Right now, you may be focused on school graduating and getting a good job. But you also need to find out where the jobs will be in the future. The job market today is rapidly changing a result of economic downturns, corporate restructuring, downsizing, and globalization and the career path you are considering now may not continue to be a good choice in the years ahead. What, then, are the trends in employment? The aging U.S. population will create jobs in the service industries of finance, insurance, health care, recreation, and travel. Jobs are gravitating to existing population centers, particularly in warmer climates that have superior transportation systems. Jobs in manufacturing are largely going overseas to Mexico, Asia, Europe, and other countries, with the U.S. job market primarily demanding highly skilled workers in the service industries. Strong job growth is projected for the twenty-first century in computer technology, busi ness services, social services, child care, wholesale and retail sales, food services, hospitality, retirement facilities, travel, and human resources. All require good communication skills. High-demand occupations tend to pay high salaries and offer career advancement opportunities. They often require good computer skills. Table 2.1 shows the projected job growth in high-wage, high-growth occupations in the United States
Take Advantage of Networking
Professional networking is the process of making and using contacts, such as individuals, groups, or institutions, to obtain and exchange information in career planning. Every person you know or meet is a possible useful contact. Networking requires that you make a conscious effort to use people you know and meet to maximize your job search process. Networking involves utilizing your social contacts, taking advantage of casual meetings, and asking for personal referrals. Most of your contacts will not be able to hire you, but they could refer you to the person who can, or they may be able to give you useful information about a potential employer.
Maintain a continually growing list of people who are family, neighbors, friends, college associates, coworkers, previous supervisors, teachers, professors, alumni, business contacts, and others you know through civic and community organizations such as churches and business and social groups. Take note of where your contacts work and what types of jobs they have. Ask these people for 10 to 20 minutes of their time so you can seek information and suggestions from them. Perhaps meet at their workplaces (where you might meet other potential networking contacts), and afterward send them thank-you notes.
Take Advantage of Networking
Professional networking is the process of making and using contacts, such as individuals, groups, or institutions, to obtain and exchange information in career planning. Every person you know or meet is a possible useful contact. Networking requires that you make a conscious effort to use people you know and meet to maximize your job search process. Networking involves utilizing your social contacts, taking advantage of casual meetings, and asking for personal referrals. Most of your contacts will not be able to hire you, but they could refer you to the person who can, or they may be able to give you useful information about a potential employer.
Maintain a continually growing list of people who are family, neighbors, friends, college associates, coworkers, previous supervisors, teachers, professors, alumni, business contacts, and others you know through civic and community organizations such as churches and business and social groups. Take note of where your contacts work and what types of jobs they have. Ask these people for 10 to 20 minutes of their time so you can seek information and suggestions from them. Perhaps meet at their workplaces (where you might meet other potential networking contacts), and afterward send them thank-you notes.
As many as three-quarters of all job openings may never be listed in want ads, so the people in your network become a vital source of information about employment opportunities. For this reason, expanding the number of people in your network is advantageous; some of the people you know will also likely share their networking contacts. Networking is the number one way people are successful in their job search
Target Preferred Employers
Answering classified job advertisements probably is not the best way to start a career, unless you are lucky and the job listed is actually in your field of interest. A key step in the career search process is to think about both the industries in which you would prefer employment and which employers might be best for you. If, for example, you want to work in the health care industry, you must research it. Get on the Internet. Go to the library. Visit the websites of health trade associations. Learn as much as you can about the health care industry. How broad is the industry? What types of companies are at the retail level? At the wholesale level? What kinds of firms provide services to the industry? Which companies are the largest? Which have the fastest growth rates? Which employers have employment facilities in geographic areas that are of interest to you? What are the leading companies? Which are the “employers of choice” that are family friendly or offer esp ecially good benefits? What are the employee benefits at different companies? Knowing the in dustry and specific employers of interest to you tells you whom to target for employment in your career path.
Be Willing to Change Career Goals and Plans
Your career plan should be realistic and flexible. Your career interests and goals will change over time, especially as you continue your education, gain work experience, and see how your friends fare with their jobs and avocations. Teaching music education might be your first career, but you may eventually realize that the accompanying small income could keep you on a tight financial budget forever. This issue might encourage you to consider a total career change—perhaps to sales in the music industry or a related field, where incomes are higher.
Some people go the other way. For example, after some years in the field of accounting, you might change career goals and go to work in your longtime interest area of horticulture, which pays less. Your interests might evolve over time as well. For example, a person with a full-time job in retail store management might decide to turn a hobby of gun collecting into selling guns as an online business. Staying in a career path but changing jobs occurs, too. For example, some hospital nurses decide after a few years that they have made a wrong career choice. While the job pays well, it involves shift work and very long days. Those who want to remain in the nursing profession may decide to leave the hospital setting and go to work for a nursing home or college health facility.
Assessing yourself and your career plans every few years is important to achieving success in your working life. What do you find satisfying and not so satisfying? Honest answers will help you, particularly as your interests evolve. Your work exp eriences should hone your abilities and skills. Learning new skills on the job is common, and if that is not happening in a job, move on and change employers and perhaps careers.
Target Preferred Employers
Answering classified job advertisements probably is not the best way to start a career, unless you are lucky and the job listed is actually in your field of interest. A key step in the career search process is to think about both the industries in which you would prefer employment and which employers might be best for you. If, for example, you want to work in the health care industry, you must research it. Get on the Internet. Go to the library. Visit the websites of health trade associations. Learn as much as you can about the health care industry. How broad is the industry? What types of companies are at the retail level? At the wholesale level? What kinds of firms provide services to the industry? Which companies are the largest? Which have the fastest growth rates? Which employers have employment facilities in geographic areas that are of interest to you? What are the leading companies? Which are the “employers of choice” that are family friendly or offer esp ecially good benefits? What are the employee benefits at different companies? Knowing the in dustry and specific employers of interest to you tells you whom to target for employment in your career path.
Be Willing to Change Career Goals and Plans
Your career plan should be realistic and flexible. Your career interests and goals will change over time, especially as you continue your education, gain work experience, and see how your friends fare with their jobs and avocations. Teaching music education might be your first career, but you may eventually realize that the accompanying small income could keep you on a tight financial budget forever. This issue might encourage you to consider a total career change—perhaps to sales in the music industry or a related field, where incomes are higher.
Some people go the other way. For example, after some years in the field of accounting, you might change career goals and go to work in your longtime interest area of horticulture, which pays less. Your interests might evolve over time as well. For example, a person with a full-time job in retail store management might decide to turn a hobby of gun collecting into selling guns as an online business. Staying in a career path but changing jobs occurs, too. For example, some hospital nurses decide after a few years that they have made a wrong career choice. While the job pays well, it involves shift work and very long days. Those who want to remain in the nursing profession may decide to leave the hospital setting and go to work for a nursing home or college health facility.
Assessing yourself and your career plans every few years is important to achieving success in your working life. What do you find satisfying and not so satisfying? Honest answers will help you, particularly as your interests evolve. Your work exp eriences should hone your abilities and skills. Learning new skills on the job is common, and if that is not happening in a job, move on and change employers and perhaps careers.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment