What is a Career Anyway?

Written by Michelle Casto


What is a Career Anyway? By Michelle L. Casto, M.Ed.

A career isrepparttar sum total of all of your work-related contributions to society in a lifetime. This includes time and effort spent to provide goods, services, or benefit to others. A career includes paid, un-paid, volunteer, part-time, and full-time positions. Your career includes many life roles you may not think of: student, homemaker, babysitter, office worker, doctor, lawyer, etc. A career encompasses allrepparttar 130942 roles you play and duties you perform. You may have many jobs or positions that make up your career, but you only have one overall career. There are various career options inrepparttar 130943 modern world of work: Self-Employed, Organization Employed, or Project-Employed. By definition, career development isrepparttar 130944 interaction of psychological, sociological, economic, physical and chance factors that shaperepparttar 130945 sequence of jobs, occupations, or positions a person may engage in throughout his or her lifetime. Career development is an ongoing process that includesrepparttar 130946 aspects of planning and strategizing your career based on information about your self,repparttar 130947 world of work,repparttar 130948 match between them, andrepparttar 130949 action you will take to create your life’s work. Formal career development occurs in high schools, colleges and universities, adult education programs, business and industry, military, community and government agencies, trade and technical schools. Consider allrepparttar 130950 places you have developed your career with either academic or work experience. Where can you go next and what can you do to further develop your career? You haverepparttar 130951 power to create what you want, whether you wish to be self-employed, change career fields entirely, hold a certain kind of position, or volunteer your time. Smart career development requires you to be self-reflective, resourceful, motivated, flexible, and able to keep your skills and competencies up-to-date.

Contemporary Career Concepts Statistics say that we will experience many job transitions throughout our life. For example:repparttar 130952 U.S. Department of Labor says thatrepparttar 130953 average person will have 3.5 different careers in his lifetime and work for ten employers, keeping each job for 3.5 years. Fromrepparttar 130954 1995 National Association of Colleges and Employers Journal of Career Planning, “The average American beginning his or her career inrepparttar 130955 1990s will probably work in ten or more jobs for five or more employers before retiring.” Inrepparttar 130956 mid 1990s, Richard Knowdell said, “Career planning inrepparttar 130957 1950s and 1960s was like riding on a train. The train remained onrepparttar 130958 track and one could quite possibly stay on that track until retirement day. Inrepparttar 130959 1970s and 1980s career planning was like getting on a bus. One could change buses and it was a little closer to driving than on a train. Forrepparttar 130960 1990s and beyond, career planning is more like an all-terrain vehicle. The worker gets to drive, has to readrepparttar 130961 map, and has to be attuned torepparttar 130962 terrain, which could change from moment to moment.” When I attended a recent California Career Development Conference, I heard several other metaphors to describerepparttar 130963 career development process. One person said, “The old career was a marriage. The new career is a date.” And someone else mentioned, “A career is like going to an amusement park, where you go from one ride torepparttar 130964 next.” Obviously,repparttar 130965 concept of climbingrepparttar 130966 career ladder is antiquated. Rather than “moving up” in one organization, you will find yourself moving up, down, and even offrepparttar 130967 ladder. It could, in fact, seem more like a maze, with many twists and turns, stops and starts.

What Ideal Team Work Looks Like

Written by Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach


I got a new website designed, up and running last week. Yes, last WEEK. And it was no cookie-cutter either. I’m well-organized, butrepparttar speed with which Nancy,repparttar 130940 web designer, worked was amazing.

No sooner did I send her something, than it was up onrepparttar 130941 website. Actually she was simultaneously working on two websites for me. Things were flying back and forth.

DRAG CREATES DRAG

I was reminded of something my friend told me when I was working on my dissertation. He said do whatrepparttar 130942 chair asks immediately, get it back as fast as you can. “It baffles them,” he said. “Most students prolong it indefinitely. When someone’s working fast, then they don’t have time to obsess. It’s catching, you know?”

That was good advice! Taking forever to do something creates a force field with a lot of drag in it.

Back to Nancy. Well, she’s a friend, too, and I became concerned. Didn’t she have any other business? Eventually I had to ask, “Do you not have any business, Nancy?”

“Yes,” she emailed back. “I’m swamped.”

Small wonder when she’s so professional, speedy, accurate … but she’s also creative.

Okay, I thought, I’m going to ask. Nancy, HOW DO YOU DO IT?

“Thanks for asking,” she wrote and then sent me this list. Atrepparttar 130943 top it said, “I’m glad you asked why I have so much time. I try to teach this to others [she’s also a coach].

I HAVE SO MUCH TIME BECAUSE

·I’m in good health; therefore I’m very active and need little sleep. ·I eat to live rather than living to eat, so my meals are simple and I don’t consume a lot of time shopping or grazing duringrepparttar 130944 day ·I am well-organized ·I can focus and concentrate like you wouldn’t believe; there are no distractions in my world ·There is no clutter in my life and there are no so-called obligatory functions ·There are no draining people in my life ·I don’t own a tv and do not waste any time in passive activities ·As an introvert, I conserve energy by being with people as little as possible and onlyrepparttar 130945 nice ones or loved ones when I do choose to interact socially ·I have constant variety in my life so when I am innervated by one project, I switch to another and my energy returns ·I love my work—all of it, house, garden, daughter, friends, counseling, web design, teaching, walking my dog;repparttar 130946 idea of “work” has been well integrated in to my daily life, like a monk · I am a high energy person (that is a great gift from God) ·I don’t smoke, drink, eat white sugar or white flour ·I play hard when I play

“And you can quote me!” she added. “I’m glad you asked.” What a great sense of personal power we get when we’re doing something well that we love to do.

Nancy continued, “The way I’ve worked on your website is my typical way of interacting with web design clients and a typical response time. I really setrepparttar 130947 pace when I do a website with someone and am terrific at wrapping it up, too. Some people have trouble completing things in life or they bottom out inrepparttar 130948 middle when it gets hard. In me, they have a steady pace setter who hasrepparttar 130949 will to completerepparttar 130950 project andrepparttar 130951 know-how, expertise and experience.”

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use