Get That Job: Choosing A Career

[Music] Where will you fit in? How do you get there? How can you choose what you want to do? How can you put yourself into a real place in the working world? Soon you'll be making a choice if you haven't already. But will that choice be the right one for you? Maybe we can help shade the odds in your favor by showing you how some people a lot like you made their choices. [Music] [Music] Jerry is an all-around athlete. A guy who puts muscle into everything he does. Likes to work with his hands. Finds it satisfying. He works part-time on construction jobs. But now he's got to get it all together. Graduation is coming up. He didn't quite make an athletic scholarship to college. And being from a large family, money for more school just isn't there. So, it's time now to think about how and where he's going to fit into the world of work. What kind of job should he look for? What kind of job will fit him? with his school counselor. He saw some materials that started him toward thinking about the choice he was going to make. These are two of the best reference books you can find, Jerry. This one is called the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and it's published by the Department of Labor. Here's information about the nature of different jobs, the types of work, what training you need, what kind of money they pay, and so on. Here's another Labor Department book that may be of help. the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. And the library has a lot more specialized careerhelping books you'll find awfully interesting. Jerry's homework showed him a pretty wide choice of career opportunities that might match his education and abilities. He made a temporary decision. His part-time work gave him a taste of a possible career. He wants to stay in construction and he's chosen contracting. Does he have what it takes? Well, he does something everyone ought to do. Ask the person who is what you want to be. Get the inside story. I talked to this guy and a couple more and found out something that kind of shook me. You've got to have a thorough knowledge of all the building crafts before you can work with them like a contractor does. Kind of took me down a little. carpentry, electrical work, concrete finishing, many more specialties. You have to know about them all before you can try for the big job, the general contractor. All right, he did set his sights too high to start, and he's disappointed. But now he's beginning to think in an important way. He's thinking about alternatives, ways to stay in the same general field. Building and construction is the field. Jerry's sure of that. What could he do in that field? Many contractors started with carpentry. Well, it's pretty obvious what Jerry did. He asked the man who is one and he got some valuable information about what could become his first career choice. And he learned not only how people in this craft live, but he also learned that there's a federal government apprentice information center in the area which can give him more facts regarding his career idea and can administer aptitude tests to people considering trade apprenticeship programs. Jerry's off and running. He built up to his career choice carefully and effectively by putting good information together with knowledge of himself. Now he's trying the job. It seems to be a good fit, but only time will tell. A job isn't a career yet. Let's look again at some of the things Jerry did to come to his decision. [Music] Now meet Susan, a girl with a passion for line, color, design. She's been drawing, painting, making things for as long as she can remember. Art has been the main theme of her life. Art director and illustrator for the class annual yearbook. Class cartoonist, a real talent when it comes to putting her own ideas on paper or whatever. But Susan has money problems which won't allow her to go on to art school or college to develop her talents right away. Susan's lifelong ambition had been to be a fashion illustrator, but in several meetings with her school counselor, she told me I was trying to start out at the top. Anyway, thinking about it, we found out that the fashion field is very limited. And even if I had bunches of talent, I'd never be able to compete with the pros. Not at first, anyway. Not without some more training and job experience. Guess I'll have to start out somewhere low and work up. So, she went to the library and started digging. First, she checked the Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook to see if her goals were really in line with reality. Maybe yes, maybe no. But she made a major discovery. The art field was so much broader than she'd imagined. The book showed that there were at least 20 job categories that might use her talents. I know I'm good, but is art the only thing that I'm good at? Susan was dead serious about questioning herself. Her counselor helped her to get an even better picture of how she compared with professionals working in the art field using vocational tests, which can be given right in the counselor's office. Her desires and interests were matched and examined. And when it was over, she knew she had more ammunition for her search for a place in the real world of work. Best of all, she'd found a solid direction through the tests. She shared nearly all of the work attitudes and desires of a professional artist and then some. So Susan made some tentative choices and set off to see if they'd work, if she'd work. Not that place. They wanted somebody to work nights on mailing lists. Even if the job was okay, it was no place for an artist to start off. Well, let's get going. You can say this for her. She was persistent. She really went after every possibility that could lead her to a start on that art career. It took a while, but she found it. A start, a taste of what she wanted. Her entry into a professional career was as an assistant artist in the advertising department of the local newspaper. A chance to work with her imagination, words, pictures, and people. Who knows, it could lead her eventually to that fashion illustrator's career she had always dreamed of. Susan did a few of the same things that Jerry did to reinforce and try her career choice. Plus, she added new ingredients to back herself up. And she tried what she had settled on, knowing that a job isn't always a [Music] career. This is Mitch, an average to good student in school. Born and raised on a farm. He's had a love affair with the outdoors all of his life. Something has always seemed to draw Mitch toward nature studies. He appreciates the natural world around him and learns as much about it as he can. Ideally, Mitch wants to go on to be a professional biologist or a botonist to follow his inner feelings for nature into a meaningful career. His chances of going to the university are pretty slim. and he's investigated some of the junior colleges, but their programs didn't satisfy him. He's sure that somewhere there are opportunities that will suit his interests, his inclinations, and the lifestyle he wants. Well, whether he knew it or not, Mitch's career choice probably began to shape up when he worked with other students on a clean water ecology drive. Mitch picked up on the idea and visited the school's vocational guidance counselor just to see if there was a chance he could get into the ecology field. Mitch's questions stumped the counselor at first, but not for long. The first call was to the state environmental protection agency. Indeed, there were job openings for high school graduates at the state agency, which coordinated its work with the federal government. Meanwhile, Mitch did some digging on his own, looking up and studying pamphlets, articles, and audiovisisual materials put out by industries and associations involved with the environment. There were some possible career tips. While he didn't find a firm answer to all of his questions, he did get some insight into the possibilities. Then it all came together. the information from the vocational counselor, Mitch's own research, and something even more important, Mitch's conviction that the environment was his field. He went straight to the state agency working on environmental projects and was surprised to find that sure enough, there was an entry-level opening for someone like himself. While the first job opportunity in his chosen field might pay on the low side, he's assured that if he works to improve his knowledge in on the job training and perhaps in the new junior college ecology programs, a career in water supply, for instance, could await him. He could be on his way to becoming a real working environmentalist. A career with meaning to everyone. Let's go over what Mitch went through in choosing his possible career. Well, I tried to match my interests, what I'd done in school, and how I'd like to live with some sort of career. My school vocational guidance counselor really got in and helped me find the right direction. I really got a lot out of the publications put out by business and professional organizations. Then I talked with people who really knew what was going on in the field. Now I'm trying to work. I'm no big honcho right now, but the work suits me fine and I can get ahead if I want to. What you've seen in these three examples today are some of the better ways of choosing what could turn out to be careers, working ways of life for three average people. What worked for one may not have worked for the others. But you may have noticed that Mitch, Susan, and Jerry all had strong first choices. Some weren't necessarily practical, but the methods they used showed them whole families of other career options which were within reach, possibly just as satisfying, certainly realistic. On the job training is available in more and more career areas as Jerry and Mitch found. Sometimes the best information about a career can only be gotten by trying it. There's no one answer for everyone because the only thing we all have in common is that we're different. Decide what you want to be, then decide what you have to put into it. Choosing a career is a tough job, but it's easier if you know yourself. [Music]