-
Unit 4 Career Planning
Career Planning
Career
planning does not necessarily follow routine or
logical steps. Each of us places
weight
on
different
factors
and
may
consider
certain
phases
of
career
planning
at
different
times.
Career
planning
includes
gathering
information
about
ourselves
and
about
occupations,
estimating
the
probable
outcomes
of
various
courses
of
action,
and
finally, choosing alternatives that we
find attractive and feasible.
Many observers have pointed out that
students are not very efficient career planners.
They
cite
evidence
that
(1)
most
students
choose
from
among
a
very
narrow
group
of
occupations; (2) as many as 40 to 60
percent choose professional occupations, when in
reality only 15 to 18 percent of the
work force is engaged in professional work; (3)
young
men show a striking lack of
interest in clerical, sales, and service
occupations, although
these fields
offer many job opportunities; and (4) as many as a
third of the students are
unable to
express any choice of occupation.
In their book Decision Making, Irving
Janis and Leon Mann identify serious flaws in
the
ways
many
people
make
decisions.
These
flaws
seem
to
be
associated
with
the
patterns
people
use
to
cope
with
problems.
The
first
flaw
is
complacency.
People
who
ignore
challenging
information
about
the
choices
they make
demonstrate
complacency.
People
who
take
the
attitude
that
won't
affect
me
or
will
never
happen
use
complacency as a dominant pattern of
behaving. Of course, complacency is appropriate
for
any
decision
in
which
nothing
much
is
at
stake,
but
that
does
not
describe
career
decisions.
A second flaw in the way
people cope with decisions is defensive avoidance.
When
confronted
with
a
decision
and
unable
to
believe
they
can
find
an
acceptable
solution,
some people remain
calm by resorting to wishful thinking or
daydreaming. Students who
fail to think
about the implications of their career choices
often engage in rationalization
(deceiving
oneself
with
self-satisfying
but
incorrect
explanations
for
one's
behavior)
or
procrastination (putting
off or delaying). Facing the situation may produce
anxiety, but
examining alternatives
could also bring relief.
A
third flaw is hyper vigilance. This occurs in
career decision making when people
believe there is not enough time to
find a solution and they panic. They search
frantically
for
career
possibilities
and
seize
on
hastily
invented
solutions,
overlooking
the
consequences
of
their
choice
as
well
as
other
alternatives.
People
who
are
in
a
panic
sometimes
do not think clearly or logically.
The best coping behavior is
vigilance. Vigilant decision making occurs when
people
believe
that
(1)
a
choice
should
be
made,
(2)
they
can
find
a
solution,
and
(3)
there
is
enough
time.
Under
these
conditions,
students
can
conduct
an
effective
search
for
alternative careers,
carefully evaluate each alternative, and work out
contingency plans in
case one or
another risk appears.
Following are the keys to career
planning.
1) Study
yourself. This is the key to career planning.
Understanding what you are like,
what
you value, and what you want to become is the
foundation for all career planning. In
studying yourself, you examine your
strengths and weaknesses, your goals, and the
trends
in
your
personal
development.
The
self-understanding
that
you
gain
enables
you
to
imagine
how
certain
occupations
may
best
fit
your
personality,
interests,
abilities,
and
goals. All career
decisions require us to learn both about ourselves
and about work, and to
integrate these
two kinds of knowledge.
2)
Write your career goals down. A technique useful
for organizing ideas about your
career
development
is
actually
to
write
them
down
by
time
blocks
in
your
life.
Writing
something
down
forces
you
to
crystallize
your
thinking
and
to
recognize
unclear
and
half-
formed ideas. It may lead to new insights into
your possibilities and may help you to
see
new
relationships,
patterns,
and
trends,
or
to
identify
gaps
in
your
thinking
about
your career
development.
3) Review your
plans and progress periodically with another
person. Every so often,
take
stock
of
your
situation
and
consider
what
steps
have
to
be
taken
next.
