How We Should Talk To Young People About Career Choices
Thu Sep 11 2025
Nearly 4 million high school graduates step into an uncertain job market each year (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2024), and the advice they receive—“follow your passion,” “choose something practical,” “make as much money as you can”—often leaves them stressed, burned out, and directionless. This episode features Jordan H. Davis' signature keynote, "Eliminate 'Career Fear' Through Design Thinking", which he delivered to over 500 middle and high school students at Montanan FCCLA's State Leadership Conference. He introduces design thinking, the foundation of what Jordan now calls his Problem-Centered Careers framework. Instead of starting with résumés, majors, or passions, Jordan encourages high school and college students to think about vocational identity development and career decision-making with a problem-focused lens, starting with examining the issues in their communities and world that they feel compelled to solve.
Drawing from design thinking, trauma-informed practice, and social impact innovation, Jordan explores how young people and adults alike can reframe their career choices around meaning, sustainability, and wellbeing. Whether you’re a student, educator, or CTSO advisor or director, this episode is a window into how we'll need to think about work as we head into the next quarter-century.
4 Reasons Gen Z Is Struggling To Land A New Job In 2025 (Forbes, 2025)
Job searching in 2025? It's a mess no matter how old you are. (Business Insider, 2025)
In the job market, Gen Z is cooked [Podcast] (Washington Post, 2025)
Subscribe to "Unteaching" on Substack for weekly articles about teaching, learning, and US education: https://unteaching.substack.com/
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Nearly 4 million high school graduates step into an uncertain job market each year (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2024), and the advice they receive—“follow your passion,” “choose something practical,” “make as much money as you can”—often leaves them stressed, burned out, and directionless. This episode features Jordan H. Davis' signature keynote, "Eliminate 'Career Fear' Through Design Thinking", which he delivered to over 500 middle and high school students at Montanan FCCLA's State Leadership Conference. He introduces design thinking, the foundation of what Jordan now calls his Problem-Centered Careers framework. Instead of starting with résumés, majors, or passions, Jordan encourages high school and college students to think about vocational identity development and career decision-making with a problem-focused lens, starting with examining the issues in their communities and world that they feel compelled to solve. Drawing from design thinking, trauma-informed practice, and social impact innovation, Jordan explores how young people and adults alike can reframe their career choices around meaning, sustainability, and wellbeing. Whether you’re a student, educator, or CTSO advisor or director, this episode is a window into how we'll need to think about work as we head into the next quarter-century. 4 Reasons Gen Z Is Struggling To Land A New Job In 2025 (Forbes, 2025) Job searching in 2025? It's a mess no matter how old you are. (Business Insider, 2025) In the job market, Gen Z is cooked [Podcast] (Washington Post, 2025) Subscribe to "Unteaching" on Substack for weekly articles about teaching, learning, and US education: https://unteaching.substack.com/