Choosing Your Career

1. Choosing Your Career Money Management Chapter One Slideshow

2. Building a Solid Future • The first step in building a solid future is choosing the right career. • Your choice will affect where you will live, how much you’ll spend, invest, and save; what you’ll do in your spare time and where you’ll go on vacations; and the type of retirement you’ll have. • Because it is so important, you should consider all possible options and trends.

3. Careers of the future • Your grandparents and parents may have worked for one employer for twenty-five to forty years. • “The future isn’t what it used to be.” • New and better products and services, together with global competition, have changed the expectations of employers. • Chances are the job you’ll be hired for will be so different in five years that you will have to be retrained, upgraded, or change jobs.

4. Technology • Technology is a general term for advances resulting from improvements in work methods that increase productivity of people and machines. • Productivity – the value of a completed product in relation to its cost, must increase for a company to stay competitive. • Companies today MUST maximize efficiency in order to be profitable and stay in business.

5. Job Titles and Descriptions • Today’s careers may appear to be the same as they were ten years ago. However, you will find that most are considerably different if you compare the new and old job descriptions and qualifications. • Careful research into job titles and descriptions can help you narrow down career choices. • Several U.S. government publications provide detailed information on jobs. • We used the Occupational Outlook Handbook in the last assignment • http://www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm • Includes descriptions of the nature of the work, the working conditions, necessary training and education, job outlook and earnings.

6. Job Analysis • While considering the type of work which you are best suited you may find it useful to do a job analysis. A job analysis shows the positive and negative attributes of a given career choice. • Items to consider: • Salary – the amount of monthly or annual pay you’ll earn. You should find out if there are scheduled raises after a month, six months, and/or a year. • Benefits are also important! They can include: sick pay, vacation time, profit-sharing plans, and health insurance provisions. • Another important feature is the opportunity for promotions; in other words, the ability to advance, accept more responsibilities, and eventually work your way up into higher positions. • Other considerations might include travel, company stability in the community, work hours, flexibility, and the amount of training required.

7. Negative Features of Employment • Unfortunately, every job also has its negative features. You should be prepared to see negatives as challenges otherwise you’ll go nuts! • Some negatives to consider: • Employee expenses – any costs to be paid by the employee that are not reimbursed by the employer. For example, if you choose to be a real-estate agent and work independently you will have to pay your own advertising, automobile expenses, membership dues, licensing fees etc... Carefully weigh employee expenses vs. the benefits package provided. • Work characteristics – indoor or outdoor, working alone or working with people, job pressures, time between breaks, supervisory relationships, company rules and polices... These types of things should all be considered.

8. Entrepreneurship • Many people would like to own their own business, large or small, and be their own boss. • An entrepreneur is someone who organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise. • Long hours of work and dedication usually accompany this choice ... But the rewards are also great because you can better control your own life and future. • With careful planning, training, advice, financing, and support, many young people today will eventually own and run their own business enterprises. • Owning your own business may sound exciting and fulfilling but it also has many risks and dangers • Consider that more than half of small businesses go out of business in less than five years. • It usually takes one to two years before a new business turns any kind of profit!

9. Coping with change • With increasing numbers of advanced technologies, one thing should be clear to most American workers: CHANGE IS CERTAIN! • If you accept change you can be a part of it. If you reject change you will be left behind, frustrated, unemployed or both! Here is what you can do to prevent that from happening: • Read widely – know what’s going on in the world. • Be a lifetime learner – Join professional organizations. • Take classes – keep upgrading (advancing to a higher level of skill) and retraining (learning new skills to stay in same job). Might need to earn Advanced Degrees (post-baccalaureate programs aimed at preparing the recipient for more responsibilities, specialized work, and oftentimes more money! • Complete self-assessments – doing so will list your strong and weak points and give you an idea of how to prepare yourself for a career.

10. Long-term career planning • The idea that we can isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and live in total peace and security is a myth. We are now part of a worldwide interdependent economy. • The twenty fastest growing economies of the1990’s were former third world (or underdeveloped) countries. • The economic powers of the “Third World” are taking over the industrial production tasks formerly controlled by more developed countries, and they have the workforce to do it. • What should we do? Most experts say we should adapt and move forward in the area in which we are the leader – information. • What you can do to adapt? • Engage in long-range planning • Understand our world economy • Develop networks – communication lines established for people to talk to each other and share information.