Taking
inventory of progress
and planning further steps can help you cope with
the changes that
you undergo and the
changes that take place in the labor market.
Talking over your plans
with a college
counselor, your parents, and your friends helps
you define your goals and
improve your
career plans or make them work.
4)
If
you
choose
a
career
that
does
not
fit
you,
you
can
start
over.
Today,
growing
numbers of men and women are changing
careers or getting second starts in careers that
have
greater
appeal
to
them.
Many
of
those
who
find
that
their
line
of
work
is
unsatisfactory retrain themselves for a
different occupation. Often their new occupation
is
one
that
they
overlooked
when
they
were
young
or
that
they
did
not
have
an
opportunity to pursue at that time for
financial or other reasons.
Sociologists
say
that
there
are
few
changes
in
careers
that
involve
movement;
most
involve
the
traditional
business
of
ahead
Society
no
longer
attaches the stigma of
Job changes and career
shifts occur at all ages. It has been estimated
that as many as
one
out
of
four
male
workers
between
the
ages
of
twenty
and
twenty-five
change
their
lines
of
work.
About
half
that
number
do
so
between
the
ages
of
twenty-
five
and
forty-four.
Career
planning
does
not
guarantee
that
all
the
problems,
difficulties,
or
decision-making situations that face
you in the future will be solved or made any
easier.
No formula can be given to do
that. But career planning should help you to
approach and
cope better with new
problems, such as deciding whether or not to enter
educational or
training programs,
deciding whether or not to change jobs, and
analyzing the difficulties
you are
having with a situation or a person.
Nobody can foresee what the future
holds for any of us. There are social, emotional,
and moral considerations in our future
that cannot be foreseen. But the most important
lesson
of
this
often
unhappy
modern
world
is
that
progress
comes
from
planning.
Ignorance about
one's career is not bliss; reason is better than
chance and fate. Although
there is no
sure way to make career plans work out, there are
things that you can do now
to shape
your career possibilities.
Career Planning
1
进行择业规划不一定要遵照常规
的或合乎逻辑的步骤。
我们每个人对不同的因素有不同
侧重,<
/p>
也许在不同的时候会考虑择业规划的不同方面。
进行择业规划,<
/p>
要收集有关我们自身
以及职业的信息资料,
估计采取各种举动可能出现的结果,
最后作出我们认为有吸引力并且
< br>可行的选择。
2
许多观察家指出学生在择业规划方面不是很在行。他们列出了以下事实:
1
)大部分学
生选择职业的范围很窄;
2
)
多达
40
%至
60
%的学生选择专业性的职业,
而实际上只有
15
%
< br>至
18
%的从业人员在做专业性的工作;
3
)男青年对文书、销售以及服务性行业兴趣索然,
尽
管这些领域会提供许多就业机会;
4
)多达三分之一的学生说不
出选择什么职业好。
3
欧文
?
贾
尼斯和利昂
?
