Empower Your Teen’s Path to Better Jobs and a Happier Future
Career assessments for Parents of High School Students and Young Adults
Most parents are anxious their children will choose the wrong college major, education program or career path - one that fails to make them happy and financially self-sufficient.
Offering your children Career Key career assessment and career well-being tools turns your anxiety into confidence you’ve done everything you can to empower your child’s career success.
Career Well-Being App
Empower Your Teen
Decide what to study and explore careers
Put them at ease they’re on the right track
Make sure the college investment pays off
How to make enough money doing what they enjoy
Career Assessment
Identify college major, career direction
Decide what to study
Self-knowledge to write better college essays
Connect college to careers
Shortest route to identifying college majors, training programs, and careers where they will thrive
How is Career Key different?
Act as a mentor, not an enforcer
Unlike other career guidance tools and career assessments, we treat teens and young adults with a holistic approach that respects their intelligence and gives them agency. We encourage them to decide on their path, with a little support from us.
Our tone is one of mentorship not all-knowing dictatorship.
We focus on direct education match, not just career
No other scientifically valid career assessment directly matches who students are to education paths where they will thrive.
Other assessments don’t map college majors to thriving, personality-compatible careers either.
Teens and young adults are in the driver’s seat
No other assessment allows them to narrow their exploration so clearly based on their unique needs. (i.e., appealing worker traits, time they want to spend on education, type of credential)
Short, structured, practical activities
We all have shorter attention spans! With our decades of career well-being expertise, we focus on the essentials that move the needle in happiness.
Your Teen Faces Big Decisions – Are They Ready?
Nick and Juliet’s Story
Aha! Moment #1 - College major choice impacts college applications
As a high school junior, Nick did well in school and liked to be more independent, especially once he started to drive. His mom, Juliet, knew she needed to help him with college planning, but knew too much “helpful guidance” would backfire.
Worried and not sure how to help
Nick hadn’t thought about what he’d major in, much less a career path. Because Juliet knew some colleges require applicants to choose a major to apply to (business, engineering, nursing, computer science), Juliet worried about Nick’s lack of direction.
She didn’t know how to help Nick start making progress on this touchy subject.
Start the college major conversation
In the Spring of his junior year, Juliet had Nick complete the Career Key Discovery assessment in PathAdvisor to introduce the topic of college majors and careers.
It took him about 10 minutes to get more clarity – “the math side of business” as he put it.
She was glad she did, because that summer while doing college research, Nick had his 1st Aha! Moment: some colleges could not guarantee he could study his top choices: accounting, finance or economics.
If he didn’t get admitted as a freshman into the competitive School of Business at a local large university, he might not ever get to take “capacity constrained” business courses there. This was an important consideration for him in choosing a college.
Why Career Key? It’s Designed for Teens and Young Adults Like Yours
Aha! Moment #2 - I don’t need to have it all figured out, just know myself a little better
With Career Key’s PathAdvisor, Nick learned about himself, his strengths, interests and personality.
Afterwards, it made more sense to him the podcasts he listened to, YouTube videos he watched, and school classes he liked better.
Juliet and her husband started to have more casual conversations with Nick about his college major interests on neighborhood walks.
The nonjudgemental, mentoring approach of PathAdvisor made Nick’s self-clarity a more organic, authentic process. Instead of telling his parents what they wanted to hear, he had the space and gentle guidance to find his own direction.
Career Key Reviews
First Year College Student
“It has been very informative, I have learned a lot about a lot of different careers and majors I either haven't heard of or thought to look into but has opened a lot of new ideas and paths to me. Couldn't recommend it more.”
High School Student
“It has perfectly matched me with careers and majors that match my interests and passion.”
Career Key Product Selection Guide
| PathAdvisor | Career Key Discovery | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49.99/year | $20.95/year |
| Best For | Individuals seeking ongoing self-reflection and holistic career well-being guidance. | Individuals who want a fast, science-backed career assessment with deep exploration of careers and education programs. |
| Validated Assessments Included |
Career Decision Profile®: Assesses career decision readiness with Comfort Reflections. Career Key Discovery® |
Career Key Discovery®: A modern career interest inventory based on Holland’s Theory of Career Choice. |
| Assessment Time | Multiple short, engaging activities (5–20 minutes each). | Quick 10-minute career assessment plus unlimited exploration and decision making. |
| Personalization | AI-driven, personalized career and academic recommendations in addition to Career Key Discovery. | Holland-based personality and interest matches to 400+ occupations and 1,400+ college majors, graduate programs, and credentials. |
| Decision-Making Support | Tailored advice with actionable steps; 4-step ACIP decision-making module; all content from CK Discovery. | Clear career & major exploration system, specialized content for managing transitions and decision making. |
| Product Type | Browser-based career well-being app with 1EdTech LTI 1.3 certification. | Browser-based career assessment app. |
| Sign Up | Sign Up |
PathAdvisor
$49.99/year
Best For: Individuals seeking ongoing self-reflection and holistic career well-being guidance.
Validated Assessments: Career Decision Profile® (with Comfort Reflections) and Career Key Discovery®.
Assessment Time: Multiple short, engaging activities (5–20 minutes each).
Personalization: AI-driven career and academic recommendations, plus Discovery insights.
Decision-Making Support: Tailored advice, 4-step ACIP decision-making module, and full CK Discovery content.
Product Type: Browser-based career well-being app with 1EdTech LTI 1.3 certification.
Sign UpCareer Key Discovery
$20.95/year
Best For: Individuals who want a fast, science-backed career assessment with deep exploration of careers and education programs.
Validated Assessments: Career Key Discovery® based on Holland’s Theory of Career Choice.
Assessment Time: Quick 10-minute assessment plus unlimited exploration and decision making.
Personalization: Holland-style personality and interest matches to 400+ occupations and 1,400+ education programs.
Decision-Making Support: Clear exploration system with specialized content for managing transitions and making informed decisions.
Product Type: Browser-based career assessment app.
Sign UpParent FAQs
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Yes! PathAdvisor’s engaging, mobile friendly design and actionable results motivates teens to explore and take charge of their future.
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PathAdvisor and Career Key Discovery are backed by peer-reviewed, published research in counseling psychology and positive psychology.
Career Key is the leading authority on the well-respected trait and factor theory, Dr. John Holland’s Theory of Career Choice.
For nearly 30 years, over 3 million students a year have relied on Career Key to explore and make informed decisions.
Career Key is a family-owned, nationally certified woman-owned business.
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No, but we link to free, trustworthy comprehensive resources that do. Your high school probably has a preferred platform (i.e. Naviance, SCOIR, etc)
Instead, Career Key fills the big gaps in those tools - the choice of college major and holistic career well-being.
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Yes, this is an annual, autorenewal subscription that you can cancel anytime. Your investment helps us continue to add value, features, and provide more AI-enabled features over time.
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Yes! Just choose the number of subscriptions you want during checkout. After purchase, you will be able to invite others via email through your new Career Key account. You will be notified when they accept your invitation and activate their account.
You can order more subscriptions at any time. Cancel at any time.
If you are an independent consultant, learn more.
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Yes, we have a 10-day money-back guarantee. We are confident your teen or young adult will find Career Key helpful and actionable.