Preparing for a Career

Making Decisions About Work

• 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.

Self-Awareness

• 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

How Work is Changing

• 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.

Developing a Career Plan

Finding Information on Careers

• 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.

Understanding the Working World

• 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.