Role models influence adolescents. If students have a good teacher who makes an impression or a family member who is a pharmacist or a carpenter she looks up to, she may decide on the same career. Another way role models affect the lives of adolescents is by discussing career decisions with them and making suggestions for consideration.
Sometimes adolescents choose a career just because "everyone else is doing it." So if a teenager -- particularly if he is a leader -- decides to join the Army, he might find that all his buddies are going to boot camp with him. Friends may decide they want to go to the same college and study art.
Dropping out of high school without a diploma has a direct bearing on the work and career options open to adolescents. So, too, do the final grades at the end of high school. Students with high averages have the option of going to college, while those with very low grades have to do remedial study or find entry-level jobs that are open to them.
Money plays a key role in career decisions, particularly for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. So even though a high school student has the intelligence to be a Harvard lawyer, unless she gets a full scholarship, she may have to resign herself to a career of working in a daycare center.
In a study of science students in Western Australia, Deidra J. Young reported that students from rural and urban schools had different educational cultures. Even though students considering careers may all be American, they look at the choices and possibilities differently if they live in New York than they do if they come from Deadwood.
According to Ferry, adolescents who choose to go to college have more of a future orientation than those who choose unskilled labor or vocational careers. Students who enroll in a four-year program know they won't be in the workforce until they graduate, but they will have more career choices than those without a postsecondary education.