COPYRIGHT STANDARDS

Introduction
Helping America's youth identify potential careers for themselves in growing, financially rewarding fields, and then ensuring they have the resources to pursue them, is essential to advancing economic mobility in the U.S. The right advice, tools and exposure are foundational to success in this process. That includes having career role models who show students what's possible and how to achieve it, opening career paths they may have otherwise never considered. Copyright © 2023 Carlip. Inc. All rights reserved. The Gallup-Amazon Role Models Matter study detailed in this report clarifies how role models affect people’s lives. Using a survey of 3,792 early- and mid-career adults, aged 18 to 40, the study examines working Americans' middle and high school experiences with career education and role models, and how they affected their chosen career paths. Researchers examined results on role model experiences by gender, race/ethnicity and childhood household income. This report presents key findings from this study, which was commissioned by Amazon Future Engineer, Amazon's global philanthropic computer science education program. This study builds on the 2021 Gallup-Amazon survey, which investigated students' interest in and involvement with computer science, both in and outside of school. 1 That study, conducted with over 4,000 U.S. students in grades 5 through 12, revealed that young people's interest in computer science outpaces the available classes. It also found that having access to high-quality computer science courses correlates with longer-term interest in related careers, and that having a role model who works in computer science is associated with higher rates of students reporting their own plans to pursue a computer science career. In the findings that follow, working Americans share their experiences with career education and role models, as well as the perceived impacts of those role models on their current career.
The majority of adults aged 40 and under didn't receive career education in middle and high school. Sixty percent of working adults aged 40 and under — hereafter referred to as young adults — say they received little or no career education in middle and high school, and this percentage is even greater for adults who were raised in families that often struggled financially (70%). Among young adults who say they received career education in middle and high school, most say they are not satisfied with it — 66% rated it "fair" or "poor." Young adults are more likely to report positive career outcomes if they say they had a successful career role model. Two-thirds (68%) of young adults who had someone with a successful career to look up to agree or strongly agree that their current career is fulfilling compared with 51% of those who are neutral or disagree that they had a career role model. 3
People from lower-income households are less likely to have had
career role models.
Whereas 84% of young adults who grew up in a family that had more than enough money to live comfortably report they had someone with a successful career to look up to, the figure is 28% among those who grew up in a family that often struggled to pay their bills. Relatedly, 38% of young adults from lower-income backgrounds 2 say there was no one in their life who taught them how to be successful, compared with 18% of those who came from households with higher incomes. 4
Having effective role models helps students in three key areas.
Building rapport through common life experiences. Young adults who say that their childhood career role model had similar life experiences to their own are much more likely than those who did not share similar life experiences with their career role model to say that person helped them to believe in themselves (82% vs. 56%) and to feel like they belong (78% vs. 52%). Of young adults who say their role model had similar life experiences, 90% say they were the same race and 77% say they were the same gender. Providing attainable examples of success. When asked to reflect on the person they most looked up to when they were first establishing their career, 77% of young adults agree or strongly agree that they trusted the role model's knowledge and expertise, and 68% say the person's level of career success seemed realistic to achieve. Sharing specific information about jobs. Young adults are twice as likely to remember job talks at their middle or high school as impactful if the speaker shared information about the education/skills needed to work in that career. They are also just about twice as likely to say the job talk was impactful if the speaker talked about day-to-day tasks or positive parts of the career.

Many students are lacking exposure to different career
options in middle and high school.
Career education in middle and high school helps prepare students for success by broadening their thinking about possible careers at an age when their sense of identity is still developing. 3 The value of exposing students to more options is further shown in the 2023 Gallup-Amazon study, which found that students failed to mention a large number of high-opportunity careers when envisioning their future work. 4 Numerous jobs with strong potential for growth and high pay are simply overlooked in favor of a relatively small number of familiar and, in some cases, not necessarily promising careers. The Gallup-Amazon Role Models Matter study finds that 40% of working adults aged 40 and under had "a lot" or "some" career education in middle or high school while six in 10 did not. Those who say their families often struggled financially when they were children are the least likely to have had career education (30%), while 40% to 43% of those from higher family income groups report the same. While results between men and women are similar, rates of receiving career education in middle and high school vary among White (38%) and Black (46%) adults.
