Chapter 20: Career Planning

Preparing for a Career

A full-time job requires at least 40 hours of work every week.
- Most full-time workers spend 2,000 hours working each year.
- That is time you will want to spend doing something you enjoy.
A job or occupation is work that people engage in to earn pay.
A career is a work history of one or more jobs in the same or related fields of interest.
Each occupation in a career builds on interest, knowledge, training, and experience from the other jobs.
Pursuing a career requires career planning.
Career planning consists of assessing your potential, analyzing your options, and preparing for the future.

Before you start thinking about careers, you should note what interests you.
Your interests are your favorite activities.
- They could lead to a career that you would enjoy
- Things that you enjoy doing may involve working with people, information, technology, or all three.
Values are what you believe to be important.
- They are the beliefs and ideas by which you live
- Your work values are the aspects of work that are important to you.
A skill is proficiency for performing a task that is developed through training and experience.
An ability is a natural or acquired skill or talent.
An aptitude is your potential for learning a skill.
Personality is the set of characteristics that make someone special. It is the sum total of your feelings, actions, habits, and thoughts

The working world is no longer limited by U.S. borders.
The global economy continues to grow.
People around the world want many goods and services that U.S. businesses sell.
More U.S. companies are opening offices abroad, and overseas firms are operating within the United States.
Companies do business via e-commerce.
- These changes create more job opportunities for workers.
Today’s workers must be adaptable and willing to learn new technologies and ways of working.
- Every day you should work to improve your basic skills, develop thinking skills, and build personal skills.
- You will use these skills in all kinds of work later.

There is a lot of written information about careers at libraries and on the Internet.
- Also, the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) describes hundreds of jobs.
- It lists the fastest-growing fields and gives addresses of places to write for more information.
A career counselor is someone who is trained to provide information and guidance on choosing a career.
Another way to get information is by networking.
- Networking is the practice of building informal relationships with people whose friendship could bring advantages such as job or business opportunities.
The best way to learn about a career is to work.
- New workers often benefit from job shadowing, which involves following another worker on the job for a few days.
Internships are another option.
- An internship is a temporary paid or unpaid position that involves direct work experience in a career field.
You might also consider volunteerism, or working without pay.

Most occupations have career ladders.
- A career ladder is a series of different jobs within a career.
Many U.S. firms outsource work to other countries.
- Outsourcing is using outside sources to do tasks traditionally handled by internal staff.
The more demand there is for a worker’s set of skills, the easier it will be for him or her to get a job.
Short- and medium-term goals can help you achieve a long-term goal.
When setting goals, be as specific about each one as you can.
- Specific goals are easier to aim for and achieve.