What high school education actually prepares kids for today’s job market?
Last month, during fall parent-teacher conferences, I sat across from Maria Lopez and her 11th-grade son Javier at my wobbly classroom desk, the edge stained three years ago with a spilled cup of oat milk latte. Maria leaned forward, her notebook open to a page of bullet points, and got right to the question I hear at least 10 times every conference season: “His guidance counselor says he should focus on engineering because it’s high-paying, but all he wants to do is build stuff out of wood. What kind of job is that going to get him?”
Javier stared at the scuff on his white sneakers, picking at a loose thread on his hoodie. I’d seen his work a month earlier, when he built the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf we use for our classroom library out of reclaimed oak from the old gym bleachers. It was sturdy, straight, and fit the weird lumpy nook by the door perfectly—something none of the prefab shelves we’d ordered ever did.
I told Maria that, and she sighed. She works as a medical assistant, her husband does landscaping, and they’ve saved for years to be able to help Javier with college. They just don’t want to see that money wasted on a degree he won’t use, or him end up unemployed right after graduation. That fear makes sense. I get it. I’ve had it myself for my own 16-year-old, who spends most of his free time editing skateboarding videos for his friends and refuses to talk about “future plans” at all.
A week after that conference, I went to a local small business expo that the chamber of commerce puts on every year. I went mostly to get free coffee and a glazed donut, but I ended up talking for 20 minutes with a guy named Tom who owns a custom cabinet and millwork company here in town. He told me he’s been trying to hire three new apprentices for six months, and he’s only had two applicants who know how to read a tape measure correctly. “Everyone wants a degree to sit at a desk,” he said. “I can’t find people who can problem-solve when a wall isn’t straight, or show up on time every day, or talk to a customer about what they actually want for their kitchen. I’d hire a kid like that right out of high school and pay him $18 an hour to start, with full benefits.”
That conversation stuck with me, because it cuts through the generic conversation most of us have about education and the job market. We’re all stuck on picking the right major, getting into the right college, checking the right boxes to land a “good job” that’s in demand right now. But what we forget is that the in-demand jobs of 10 years from now don’t even exist right now. Ten years ago, no one was hiring TikTok content managers or AI prompt specialists or residential solar installers. The only thing that stays consistent is that people will pay you for solving a problem they can’t solve themselves.
That’s the practical part I tell parents now, instead of giving them vague advice about “following their passion.” First, stop asking your kid “what do you want to be when you grow up?” That question is too big, and it makes them think they have to pick one thing forever that will stay relevant forever. Instead, ask them “what’s a problem you like fixing for people?” If they like fixing their friends’ phones when they break the screen, that’s a problem people will pay to have solved. If they like making party playlists that get everyone dancing, that’s a problem. If they like organizing their friend group’s camping trips and making sure everyone brings the right gear, that’s event planning. It’s that simple.
Second, once they name something they like doing, help them connect with one person in your community who does that for money. You don’t need a fancy corporate connection. If your kid likes editing videos, ask the local realtor who posts house tours on Facebook if your kid can shadow her for an afternoon. Most people love talking about what they do, and it only takes two hours out of a Saturday. It’s way more useful than any 20-question career quiz they take at school.
Third, let them mess around with the skill while they’re still in high school. Javier started building small floating shelves for his friends’ rooms last year, then moved up to custom gaming desks when people kept asking where he got his. Now he has a three-month wait list on Facebook Marketplace, and he’s already made more money this semester than I made at my first part-time job after college. Maria was worried it was a distraction from homework, but Javier keeps his grades up, and he’s already learning how to write invoices, talk to upset clients, and adjust when a customer doesn’t like the stain color they picked. Those are skills he can use no matter what he ends up doing.
Javier started an after-school apprenticeship with Tom last week. He’s still not sure if he’ll go to college for business in two years to learn how to scale his own business, or just keep growing his custom desk side hustle, or go work full-time building custom homes for a local developer. No one can tell him what the job market will look like in five years, and that’s okay.
The old idea that education prepares you for one specific job is dead. What it can do is help your kid figure out how to solve a problem people will pay for, and adapt when things change. That’s the only preparation that actually works right now, and it’s something you can start helping them with this week.
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