The OECD Career Readiness project makes use of quantitative evidence to investigate how career-related aspects of teenage lives are associated with better adult employment outcomes. Review of multiple national longitudinal datasets confirms 11 indicators of better outcomes linked to the ways in which teenagers while in secondary education explore, experience and think about their potential futures in work. The aim of this policy brief is to explore the policy implications of international indicators of career readiness confirmed in the research, to share evidence from OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 on the extent to which young people are meeting the indicators and examples of practice that align with the empirical findings. It concludes with insights from the research for guidance policy (including 14 questions for schools) and, acknowledging the limitations of the new evidence, provides guidance on how the evidence base can be further strengthened.