Making Career Choices

1. Making Career Choices Chapter 25

2. Career is more than just a job title • Affects your lifestyle (way you live) • Choices influence where you live, what skills you develop, who you associate with, free time, and finances

3. Today’s trends can guide you to explore promising career options

4. Information Age Employee: • Can change and cope with the stress of change • Learns quickly and is will to learn new skills continuously • Possesses skills from more than one field that can be useful in one career

5. Career success today in more terms of career skills gained than keeping the same job until retirement • Making career decisions is a lifelong process of living and learning

6. Boundaries of work and personal life sometimes blur • “plugged into” by cell phones, e-mail, pagers

7. Heading Toward a Career • Constantly face choices • Choices made with limited alternatives • Choices are crucial and require careful thought • Education and training choices

8. Identify Your Interests, Aptitudes, and Abilities • Self-assessment – identifying interests, aptitudes and abilities

9. Interests • What you care about • What challenges you • Personal priorities – ideas, beliefs and objects that are important and meaningful to you

10. Aptitudes • Are natural talents • Part of your heredity • Some obvious and others are not • Aptitude often becomes an interest

11. Abilities • Skills that have been learned or developed • Acquired through effort and practice • May be taught if not inherit

12. 1)general skills All employees in all fields Communication skills are needed for all careers 2) career specific skills Develop after you choose a career path Colleges, universities, training schools and on-the-job training Two sets of General Abilities:

13. Learning About Careers • Find out more about career • Get a realistic picture of career • See if the field truly fits you

14. Market Overview • Look at labor market for your career • Obsolete (no longer useful) • Field that is growing or at least holding steady • Find info on government websites, trade journals, etc

15. Seeking Education & Training • What requirements are there • Entry-level?? • Search the best place to acquire education • College or universities

16. An Inside View • Talk to people in the Career Field • Employers and business owners • Job shadow and speak to people in the field working

17. Gain Related Experiences • Get involved in the career work experience • If considering child care • Work in a day care center for example

18. Join Professional Organizations • Most publish journals and newsletters to keep members informed • Helps you share information with other members

19. Develop a Career Plan • Detailed list of steps you must complete in order to enter chosen career field • Identify your resources

20. Short Achievements in the near future Focus on what needs attention now Long Major achievements Take more time to complete Stay focused Goals

21. Job Search Skills • Defining your search • Determine what job you want • Look in the right place for jobs • Paper, websites, schools, etc

22. Writing a Resume • Short, written history of your education, work experience and other qualifications for employment • Templates on websites and resume websites

23. Securing an Interview • Set up an interview • Most do it over the phone • Other prefer it in writing

24. Completing a Job Application • Name, address, Social Security Number • Education background, past jobs • Personal references

25. Interviewing for the Job • Put your best foot forward • Neat appearance • Clean, neat dress pants (no jeans) • Rehearse interview

26. Interview Questions • Why do you want this job? • Why did you chose this career? • Where do you see yourself professionally in 5 years? • List your strengths and weaknesses?

27. Careers in Child-Related Fields • Constantly growing • Efforts to improve children’s quality of life • Help create and provide services for family and children

28. Types of Careers • Direct intervention –adults work directly with children • Consultants –share their knowledge about children with other adults

29. 6 Areas to consider: • Health and protective services • Care and education • Entertainment • Design • Advertising • Marketing & management • Research and consulting

30. Health & Protective Services • Pediatricians • Pediatric dentists • Pediatric and school nurses • Child psychologists • Dietitians • School food service personnel

31. Care & Education • Child care providers • Teachers and teacher assistants • Special education teachers • Administrators –directors of child care, etc • Parent educators

32. Family life educators • Children librarians • High school teachers and college professors • Child and youth leaders • Recreational instructors

33. Entertainment • New children’s television programs, movies, and live programs • Video and computers • Producers, directors, technicians, writers and performers

34. Design • Items designed especially for them • Clothing, personal care items, dishes, flatware, furniture, books, and toys

35. Advertising, Marketing, Management • Need employees who understand children’s needs • Corporations, agencies, firms, small businesses

36. Research & Consulting • Research studies provide knowledge that will let them serve children better • 100,000 research studies on children’s education published each year • Consultants rely on their information

37. Entrepreneurship • Chances for self-employment • Create and own your own business • Need skill directly related to their specialty • Freedom to run it themselves • Use their own money to start up • May work longer hours

38. Personal Qualifications • All the traits you possess that can’t be learned in career training • Hard to define and measure

39. General Traits • Concern for Children • Whether you work directly or indirectly • Genuinely like children • Kind and patient • Tolerate children’s noise and activity • Accept physical closeness with children

40. Flexibility • Remain open to new ideas • Children are unpredictable • Career burnout – state in which a person becomes emotionally tired of a career • Likely from stress

41. Leadership • A person who influences or motivates the thoughts, feelings, or actions of others • Self-confidents • Give clear instructions • Set limits and be firm with children • Listen patiently

42. Professional Qualifications for a Child-Related Career • Professional qualifications are physical, mental and social-emotional skill you need to perform in a career • Learn from training or entry level work • Classes in high school

43. Level of a job determines the amount of training needed • Career ladder in 25-20 page 710

44. Job Training • Amount of training a job requires depends on the level of responsibility it demands • Teachers have a greater professional responsibilities than teacher assistants

45. Keeping up in a child-related career may require more classroom study, seminar attendance, or independent study

46. Skills for Job Successes • Human Relations Skills – include basic attitudes toward others, work ethic, and manners • How do you get along with others

47. Basic Attitudes Towards Others • Attitudes develop early in life • Influenced by role models, media, etc • Work performance is linked to attitude • Employers need employees with good attitudes • Even if not explicitly said, employees can be fired for having bad attitudes • Argumentative, argue, sullen, withdrawn

48. Work Ethic • Refers to a standard of conduct and priorities for job performance • Strong work ethic is desirable • Cares about the quality of work done • Some professions have written standards of conduct • Codes of professional ethics

49. Manner • Manners are about comfort • Good manners help others take you seriously

50. Consider people’s feelings • Use manners in meetings, telephone conversations, e-mail messages and memos • Apologize if you must interrupt a meeting, conversation or someone’s concentration on a task