviting them to explore, reflect, and imagine the future on their own terms. Here’s what makes it such a valuable tool:
- Confidence in the Future – Students hear directly from real people who once had the same questions they do now. That representation matters: it builds confidence that there’s a career out there they’ll connect with.
- Early Exposure to Career Pathways – Whether or not students are thinking about jobs yet, seeing the variety of options early on helps them connect the dots between school and the real world.
- Student Agency – The experience is self-directed, letting students choose what they watch and how they respond. This freedom supports authentic engagement.
- Accessibility for All Classrooms – The interactive is browser-based, requires no log-in, and works on any device, making it a great fit for classrooms with limited tech or time.
- Open-Ended Seat Time – With many branching pathways to explore, the Career Finder works well during advisory periods, enrichment blocks, substitute plans, or career readiness lessons.
- Personalized Reflection – The interactive adapts to each student’s input and provides a summary they can use to spark follow-up discussions or guide further research.
How Teachers Are Using It
Here are just a few ways the Career Finder can be woven into everyday classroom moments:
- Career Readiness Lessons – Use it as a launch point for classroom discussion or journaling about interests and goals.
- STEM Classrooms – Show the diversity of careers connected to science, tech, engineering, and math – even ones students wouldn’t expect!
- Social-Emotional Learning – Support self-awareness and confidence by helping students explore their communication styles and motivations.
- Advisory or Homeroom Time – Let students explore independently, then share one new job they found interesting with a peer.
- Virtual or Hybrid Settings – Assign Career Finder as an asynchronous activity with a follow-up reflection or class discussion.
Starting the Conversation
The new Career Finder ends with a strong message: This is just the beginning.
Helping students explore careers isn’t about pressuring them to decide early – it’s about building curiosity, confidence, and clarity. When students understand that there’s a whole world of jobs they’ve never even heard of, they begin to see possibility in their future.
Discovery Education’s Career Finder gives them a safe, engaging, and empowering way to start that journey. It’s free, flexible, and designed with student voice at its core.
