Do you remember your first job? Is it in the same field as your current job? Whether it is or not, there’s a good chance that your first role directly or indirectly set you on a trajectory that got you to where you are now. A first job is the seed from which the diverse branches of a career will grow.
Yet, groundbreaking research conducted jointly between Britebound and Burning Glass Institute (BGI) supports what many know: that some first jobs are better than others. Not because of prestige, title, organization. Instead, they’re ideal because they offer career mobility, good pay, strong benefits, and relative job security in a climate where these job traits are increasingly difficult to find.
We call these optimal first jobs—of which there are currently known to be 73—‘launchpad jobs.’ They are the most optimal entry-level roles in today’s employment infrastructure, and they can position young people for long-term career success. Today, there are around 2 million launchpad jobs sitting open. Yet, only a small fraction of new workers are landing them.
In a recent webinar, I was joined by Stuart Andreason of The Burning Glass Institute, Marie Groark of the Schultz Family Foundation, and Chloe Aspleaf of University Health KC. We discussed today’s troubling mismatch between aspiring workers and open launchpad jobs.
We talked about the ways in which high schoolers can be helped to avoid the knee-jerk college-after-school route. This default pathway often involves taking arbitrarily chosen jobs to help pay bills, while not necessarily understanding how those jobs, or their formal learning experiences, will help them in a career. Instead, we know that kids are better served by an intentional decision-making process that helps them tease out their interests, passion, and purpose before committing to a subject or field. We talked about how pursuing a launchpad job right out of school isn’t a lesser option when compared with going straight to college, provided it is part of a plan of incremental growth and purposeful learning experiences.
Stuart captured the importance of launchpad jobs and the research we’ve undertaken to define them.
“The analogy I like to use is that a career is very similar to a game of chess,” he explained.
“There are lots of different ways to win. There are lots of different ways to end up in certain places. If you open a chess book, you can see that there really are opening moves that will set you up for an advantage. And that’s what this work on launchpad jobs is really about. We identified 73 occupations that people can step into that provide long-term career advantages.”
So, landing one of the defined launchpad jobs is an important goal. These jobs should be on the radar of all young people. Yet, how can kids find out about and secure launchpad jobs? In many cases the process involves the kind of calculated trial and error that happens in career exploration programming. Chloe demonstrated how powerful such exploration can be in helping people determine what they do and don’t want to pursue. She shared how her school connected with her a launchpad job that helped her get to where she is now: working as an inpatient pharmacy operations manager at an academic medical center, in a role that impacts countless lives for the better.
In high school, Chloe joined the Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) Program, a new initiative focused on real-world, profession-based learning. Through CAPS, she explored career paths, built life skills, and connected with her community. “CAPS sets students up with internships,” she said, “and that is what I did as a junior.”
With a budding interest in lab-based cancer research, Chloe interned at a cancer research lab within a medical center. “I spent six months there, working on real initiatives under the guidance of mentors,” she recalled. While the experience deepened her understanding of cancer research and workplace professionalism, it also sparked a realization: she didn’t want to spend her career in a lab.
That insight led her to pivot toward healthcare more broadly. She earned her pharmacy technician license and spent her final semester of high school working in that field. “They offered me a job right after I graduated,” she shared. “My launchpad job actually launched me into my career, and it all started there from the ground up.”
Chloe’s story is a testament to the power of trial and error, and to the importance of launchpad jobs. She’s an example of how first jobs don’t have to be the jobs young people ‘end up’ in. But to help them in their career trajectory, first jobs do need to be connected to a person’s constellation of interests and to their greater sense of purpose.
Marie brought the conversation full circle by explaining that helping people like Chloe connect to launchpad jobs isn’t just good for young, aspiring workers, but that it’s important for the wellbeing of society.
“I think what we heard in her story was her aspirations, dreams, and the ability for her to connect with her school and a program and employer that enabled her to explore. All of that set her on a path. It’s had an impact on Chloe’s life, but it’s also having an impact on her community – on the people she helps in the hospital setting – and on our country. It’s so important that we get this right.”