曼在他们的
《决策》
p>
一书中指出,
许多人的决策方式存在严重缺陷,
而这些问题似乎与人们处理问题的模式有关。有些人对于要费心考虑的择业信息置之不理,
< br>这就是自满的表现。有些人采取
“
这不会影响我
”
或
“
这永远也不会发
生
”
的态度,他们这样做
是将自满作为
自己占支配地位的行为模式。
当然,
对于那些不决定成败的决策
,
自满是可以
的,但做涉及职业方面的决策时,来不得自满。<
/p>
4
p>
人们在决策方式上存在的第二个缺陷是消极回避。每当面临抉择而又自认为找不到合
适的解决方法时,
一些人或想入非非或做白日梦,
以此来保持平静。
有些学生没有考虑到职
业抉择会产生的影响
,
往往采取文过饰非
(对自己的行为所作的解释虽能自我满足但
却是错
误的,以此来欺骗自己)或者拖延(推迟或耽搁)的态
度。面对现状也许会令人焦急不安,
但认真考虑一下各种方案也能给人宽慰。
5
第三个缺陷是过分地提心吊胆。
当人们面对职业选择而又感到没有足够时间找
到解决方
法时,
会感到惊慌失措。
他们
紧张地寻找各种就业机会,
然后采取匆忙产生的决定,忽视了
这
样的选择会带来的后果,
也忽视了其他的择业机会。
惊慌失措的
人往往会思路不清,
缺乏
逻辑。
6
最好
的做法就是眼观六路,
耳听八方。
当人们确信以下三点时,会做
出机敏的决策:
1
)
应该做出选择;<
/p>
2
)自己能找到解决问题的办法;
3
p>
)有足够的时间。这样,学生才能够有
效地寻求各种可能的职业,<
/p>
仔细地掂量每一种可能性,
并且制定出应变计划,
以便应付各种
风险。
7
以下是择业规划的关键步骤:
8
<
/p>
1
.研究自我。这是择业规划的关键所在。了解自己是怎样一个人
,看重什么以及想
成为什么样的人,
这些是整个择业规划的依据
。
在研究自我的过程中,
你审视自己的长处与
< br>弱点,
自己的目标以及自身发展的方向。
对自己的了解使
你能够设想哪些职业最符合你的个
性、兴趣、
能力和目标。所有
的职业抉择都要求我们既要了解自己又要了解有关工作,并把
这两方面的情况结合起来(
加以考虑)
。
9
2<
/p>
.把自己的事业目标写下来。要把自己对事业发展的设想归纳起来。一个切实可行
的做法是把这些设想按照你一生的各个时间段一一写下来。
写作过程迫使
你理清思路,
并认
识到那些是模糊、
不
成熟的想法。
这会使你对自己的发展前途有新的了解,
并有助于
你看清
新的关系、模式及方向,或者明确你在考虑自己事业发展方面还有哪些不到之处。
10
3
.定期与他人一起检查你的规划与所取得的进展。有时候要估量一下自己的情形,
考虑下一步该采取什么步骤。
评估一下自己的进步并计划下面的步骤,
这有助于你应对自己
要经历的变化以及劳动力市场的变化。
p>
与你的大学辅导员、
父母与朋友探讨你的计划,
这有
助于你明确目标,改进择业规划,或使计划得以实施。
11
4
.如果你选择的职业不适合你,你可以重新开始。如今,越来越多的男男女女在变
换职业,
或者重新开始一份对他们更有吸引力的职业。
其中许多人一旦发现自己所从事的行
业不尽如人意,
就
重新参加培训以谋求其他职业。
这些新的职业常常是他们年轻时所忽视的,
或者是由于当时的经济或别的原因而没有机会从事的。
12
社会学家们说几乎没有什么职业的变换是
“
走下坡路
”
的,
大部分都是按传统的关注
“
往
高处走
”
的。社会已不再像过去那样把跳槽看成是一种
p>
“
不安分
”
、可耻
的事了。
13
换工作和改职业在任
何年龄都会发生。
据估计
, 20
岁到
25
岁这个年龄段的男性中多达
四分之
一的人更换职业。而在
25
岁到
44<
/p>
岁的年龄段,该比例大约是八分之一。
14
择业规划并不能保证你将来所面临的所有问题、困难或决
策形势都能得到解决或变得
容易。
没有任何妙方能做到这一点。
但是,
择业规划能够帮助你面对或更好地处理新的问题,
诸如决定是否要接受某方面的教育或培训,
是否要更换工作,
还能帮助你分析所面临的困境
或与某人交往中所存在的困难。
15
没有人能预见我们任何一个人的未来。未来的一些社会、情感、道德等方面要考虑的
p>
因素是无法预见的。
但是这个往往不尽如人意的现代世界给予了我们
一个最重要的教训,
那
就是进步来自于规划。对自己职业的无知
并不是一种福气,理智比机遇和命运更重要。
Summer Job Planning
Assuming
that
you
know
what
you
want
to
do
after
college
—
and
you
may
be
considered shortsighted these days if
you have not picked a career by the time you enter
college
—
you
should start thinking about a job even before you
graduate.
