I have zillions of nephews and nieces. Literally zillions of them. And as each of them completes their junior year in high school, I give them a call. It's the famous "Career Call from Uncle Jim."

I ask them what their career interests are. Surprisingly, what they tell me is often different from what their parents tell me. They usually have two or three areas of interest.

I then send them career books for each of their career interests. Each book tells them what the daily duties are like for jobs in that career area. It also tells them the job outlook, the pay, the required education, and the best schools to go to for that career area.

Sometimes, a book I send them causes them to rule out a career area. But ruling one area out is just as valuable as ruling another area in. That can save them from spending years going down a dead end of a career path that they won't enjoy.

I've done this for virtually every nephew and niece at that age -- more than ten of them. And virtually all of them have told me that the books have been useful. And over 90% of those kids are either now in college or have completed one or more degrees. So it certainly doesn't hurt to help them plan.

Anyway, here's how you can do the same thing for your high-school junior or senior. In the search box below, after the words "careers in " just type in a career area for that student and hit the "Go" button.

You'll see a list containing career books (available for purchase from Amazon) for that specific area. Repeat this for each area of interest. For something so simple, it has a suprisingly positive impact.

Here's how to do that using Google Alerts. (1) Click on the link below to open the Google Alerts page. (2) Enter your email address. (3) Press the "Create Alert" button. Google will send you a confirmation email, then an email whenever a new review appears at Buy-a-Thon! (Make sure your spam filter doesn't block emails from google.com.)

Click here to open the Google Alerts page. Buy-a-Thon is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Google, and the views and opinions expressed here do not represent those of Google or Google personnel.