Starting Out and Programming Yourself for Success

Are you planning for a career, an occupation, or a job? Do you know the difference between the terms? Let's start by understanding that a job is a position of employment within an occupation; an occupation is one's vocation, business, calling, profession, or trade; and lastly, a career is a sequence of a person's work experiences over time. For example, my husband's current job is a network administrator, his occupation is Information Technology, and his career path has led him from computer technician to network administrator where he supervises several technicians.

According to Sukiennik, Bendat, and Raufman (2009, Career Fitness Program), a career is a "sequence of attitudes and behaviors associated with work and that relate to our total life experience. A career is really an integration of our personality with our job activities." When the integration of the work and person occurs individuals are amazed that they actually get paid for doing the things they love.

Sometimes we have jobs that are in occupations that are not in support of our career plans. For example, I worked as a waitress while attending college and although my career goals were directed elsewhere, I needed the job. At that time in my life, I needed to pay for my school, rent, and food. I did not have the education or experience to obtain a job in my chosen career field and being a waitress met my basic needs during that period of my life.

Abraham Maslow, a famous psychologist, proposed that individuals have 5 basic needs and that everything a person does is done with the purpose of satisfying one of those needs. The needs are referred to as the Hierarchy of Needs and a pyramid is often used to visually represent the theory. Read the description of each need and ask yourself: Where am I in relationship to my needs?

Also, where you are within the life stages, the major roles you have, and other factors (socioeconomic, psychological, biological, cultural) can impact how you view yourself, your abilities, and talents. It can also influence what type of decisions and actions you are prepared to take. What life stage are you in?

Career development occurs in stages.  Dr. Donald Super, psychologist and expert in career development through the life span, identified five major stages that we move through when we are making career decisions: Growth, Exploration, Establishment, Maintenance, and Disengagement.

Each stage has tasks that must be completed prior to moving to the next stage of career-decision making. Also, according to Dr. Super, a successful career development process requires that individuals have the ability to identify and implement their self-concept. Your self-concept is how you see yourself. Identifying the self concept is the top of the Career Diamond - it's learning about your values, personality, interests, skills, etc. Implementing your self-concept is when you are doing the work that best expresses who you are (self-concept).

Super also proposes that a person can re-cycle through the career development stages several times throughout the life span. In other words, you can be a 25 year old adult who is still in the growth stage learning more about themselves and career opportunities. Or you can be a experienced professional who is in the disengagement stage of their current career but who is now thinking about embarking in some type of new work that fulfills his or her altruistic needs or expresses their self-concept more completely. This person will also also go through the growth stage of career decision making. View it much like multiple career diamonds: you move through the career diamonds at different stages of life.

Read the descriptions of each of the stages of career development. Most of you may be in the growth stage in which you are exploring the world of work and how you fit into it.  This can be a reason as to why you registered in this class. This growth stage helps us realize our likes and dislikes about work.  We become aware of the work environment that is best suitable for us to excel.  This stage contributes to the attitudes and behaviors that will form your career self-concept.  Your career self-concept evolves in the work you do and experiences.  View the summary of Super's Career Development Stages, or review your text, can you identify your stage?

What we feel and/or think about ourselves and our personal situation will impact our behavior. There is countless research regarding the power of our thoughts and how they can influence our physical, emotional, and psychological state of being. Read this article for more information. Great athletes spend equal time training their bodies as they do their minds. Why? Because half the battle is believing as to whether you can or cannot - self-esteem and attitude will impact the outcome. Self-esteem is your perception of how you view yourself and attitude is your strong belief toward people, things and situations - both will impact your performance.

Your ability to find and pursue a career that will bring joy and fulfillment is within your reach but you must believe that it is possible, that you are able, capable, that you are responsible, resilient, and worthy. Your mind- set coupled with your actions will then set you in motion to carve out the future you envision.

Being aware of your thoughts and belief systems will help you develop a mind set that can empower you and lead you toward your definition of success. Having a positive sense of self is paramount to engaging in career planning. Here's a brief set of questions developed by the National Association for Self Esteem that identifies current levels of self-esteem. For more information regarding self-esteem, please read this article. It is important that "true self-esteem" is not confused with conceit or arrogance.

Part of your mind-set or outlook in life can be influenced by whether you believe you have control over your life or not - this is called locus of control. Please read this article to understand the concept and take this survey to determine your focus. Here's another survey option. Extremes on either end of the locus of control are not healthy. No one has total control over the environment or the future; one can only control ones effort, beliefs, and actions.

If your current view of yourself, your life, or your future is bleak, I highly recommend that you seek out personal counseling services prior to engaging in career planning. Your mind-set, beliefs, and attitude will impact your view of your potential, your actions, and the eventual outcomes -this can be a positive or negative cycle.

Become familiar with your strengths. Gardner's research on how people learn is remarkable. He proposes that we are all smart and we excel in particular ways. Review this web site where learning styles and multiple intelligence's are explained - do not complete the surveys on this site, they are not free. Here's a free online survey that can help you identify how you best learn. Here's also information regarding learning styles and how we process information referred to as Hemispheric Dominance (Left/Right Brain dominance). Understanding your strengths in how you learn will allow you to make better decisions regarding your learning and work environment.

Go to Week 1 of the classroom and complete the assignments scheduled for this week. Do your best to pace yourself. Avoid posting your assignments at the last minute, it will remove the stress out of taking a summer course.