Why People Work

The majority of people work most of their lives. After completing high school and additional training or education, you will proba­bly work for 25 to 40 years! Perhaps you're a teenager with a part-time job. Maybe you're from a two-income household. You or a member of your family may even have more than one job. Many people work even after retirement to supplement fixed incomes and find fulfillment.

People work to meet their needs, wants, and goals. They work to provide food, clothing, shelter, vacations, education, and luxu­ries. If working does not help them achieve personal goals, people are likely to become frustrated or unhappy in the job.

People also work to gain a sense of identity—of who they are. Because work is typically the central activity of a person's life, it often becomes a way of life, strongly linked to that person's identity. For example, since you are a student, your main activities center on school. Your identity is that of stu­dent. When you are asked what you do, you describe activities, favorite classes in school, sports you play, and events related to your education. When you are finished with school, your identity will probably be based on your career.

Factors Affecting Career Choice

Because your career will affect nearly every part of your life, your choice of career is very important. Many factors will affect your decision. Among them are your values and lifestyle, aptitudes and interests, and personal qualities and traits.

Values and Lifestyle

Values are the ideals in life that are important to you. While you are living at home, your values may reflect those of your par­ents. During high school, you begin to form values of your own—keeping some of your parents' values and rejecting others. For example, you may retain your parents' value that it is appropriate to wear a tie  while attending a formal dinner, while rejecting a value that modern music is worthless.

In Japan, the percentage of unmarried, 25- to 29-year-old women has doubled, from 24 percent in 1980 to 48 percent in 1998. Many of these women live with their parents. With the country's workforce rapidly aging, experts are concerned that more Japanese women aren't choosing marriage and child rearing. However, many young women believe that in order to develop full-time careers, they must delay marriage. In Japan, child-care facilities are scarce and expensive.

Think Critically: Should the Japanese government do any‑ thing in order to help Japanese women raise children and develop meaningful careers? Do you think that women in other countries have similar problems with their careers?

 

Lifestyle is the way people choose to live their lives, based on he values they have chosen. Your lifestyle is evident to others from the clothes you wear and the things you buy, use, do, say, and enjoy. A career is an important value in most people's lives ) because it influences lifestyle. With careful planning, you can find a career that will be rewarding and also provide the money you need to support the lifestyle you want.

Aptitudes and Interests

An aptitude is a natural physical or mental ability that allows you to do certain tasks well. Examples of aptitudes include finger dexterity (the ability to use your fingers to move small objects quickly and accurately) and manual dexterity (the ability to move your hands skillfully). Certain types of work require specific types of aptitudes. Aptitude tests can help you realize your strengths and weaknesses. Counseling or career guidance departments of most high schools offer aptitude tests. You may want to test your physical and mental abilities before you begin making career plans.

In addition to your aptitudes, you should think about your interests—the things you like to do and the reasons you enjoy doing them. By examining the types of things you enjoy, you can choose a career that has activities you will find interesting and sat­isfying. For example, a person who enjoys being with people will likely prefer a job working with others, such as sales or a helping profession, to one working alone. Use Figure 2-1 to help identify the activities you most enjoy.

The Internet offers a number of questionnaires to help job seek­ers identify their interests. Use keywords such as "interest test" to search for these questionnaires. They are fun to fill out. Plus, they may reveal something about you that will help you find a good

career fit.

Types of Work Activities

Which of these work activities appeal to you?

analyzing and recording

creating and designing

following directions

helping others

indoor work

managing people and

resources

manual work

outdoor work

physically active work

physically inactive work

 

presenting or speaking

 

repetitive tasks

 

self-motivated work

 

thinking work

 

various tasks

 

working alone

 

working on a computer

 

working with machines

 

 

Personal Qualities

Your personality is made up of the many individual qualities that make you unique. Personal qualities include such things as your appearance, intelligence, creativity, sense of humor, and general attitude. Most jobs require an individual with a particular set of personal qualities. For example, a person who represents a com­pany to the public or to potential customers needs a different set of personal qualities than does a machine operator. Examining your personal qualities can help you choose a career that's right for you.

Career Planning

Planning for your future career is an important task. Consider the total time spent working: 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year totals 2,000 hours each year. If you work the average career span of 43 years (from age 22 to age 65), you will have spent 86,000 hours on the 'job! Because your work will likely take so much of your time, you will need to plan your career carefully.

