How can a child aspire to a career they don't know exists? | Ed Hidalgo | TEDxKids@ElCajon

Want to learn how the team at the world leader in next-generation wireless technologies, Qualcomm has to say about career development? Find out why the director of staffing, Ed Hidalgo, says it should start in middle school. His TEDx talk highlights Ed’s journey and ideas being deployed to provide self-exploration and career exploration for adults, and how these are helping middle school and high school youth explore their own strengths, interests, values and careers.

As Qualcomm Staffing Director, Ed is involved with hiring thousands of workers. Ironic, because as a child, he wondered if employers would hire him because he was so bad at math. His weakness in math was highlighted on report cards and overshadowed his strengths.

Years later, now working in HR, he collaborated to start a career coaching practice to help employees manage their careers by discovering their unique strengths, interests and values. The program is called career explorations and has served more than 10K employees.

That program lead to another at Qualcomm focused on workforce development. It would adapt the adult career exploration curriculum and assessment to help middle school and high school youth explore their own strengths, interests, values and careers.

This TEDx highlights Ed’s journey and ideas being deployed to provide self-exploration and career exploration for youth and adults.


This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx