Free Career & Education Guidance for Teens and Adults
Not Sure What Comes Next? Start With ED.
Career planning is more than choosing a job title. Hear From ED helps you think through your goals, education, work and life experiences, skills, likes and dislikes, preferred work environment, education and training options, and the next steps that make sense for you.
1. Start With Your Why2. Understand Yourself3. Explore Possibilities4. Identify Your Skills5. Take the Assessment6. Build Your Next Step
Start With Your Direction
Start With Your Direction
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Welcome to TrustInEd — Start With Your Goal
Before choosing a school, program, major, or training path, start by understanding what you are trying to accomplish. Education is an investment of time, effort, and money. TrustInEd encourages you to explore first so your education can connect to a clearer goal.
Why this matters
This video introduces the purpose of TrustInEd: helping teens and adults think through education and career decisions before investing in a path that may not align with their goals.
Think About Yourself
What am I hoping to accomplish?
Why is education or training important to me?
What type of work would I eventually like to do?
What education or training does that career actually require?
The first question is not “What school should I attend?” It is “What do I want education or training to help me accomplish?” Think about the change you want to make before deciding how to make it.
Why this matters
Helps visitors connect education to a specific outcome such as career change, advancement, new skills, or greater opportunity.
Think About Yourself
Are you unhappy with your current work, or do you want more opportunity?
Is there room to grow where you are?
Are specific skills or qualifications keeping you from a position you want?
Why does now feel like the right time?
How much additional education are you willing to pursue?
Your previous classes, jobs, responsibilities, and volunteer experiences contain clues about what you enjoy, what you dislike, and the environments where you may do your best work.
Why this matters
Encourages teens and adults to use real experiences—not just job titles—to identify preferences and transferable skills.
Think About Yourself
What subjects or classes held your attention?
Which job responsibilities did you enjoy?
Which responsibilities did you dislike?
Did you dislike the work itself or the environment?
What volunteer or life responsibilities have taught you something about yourself?
Your Past Experiences Can Help You Choose Your Future
You do not need years of professional experience to begin career exploration. Jobs, school projects, volunteering, activities, sports, family responsibilities, and everyday problem-solving can reveal useful strengths.
Why this matters
Shows visitors how to break an experience into duties and skills, and how to distinguish lack of interest from lack of confidence or preparation.
Think About Yourself
What tasks have you performed in jobs, school, volunteering, or activities?
Which tasks did you enjoy enough to do again?
What problems did you solve?
When did you feel confident?
Was discomfort caused by dislike—or by needing more knowledge and practice?
Thousands of occupations can feel overwhelming. Career Clusters organize related careers into broader pathways so you can start with an area of interest before narrowing down to specific occupations.
Why this matters
Helps middle school students, high school students, college learners, and adults connect interests, skills, education, and lifestyle to manageable groups of careers.
Think About Yourself
Which career areas immediately catch your attention?
Which clusters connect to subjects or activities you already enjoy?
Which clusters would you like to learn more about before choosing a specific occupation?
Math is more than numbers in a classroom. It can support careers in engineering, data, finance, technology, healthcare, business, education, construction, and research.
Why this matters
Helps visitors think about how they like to use math—through data, patterns, measurements, budgets, technology, teaching, or problem-solving.
Think About Yourself
Do you enjoy solving problems step by step?
Do you like working with numbers or data?
Do you enjoy identifying patterns?
Would you rather use math in business, technology, science, construction, healthcare, or education?
Hands-on work can require technical knowledge, precision, creativity, safety awareness, mathematics, and troubleshooting. Many pathways do not require a traditional four-year degree.
Why this matters
Connects building, fixing, tools, equipment, active work, and technical problem-solving to skilled trades, construction, automotive, manufacturing, healthcare support, and technical careers.
Think About Yourself
Do you enjoy building or repairing things?
Do you learn best by doing?
Do you enjoy tools, equipment, machinery, or technical systems?
Do you like seeing a physical result from your work?
Would you prefer an active environment over sitting at a desk all day?
Hands-onTechnicalTroubleshootingSkilled TradesConstructionAutomotiveManufacturingHealthcare Support
Listening, supporting, teaching, caring, protecting, and helping others solve problems can connect to careers across healthcare, education, counseling, social services, public safety, and community work.
Why this matters
Helps visitors recognize that people-centered strengths can be career skills while also thinking realistically about the environments and responsibilities involved.
Think About Yourself
Do you enjoy listening when someone has a problem?
Do you like explaining or teaching?
Are you patient when someone needs support?
Would you rather help people one-on-one, in groups, or across a community?
How comfortable are you supporting people during stressful situations?
Communication includes more than public speaking. Listening, writing, presenting, persuading, teaching, interviewing, negotiating, storytelling, and explaining ideas are valuable across nearly every industry.
Why this matters
Helps visitors identify the type of communication they enjoy instead of assuming communication means only speaking in front of a crowd.
Think About Yourself
Do you enjoy explaining ideas?
Are you a good listener?
Do you enjoy writing or storytelling?
Are you comfortable presenting, persuading, negotiating, teaching, or advising?
Do people come to you when they need something explained?
Leadership is not simply being in charge. It includes responsibility, decision-making, communication, organization, initiative, accountability, and helping other people succeed.
Why this matters
Shows teens and adults how leadership can appear in school, sports, volunteering, work, projects, family responsibilities, entrepreneurship, and community involvement.
Think About Yourself
Do people naturally look to you for direction?
Do you enjoy organizing projects or activities?
Are you comfortable making decisions and being responsible for outcomes?
Have you trained, mentored, coached, or helped others improve?
Do you enjoy taking initiative when something needs to get done?
LeadershipDecision-makingOrganizationInitiativeManagementEntrepreneurshipProject ManagementEducation LeadershipPublic Service
Creativity is not limited to art. It can involve visual communication, storytelling, product and experience design, content creation, architecture, marketing, and finding new ways to solve problems.
Why this matters
Helps visitors connect creativity to real-world careers across media, technology, business, entertainment, design, and the built environment.
Think About Yourself
Do you enjoy creating something from an idea?
Are you interested in design, photography, video, writing, fashion, or digital content?
Do you notice how websites, products, advertisements, or spaces are designed?
Do you enjoy experimenting with different solutions?
Do you like receiving feedback and improving what you create?
Explore 15 careers with strong earning potential across healthcare, technology, business, engineering, aviation, finance, science, construction, and more. ED connects pay with education, training, job duties, skills, interests, work environment, lifestyle goals, and personal fit.
Why this matters
Salary can help you compare careers, but it should not be the only reason you choose one. Use earning information together with your interests, strengths, preferred work environment, lifestyle goals, and the education or training you are willing to complete.
Think About Yourself
Which careers in the video caught your attention—and why?
How much education or training are you willing to complete?
What matters to you besides salary when choosing a career?
Career ExplorationSalary AwarenessEducation & TrainingCareer FitHealthcareTechnologyBusinessEngineeringAviationFinanceScienceConstruction
You have thought about your goals, experiences, skills and preferences. Now use the assessment to organize those answers and explore career possibilities. The assessment is a starting point for exploration—not a label or limitation.
Career Discovery
Career Assessment
Answer a few questions about your experience, interests, preferred work environment and education goals. Your results are designed for exploration—not to limit your options.
Build Your Next Step
What Do You Want to Do Next?
Explore Careers
Review BLS-backed career profiles, education requirements, pay and outlook.