I was recently invited to participate at a Career Day at San Leandro High School in San Leandro, CA. Upon leaving that day: I ended up learning so much myself and about the career advice I can give to another generation. Here are 5 things I learned from Career Day.

1.Confidence is key

I have always been an outgoing individual. I don’t typically lack confidence. However, as a blogger, even though I appear to be super confident as I write and talk about myself online: when it came to face to face interactions and talking about what I do: I would clam up or play it down. Maybe at times, it didn’t feel like a legitimate career (and many people still downplay it). However, what I realized, throughout the day, is that I do have confidence and I am proud of what I’ve built.

2. My experience is valuable

This one dovetails off the previous point but when you are constantly in something or going through a work routine you often forget what you have learned along the away. My experience is valuable! As I was giving my presentation: I realized just how much I had done along the way and how that translated to legitimate advice, for any career really.

3. Stress the bottom line

You can’t get anything past these young whipper snappers: they, like many adults, wanted to know the most important (or at least what they viewed as the “the most important”) component to a career: the bottom line. As I was going on about the creative side of the business: I realized I wasn’t talking about the compensation aspect until someone brought it up. That’s when it clicked: knowing how they can make money in the real world was paramount. Honing in on that point improved my presentation.

4. Be realistic

The reality is that as glamorous as an industry may sound and sometimes even is to an extent: it’s important to stress that most careers are hard, they take actual work and sometimes are down right not fun. I stressed that in one of my presentations and I think it made me more relatable.

5. Encourage them to find their passion

Encouraging them to see what they’re interested in but being able to balance that with the bottom line is really critical. Knowing you can make money doing something you love or at least enjoy is really encouraging to a young person.

Ever participated in a career day? Anything you learned or related to — let me know in the comments!