CHART 1
Middle and high school career education among adults from varying childhood household income levels When you were in middle and high school, how much career education did you receive? ●  % Some or a lot of career education   ●  % No career education at all or not much career education
Among young adults who say they received career education, most say they were not satisfied with it: Two-thirds rate it "fair" (41%) or "poor" (25%) as opposed to "excellent" (7%) or "good" (27%). CHART 2 Quality of career education in middle and high school In general, how would you rate the career education you experienced in middle and high school? ■  % Excellent   ■  % Good   ■  % Fair   ■  % Poor
Young adults are more likely to have achieved positive
career outcomes if they say they had a successful career
role model.
To better understand the relationship between having a role model and attaining a desirable career in adulthood, the Gallup-Amazon Role Models Matter study asked young adults to recall their experiences with role models in middle and high school. This included whether they had anyone in their life whose career inspired them, if they knew someone who worked in a career they were interested in, and if they had someone with a successful career to look up to and learn from. The results show that young adults are more likely to be satisfied with their career and financial standing if they had someone with a successful career to look up to during their youth. Sixty percent of those who remember having a successful career role model in middle or high school versus 39% of those who don't recall having a role model say their career pays them enough to live comfortably. Adults who had such a role model are also more likely than those who lacked one to say their current career is fulfilling (68% vs. 51%) and to feel established in their career (64% vs. 45%). While people from higher-income households are more likely to have career role models, the Role Models Matter study finds the positive relationship between workers' perceptions of their career outcomes and the presence of role models holds for all young adults regardless of their childhood household income.
TABLE 1

Beyond positive perceptions of their career and earnings, having a role model with a successful career during middle or high school may also be related to earning higher income as an adult. However, this is not universal by income level in childhood. Among young adults, those who say they had someone with a successful career to look up to are more likely than those who did not have a role model to be earning $60,000 or more today, 52% versus 39%. However, this relationship is only seen among those from higher-income households in childhood (those who say that when growing up their family had enough or more than enough to live comfortably). Among young adults who grew up in lower-income households, the presence of a role model with a successful career during their youth appears to have no impact on their likelihood of earning $60,000 or more today.
CHART 3
Impact of childhood role model on young adults' current earnings among varying childhood household incomes What is your total annual income from your primary job — the job where you spend the most of your working time? Please include both base and bonus pay. % Earning $60,000 or more ● My family was poor and often struggled to pay monthly bills. ● My family usually had reliable sources of income but sometimes struggled financially. ● My family always had enough to live comfortably or my family had more than enough to live comfortably. Note: The two highest childhood household income categories are collapsed to account for low sample sizes in the highest category. These findings related to childhood household income are nuanced. The presence of a role model is correlated with increases in subjective career satisfaction regardless of childhood household income (Table 1), while role models are associated with higher objective earnings only among those who had enough or more than enough to live comfortably (Chart 3). This difference could reflect that role models may provide guidance to a more satisfying career, but their presence is not enough to overcome the powerful forces that limit upward intergenerational income mobility. Future research could help discern why the correlation between having role models in youth and one's current income may be weaker for young adults from lower-income households.
The 2021 Gallup-Amazon survey found 35% of students in grades 5 to 12 plan to someday have a job in a computer science-related field. That rose to 73% among students who strongly agreed that they "have role models in computer science," while it was just 7% among those who did not have such role models. The relationship between having a computer-science role model and working in computer science held across demographic groups — including by gender, among Black and Hispanic students, and among low-income students. 5 The Role Models Matter study frames role models differently, asking young adults to "think about the person whose career you looked up to the most while you were establishing your first career." Among young adults, 62% say that they personally knew their career role model.
CHART 4
Types of role models that young adults reported having in their youth Among respondents who say they personally knew their role model Think about the person whose career you looked up to most while you were establishing your first career. Which of the following best describes this person? 41 And while the question doesn't reference being a role model in computer science, the study finds that having a career role model in middle or high school is associated with an increased likelihood of working in STEM fields in adulthood. This finding that career role models might improve the likelihood of working in STEM holds across most demographic groups, including those that have been historically underrepresented in STEM, most notably women and Black adults. CHART 5 Prevalence of STEM career between those who did and did not have a career role model Among adult men and women Which of the following best describes your current occupation? % STEM occupation ● Women  ● Men When you were in middle and high school, was there anyone in your life who guided you or gave you advice about how to pursue your future career?