What companies or
organizations have the job you want? Let's say you
majored in
English
or
history
and
you
want
to
write
a
great
novel.
You
need
a
job
to
support
and
educate you. You have to
select from a list of several possibilities, not
unlike choosing an
option from the
'menu on the screen of a personal computer. Your
options might include:
A.
Working for a publishing company
B. Writing for a scientific company
C. Working for a public
relations firm
D. Going to
graduate school to postpone decision
E. None of these
If you select option A, for example, it
would be a good idea to write letters while you
are
in
college
to
a
dozen
or
more
publishing
houses
and
ask
for
an
interview
with
the
personnel
director.
If
you
happen
to
have
a
contact
such
as
an
editor
who
might
be
willing to meet with you, so much the
better
Make
every
effort
to
have
an
interview.
You
should
be
familiar
with
the
company
before your
interview and your aim should be to express to the
personnel manager your
interest in
working for the company. You might ask if a summer
job (with pay, if possible)
or an
internship is available. In many cases interns do
receive a small stipend; in others
no
pay is offered.
It is
important at this stage of your life to find a
summer job that will enhance your
future career. If you cannot find one
in your field, then the alternative is to take
another
type of summer
job
—
lifeguard, housepainter,
landscaper, waitress, or worker in a retail
store
or
supermarket.
These
jobs
tend
to
pay
quite
well,
and
you
can
save
enough
for
many college expenses. That aspect has
to be weighed against the fact that they might not
help your career plans. Any summer job
that requires hard work and a certain amount of
responsibility is good for
your r é
sum é
. Naturally if
the job is career-oriented, it makes
better reading.
One day on the commuter train, I was
sitting in front of two high school girls, and
one said to the other,
think
so.
and spring vacations as a waitress
in a restaurant. Her tips were so good she had
saved up
$$
10,000.
She
planned
to
go
to
Rutgers
University,
commuting
from
home.
If
she
continued working
through college she figured she could graduate
without debt and go to
graduate school.
When I started looking for
a summer job in college I found that the only
organization
that would hire me (except
for restaurants) was Filene's, the big Boston
department store
that
operated
a
summer
branch
on
Cape
Cod,
where
my
family vacationed.
During
my
freshman year at college
I paid a visit to the Northampton, Mass. branch, a
year-round
operation. I asked for a job
selling on Saturdays and a job the following
summer. I was
hired on the spot. The
following summer the manager of the Northampton
shop assumed
management of the Cape Cod
branch for the summer, and she asked me to come
along as
a salesgirl.
All through college I earned my
expenses by working for Filene's on the Cape
during
the
summer
months
and
on
Saturdays
and
sale
days
during
the
college
years.
I
also
conceived
and
wrote
copy
for
the
advertisements
that
Filene's
ran
in
our
college
newspaper during the winter, and an art
major did the drawings based on my ideas. By
the time I was a senior I knew that I
did not want to go into retailing, but it was my
hedge
against the future. I knew from
conversations with the store manager that if I
could not
find a newspaper reporting
job I could find a spot on the Filene's training
squad, and use
that step toward a
writing job.
1
假设你知道自己大学毕业后想干什
么(现今,如果进了大学你还没选中一种职业,也许
会被看成目光短浅)
,你早在毕业前就应该考虑找一份工作了。
2
哪些公司或机构会有你想要的工作呢
?
假定你的专业是英文或历史,
你想要写一部了不
起的小说,<
/p>
那么你需要一份工作来支付生活和教育费用。
你必须从一系列的可
能性中进行选
择,就像你从个人电脑屏幕的
“
< br>菜单
”
中挑一个选项一样。你可能有下列选项:
A.
到一家出版公司工作
B.
给一家科技公司当笔杆子