Youth Quote Search

• Reflections on Focus Group Experience
• Takeaways

“I am thinking about how being Hispanic has actually helped me a lot so far in my career because I[‘ve] been in jobs that require being bilingual.”

• Characterizations of a good job
• Understanding Job/Work/Career

“I can tell you a good job, pet sitting.”

• Perceptions of the term 'job'
• Understanding Job/Work/Career

“Customer service, you can’t have bad customer service or you could get fired. That’s why it came to mind. You have to have good customer service.”

• Education
• Perceptions of high school

“In middle school I went to a really good public school. And I have been pretty bad in math my whole life, but I always try, and it never really worked for me. The teachers would tell my parents that I was not trying, I didn’t care and stuff. But when I finally went to private school, they tested me and actually found I have a learning disability. No one believed that anything was wrong. They didn’t care until I went to a smaller environment where people actually did care enough to see the root of a problem. Obviously, I got the help I needed after finding out. I think it is just about people looking out for you more. Once you are in a big setting it is hard to see the individual person.”

• Describing Identity
• Race, ethnicity, gender, culture

“I put female, Cuban-American and Catholic. We’re not really like a Spanish typical family. I don’t speak Spanish. My relatives all speak English to me. We don’t eat Spanish food…I just am not in the Spanish culture. I am Spanish, but I guess it is more American because I am here and my family doesn’t really push that on me, Spanish. My parents speak Spanish, but I don’t. I wish I did, but I don’t.”

• Comparing and contrasting 'job' 'work' and 'career'
• Understanding Job/Work/Career

“Job feels required; work seems flexible.”

• Impact of personal attributes and characteristics
• Pathways

“You’re your own support. Look in the mirror.”

• Entrepreneurship
• Perceptions of entrepreneurship

“I don’t know much about business.”

• Aspirations and Goals
• Imagining their future selves

“[At 70 I’ll] probably not [be alive].”

• Comparing and contrasting 'job' 'work' and 'career'
• Understanding Job/Work/Career

“Like, okay, like a job is basically something that you feel like you have to do. Like you’re pressured or stressed to do. With work, it’s more personal; like it’s something like he said like you want to. It’s like something personal to you that you voluntarily want to do. And I feel like this, I’m not saying it’s bad to work. I’m not, that’s not what I’m saying. I just feel like jobs are just like a distraction to what your real work is supposed to do while you’re living. Like work is very necessary. You know, we have to work. It’s good for us to work and to be active and do things and to learn and to grow. You know, like all of that is necessary. But a job is a distraction from work, from the real work.”