Note: STEM occupations include areas involving computers and math; architecture and engineering; life, physical and social sciences; and healthcare practitioners. The difference among men is not statistically significant. Other role model characteristics also make a difference, particularly among Black adults. Black adults who say they had a person in their childhood with a successful career to look up to are more likely to be working in a STEM job compared with Black adults who say they lacked such a person (19% vs. 10%). Sample sizes are not large enough to examine trends among men and women within racial/ethnic backgrounds.
CHART 6
Prevalence of STEM career between those who did and did not have a career role model Among Black, Hispanic and White respondents Which of the following best describes your current occupation? % STEM occupation ● Black  ● Hispanic  ● White
21 24 Note: U.S. adults identifying as "Asian" and/or "Other" for their race/ethnicity are not reported due to low sample sizes. The difference among Hispanic respondents is not statistically significant.

People who grew up in lower-income households are
less likely to have had career role models.
Prior research suggests people's aspirations are socially determined, the mechanism being that people around them act as bridges to broader social networks, helping them to discover and explore opportunities and pathways that might otherwise not have been apparent. 6 This makes it even more important for students without a well-connected network to have access to these sources of opportunity. The Role Models Matter study reveals a strong correlation between adults' childhood household income and having had someone with a successful career to look up to in their youth. This specific role model experience is reported by 84% of young adults who grew up in a family that had more than enough to live comfortably versus 28% of those who grew up in a family that often struggled to pay monthly bills. While no gender differences are observed for this type of role model experience, 57% of White adults agree or strongly agree that they had someone with a successful career to look up to compared with 49% of Black adults and 47% of Hispanic adults. As noted in a previous finding, Black adults reported higher rates of career education in middle and high school compared to White adults. These findings taken together indicate that Black and Hispanic adults report higher rates of generic career education, but White adults disproportionately report having a specific person with a successful career that they looked up to during their youth. CHART 7 Relationship between childhood household income and having a role model with a successful career l had someone with a successful career to look up to. % Agree or Strongly agree Having someone in their life who guided them and provided career advice also differs by income level, but the differences are less pronounced, ranging from 57% of the highest income group to 31% of the lowest. CHART 8 Relationship between childhood household income and presence of a person who guided or gave career advice When you were in middle and high school, was there anyone in your life who guided you or gave you advice about how to pursue your future career? % Yes, there was one or more than one person My family was poor and often struggled to pay monthly bills. My family usually had reliable sources of income but sometimes struggled financially. My family always had enough to live comfortably. My family had more than enough Young adults who grew up in higher-income households also report receiving more career mentorship from their own family members. Thirty-four percent of young adults who grew up in households that had more than enough to live comfortably say it was mostly family members who taught them how to be successful in their career. That compares with 14% of young adults who grew up in households that often struggled financially.
CHART 9
Relationship between childhood household income and type of person providing career mentorship Which of the following best describes the person in your life who taught you how to be successful in your career? ■ ％ They were mostly family members. ◾ % It was a roughly even mix of family members, and those not in my family. ■  % They were mostly people outside of my family. ◾ % There was no one in my life who taught me how to be successful in my career.
Note: Due to rounding, percentages may sum to 100% +/- 1 percentage point. Totals of combined categories presented in this report may also differ by +/- 1 percentage point due to rounding. Similarly, 54% of young adults whose childhood families often struggled to pay the bills disagree or strongly disagree that there was someone in their life who taught them how to be successful, compared with 12% of those from households that had more than enough to live comfortably.
Access to career role models varies by career type.
As previously noted, a student's social network can have a profound impact on their attitudes, values, aspirations and goals. 7.8 Previous studies have found that one's exposure to various careers can substantially influence their chosen profession. 9 U.S. adults aged 40 and under who currently work in education and as healthcare practitioners are the most likely of any occupation categories to say they had people in their life in middle or high school whose career inspired them to have a similar job someday (58% and 51%, respectively). This likely reflects the regular presence of educators and healthcare workers in virtually all young people's lives regardless of their socioeconomic status. Consistent exposure to these occupations likely provides people with a level of familiarity that makes them comfortable enough to decide to pursue work in these fields.
