Reverse-engineering student’ career and college selection—start with aspirations and not with aptitude
- career choices
- September 18, 2025
How does it help their career?
Students’ interests or authentic aspirations?
“I want to study Python and learn coding.”
or
“I want to make intelligent dashboards and apply data science maps to study wildlife sanctuaries or forests because I want to ___ so that ______.”
Career counselling is generally focused on college admissions by considering the student’s personality, aptitude, interest areas, and after some inputs or discussions with the family. It often leaves a huge gap between their skills, where they apply those skills, and what they actually want to do.
If a student’s career counselling report says that they should study Commerce or Science based on students’ analytical and logical abilities, it is not a good practice. Such an analysis does not bridge the skills, interests, and their students’ aspirations. Capability does not necessarily mean fullfilment or something that gives them joy.
If an athlete loves repairing watches, it does not necessarily mean that they should be repairing watches by profession. The disturbing trends in the colleges where the students want to change career path within the first year, or even during the later years in the program show this gap.
The studies on how students select colleges, careers, subjects, and about the factors that influence their decisions rarely talk about students’ aspirations and dreams (an example study, and you can see more in our Insights.
Steering brings a holistic and three-sixty degrees perspective in how students and their families and loves ones should bring more structure, evidence, and directional bridges in their career selection discussions.
We start with their deep and hidden aspirations, wishes, and life-dreams in their own language. We build their confidence, capability, and give them a canvas to think broad about their life—for who they are and what they aspire to be or to do, without really thinking about subjects, skills, courses, or universities.
Our theme clustering and theme mapping analysis is based on finding the meaning in every word that the students share. The intelligent scoring system helps in designing four clusters—primary, secondary, emergent, and hopeful.
See our guide for more details.
Our taxonomy-based relationship model is self-learning—it finds the patterns and connects the dots in the students’ thoughts for career, aspirations, their questions, doubts, the conflicts, and the gaps and the disconnects in their story.
In our analysis, we share this background story of how our system works behind the scenes to build the clusters, the confidence scorecard, the clarity scorecard, the gap analysis, and their questions for career guidance and counselling services.
Steering lets you start with your aspirations, life-dreams, wishes, and the vision that you have of working on something, for something, somewhere in the world.
We work together to build bridges in the journey—with your loved ones, family, and others who are important contributors or are watching these bridges. Your life journey is a lot about family dynamics—take the first steps today.
We have a free trial for you.
Our analysis structure in the free plan helps you in thinking deeply about your life-dreams, aspirations, wishes, and in connecting the dots for what you want to do, what skills you should learn, how to apply those skills in real life work, and what brings joy in your life when you grow up.
Steering is open for private access at present. You can take the free trial to get started.