Steps in Career Planning

Effective career planning involves careful investigation and analysis —a process that you should start now and revisit throughout your work life. Career planning involves self-analysis, research, a plan of action, and re-evaluation.

1. Self-Analysis. Using resources available from schools, employment offices, test­ing services, and online, you can explore personal factors that relate to your career choice. You should:

a)     Determine your wants and needs.

b)      Determine your values and desired lifestyle.

c)      Assess your aptitudes and interests and determine how they match job descriptions and activities.

d)     Analyze your personal qualities—those that are satisfactory and those you need to improve.

2. Research. Based on a good self-analysis, you can determine which careers interest you most and which suit you best. You should:

a.     Seek information in books, magazines, Web sites, and other resources available from libraries, counseling cen­ters, online resources, and employment offices.

b.      Compare some of your interests, abilities, and personal qualities to job descriptions and requirements. Most careers can fit into one of the classifications shown in Fig­ure 2-3 on page 30. Can you choose one or more of these areas whose requirements you can meet? Can you decide which cluster the job of your choice would fit into?

c.      Interview people in the fields of work you find interesting.

Observe occupations, spend time learning about jobs and companies, and seek part-time work to get direct expo-sure and experience. Sometimes job shadowing (follow­ing someone through his or her workday) will give you real insight into the daily activities and requirements of a career 3. Plan of Action. After you have done some job research, you will need to develop a plan of action that will eventually bring you to your career goals.

a.     Use good job search techniques. Get organized, make a plan, follow through, and don't give up.

b.      Develop necessary skills by taking courses (traditional and online) and gaining exposure to the field in which you want to pursue a career.

c.      Seek a part-time or volunteer job to gain experience.

d.     Evaluate what you have done. If at any point you think

you are following the wrong career path, change your

mind before you stay on it too long.

4. Re-evaluation. Because the world around us changes rapidly, we all need to prepare ourselves to meet the changes and challenges ahead. You may wish to re-evaluate your choices and prepare for career changes in order to take advantage of new opportunities. About every five years you need to think about what you will be doing and where you would like to be in the next five years.

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The Importance of Goals

A goal is a desired end toward which efforts are directed. We all need goals in order to have a sense of direction and purpose in life. There are three types of goals: short-term, intermediate, and long-term.

A short-term goal is one you expect to reach in a few days or weeks. You must work consistently and with certainty to achieve it because you will have to account for the results in a very short time. A short-term goal could be preparing to pass a math test next week. You know you must plan your studying to be ready for the test, or else suffer the consequences.

Intermediate goals are those you wish to accomplish in the next few months or years. Some examples are graduation from high school, a vacation trip, or plans for summer employment.

Long-term goals are those you wish to achieve in five to ten years or longer. They might include college, career, marriage, and family.

If goals are to be meaningful, they should be defined and writ-ten down, to become a part of your life. Many people find a check-list a handy way to help them reach their goals. The figure on the next page shows a typical goal checklist. Use it as a guide to create your own checklist.

Making the Right Choices

How do you know what kind of job is best for you? How can you possibly decide now, in high school, what you will want to do for the rest of your life? You may not be able to decide. Yet, unfair as it may seem, what you do now can greatly affect what you will do in the future.

You learn about a career through experience. Experience is the knowledge and skills acquired from direct participation in a career field. Furthermore, the more experience you gain, the more you learn, the more qualified you become, and the more desirable you become as an employee in that field. Thus, you can set yourself up for a career in a certain field, make yourself worth more to an employer, and increase your earnings by continuing in that field. Your lifestyle will be based on that work and the salary you receive.

Unfortunately, the longer you work at one type of job, the greater the chance of becoming locked in—a feeling that you can-not change to another type of work. Often, you cannot afford to take the pay cut that may accompany starting over. Taking a temporary position to earn a living while you are preparing for your chosen career is a common practice. However, to achieve your career goals, you must continue to pursue jobs in your field.

Check your Understanding

Review Terms

1.                                  identity

2.                                  values

3.                                  lifestyle

4.                                  aptitude

5.                                  interests

6.                                  personality

7.                                  goal

8.                                  experience

9.                                  locked in

Review Concepts

1.     If your job does not help you achieve your personal goals, what will likely happen?

2.     How can taking an aptitude test help your career planning?

3.     How can job shadowing help you evaluate a career option?

4.     Why is it important to re-evaluate your choices occasionally