TABLE 2
Percentage of adults aged 40 and under by career type who had someone whose career inspired them to want to have a similar job someday
The results show that young adults are more likely to be satisfied with their career and financial standing if they had someone with a successful career to look up to during their youth. Copyright © 2023 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

Provide trustworthy and realistic examples of success.
Role models are important to youth, as well as to adults as they embark on their careers. Prior research has shown that role models can be crucial in a person's decision to persist in achieving their goals, which can benefit people of all ages. 10 In the Role Models Matter study, working adults share the characteristics of their most important role model. The most common belief young adults have about the person they most looked up to when establishing their first career is that they trusted that role model's knowledge and expertise. More than three in four adults (77%) agree or strongly agree they had this trust, a pattern that holds across gender and racial/ethnic groups. A variety of other factors rank second in importance, with about two-thirds each agreeing their role model had a level of career success that seemed attainable, motivated them to achieve great things, was humble about their knowledge and expertise, and helped them believe in themselves. About six in 10 (61%) agree their role model helped them feel like they belong. Providing specific guidance rates as less important, with just under half saying their role model guided them to select a good career path or provided examples of either success or failure. About half also say the person they looked up to most was someone who understood what it was like to be themselves. TABLE 3 Most common traits of role models young adults most looked up to when establishing their first career

Build rapport through common life experiences.
Although only about half of young adults say their role model was someone who understood what it was like to be them, having such a role model can be more motivating. Researchers have suggested that students who perceive their role model as being similar to themselves are more likely to be shaped and influenced by that role model. 11 Indeed, the Role Models Matter study data show that young adults who say their childhood role model shared similar life experiences with them are much more likely than those whose role model didn't have this characteristic to say their role model played an essential role in their lives. This includes guiding them to select a promising career path (68% vs. 39%), helping them believe in themselves (82% vs. 56%) and helping them feel like they belong (78% vs. 52%). Young adults who perceive their childhood role model as having had similar life experiences are also more likely than others to say their career role model motivated them to achieve great things (81% vs. 59%).
CHART 10
Role models who share similar life experiences are more likely to play essential roles Everyone has lived experiences that make their life unique. Did this person [your childhood role model] have similar life experiences to you? ■  % Yes   ■  % No Shared race and/or gender may be part of why young adults feel their role models had similar life experiences to their own. Of young adults who say their role model had similar life experiences, SAY THEY SHARED THE SAME RACE AND SAY THEY SHARED THE SAME GENDER. Additionally, 67% of Black adults aged 40 and under say the person they looked up to most when starting their first career shared their race, as do 85% of young White adults and 61% of young Hispanic adults. Providing students with exposure to role models who are demographically similar to themselves — in terms of gender or race/ethnicity — may be a way to promote positive career and life outcomes. Among young Black adults who had role models, 74% with Black role models agree or strongly agree that their role model helped them to believe in themselves, compared with 48% of those who say their role model was a different race.
A Wish List for Future Generations
Gallup asked young adults to say which of six types of career education would have been beneficial for them to have had more of in middle or high school. A majority of young adults (59%) say that job shadowing would have been most beneficial. This is followed distantly by participating in an internship (43%) and connecting one-on-one with the same person multiple times to talk about careers (42%).
CHART 11
Most-cited experiences that adults aged 40 and under would have liked to have more of in school From the following list, which experiences would have been most beneficial to have more of in middle or high school to teach you about different career options available to you? Select up to 3
Focus on job talks and how to make them more effective.
Job shadowing, internships and one-to-one career conversations appear to be the most powerful career-education activities to offer students — at least in terms of what students will recall being the most impactful years later. These one-to-one and direct experience opportunities provide deep, personalized engagement for students to explore careers and connect with career role models. However, programs like this can be time and resource intensive. Given their relatively low cost and highly scalable nature, job talks have something to offer schools and organizations looking to introduce students to both role models and career opportunities: reach. Compared to other career-education activities, job talks offer one of the greatest opportunities to connect with a large audience of students at one time. Three in 10 adults say it would have been beneficial to have had more job talks in middle or high school — that is, have individuals come to their school to talk about their careers. While the demand for more job talks is low relative to the percentages wanting more of other career-education experiences, that could be because job talks are already frequently utilized in schools. 12 In the Role Models Matter study, 56% of young adults say that when they were in middle or high school, they had an individual come to their school and talk specifically about their work. However, less than half of this group (43%) say job talks taught them about a career they otherwise would not have known about, and 34% say such talks influenced their decision to pursue their first career.
The elements of an impactful job talk.
Job talks that are perceived by young adults to have been somewhat or very impactful are those that provided specific insights into what it's like to work in a particular career as well as how to attain it. Specifically: • Young adults who experienced job talks as youth are about two times more likely to say they were somewhat or very impactful if the talks conveyed the education and skills needed to work in a career. • Young adults are almost two times more likely to rate the job talks they experienced as impactful if they described the day-to-day tasks of someone working in a career or if the speaker discussed the positive aspects of working in that career. Beyond the actual content of the job talk, the frequency of hearing from the same person giving a job talk matters. Young adults are much more likely to say job talks were somewhat or very impactful if any of the people who came to their school to speak about their job or career visited the school more than once. This is about two and a half times the rate of those rating job talks as impactful who never experienced someone visiting more than once. However, organizers should be mindful that the speakers should provide specific details that help students envisage what the job is about and how to get it, and that having these speakers on repeat — perhaps giving students time to reflect on the jobs and formulate better questions for speakers to make the sessions more engaging — could be particularly beneficial.
Conclusion
There is significant room for improvement in making sure all young people in the U.S. experience impactful career education and connect with role models who help or inspire them to achieve their maximum career potential. In the wake of changing job market demands and growing economic instability, it is paramount to educate all students on those careers that will not only fulfill them but also provide financial stability and create pathways to long-term success. 13,14 The Role Models Matter study provides unique insights into the influence that childhood role models can have on important career and life outcomes across demographic groups and income levels. The results suggest that programs and initiatives that leverage comprehensive career education and broaden students' access to role models may help students achieve successful careers later in life and have an outsized impact for students from low-income households.
Methodology Statement
Results for the Gallup-Amazon Role Models Matter study are based on a web survey conducted Jan. 23-30, 2023, with a sample of 3,792 U.S. adults aged 18 to 40 with internet access who were employed part or full time at the time of the study (including those who were self-employed at least part time). Respondents were members of the Gallup Panel, a probability-based panel that selects respondents using random-digit-dial phone interviews that cover both mobile and landline phones (as well as some address-based sampling recruitment). Weights were used to correct for nonresponse. Nonresponse adjustments were made by adjusting the sample to match national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education and employment status. Demographic weighting targets were based on the most recent Current Population Survey estimates for the age 18 to 40 employed population. The design effect for the total sample of 3,792 respondents is 2.0, and the margin of error, adjusted for design effect, is ±2.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The adjusted margin of error is higher for subgroups, as listed in Table 4. Results for some groups were not reported due to sample size constraints.
TABLE 4

ABOUT AMAZON FUTURE ENGINEER
Amazon Future Engineer is a childhood-to-career computer science education program intended to inspire and educate millions of students from historically underrepresented communities globally, including millions of students in the U.S. each year. Students explore computer science through school curriculum and project-based learning, using code to make music, program robots, and solve problems. Additionally, each year Amazon Future Engineer awards hundreds of students with four-year, $40,000 scholarships and paid industry internships to promote diversity and inclusion in the field. The program is currently available in Canada, France, Germany, India, the UK and U.S. For more information, visit amazonfutureengineer.com.
ABOUT AMAZON
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth's Best Employer, and Earth's Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
ABOUT GALLUP
Gallup delivers analytics and advice to help leaders and organizations solve their most pressing problems. Combining more than 80 years of experience with its global reach, Gallup knows more about the attitudes and behaviors of employees, customers, students and citizens than any other organization in the world. GALLUP GALLUP World Headquarters The Gallup Building
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