Environment plays a significant role in the career position one attains in many ways. The environment that is spoken about here is a factor that is used to raise decisions in career choice. Gender, for example has played a significant role in this type of environment. In a statement released to the press on the thirtieth anniversary of the Title IX barring of the sex discrimination, Marcia Greenberger (2002) of the National Women’s Law Centre, stated that boys are still being steered toward the traditional ‘male’ jobs, which are higher paying. Girls are still expected to cluster into the traditional fields of cosmetology, childcare, and other similar jobs. In Florida for example, “99% of the students in cosmetology are female, while 100% of the students taking plumbing are male” (Greenberger JobStats, 2002, p. 2).
Schools in some areas have been able to do a better job in creating a better environment for students who want to cross gender lines while choosing a career. Skills present in males and females alike have been indicative of their vocational interests.
These are various environmental factors that would lead an individual to a chosen career.
Personality – A characteristic way of thinking, feeling and behaving the personality is the collection of impressions in the appearance of a person’s body and the impressions believed to have been made on others, good or bad.
One’s personality may embrace attitudes and opinions that affect the way we deal with interactions of people and, in particular to this study, the situations of choosing a career. (Britannica, 2002).
How individuals have seen themselves in a role in which personality is a determining factor may again influence a chosen career. Some careers demand that you have the personality to match the qualities of the occupation. For example, sales people have to be outgoing.. An individual’s personality must be a self-motivated type, as to investigate career possibilities from early on in their lives, and not the procrastinating type that waits until they are compelled to decide. Individuals must take seriously the role grades play in limiting opportunities in the future. Dr. Rosenberg a sociologist and an author, went on to say, “It is important for you to have a good understanding of yourself, your personality, if you are to make intelligent career plans” (Inner-Self, 1989, p.12).
The Guardian stated (1998 October) it is important for citizens to have a good understanding of themselves, their personality, if they are to make intelligent career plans. Once a career has been narrowed down, personality has played a role in obtaining and keeping employment in the field of choice. Attitudes used in interviews, along with compatible methods of working within teams and along side co-workers have depended upon the right personality. Once a career has been secured, ambition and sincerity, along with promotions may determine an employee’s future. Again the personality shows that it is vital in the career sector.
Personality is defined as the collection or impressions in the appearance of someone’s body and the impressions and is believed to have been made on others, good or bad. These impressions form the cognition or the understanding in dealing with persons and things.
Everyone shares some factors or constructs. These constructs are personality traits that become valuable when choosing a career. The environment, such as our formal education has played a major role in the formation of constructs.
These were some examples of how personally is an influential part of someone’s choice of career.
Opportunity – Those choices in one’s life which are exposed either in a subtle or obvious manner. These choices or paths give the individual a selection between two or more outcomes. The outcomes of one’s choosing may or may not exceed one’s present abilities. (Britannica 2002)
Opportunity is the third factor that shapes career choices for individuals. Opportunity may influence how some have perceived their future in terms of the reasonable probability of a future in particular career fields.
Careers and education do not always synchronize the abilities to the opportunities. Recent studies show that one in three college graduates could not find employment requiring a college degree” (National Commission’s & Welfare website, 1999).
The study also stated that relevant work experience has given individuals an upper hand in building a career. Experience rather than education seemed to carry more value in some career choices. A statement from the National Commission on Cooperative Education went on to say that cooperative education combined educational, financial, and career building opportunities.
Many times the career that someone may have finally settled on, after much anguish, may no longer exist when one is ready. Pro-Active Corporation, a temporary hiring agency, stated that as a result of the downsizing and reorganization of the past decade, many organizations have pared down to "core groups of full-time employees complemented by part-timers and networks for flexible staffing"
In sharp contrast to the opportunities that individuals were presented with in the past; Important events occurred in the 17 years separating the class of ’55 and the class of ’72, including the Vietnam War, the unrest of the 1960s, a dramatic increase in the number of service-rendering jobs, and a corresponding decline in the number of goods producing jobs, a significant increase in low cost, easily accessible post-high school educational opportunities and changes in the minimum wage. These contrasts and changes have lead to further development and opportunities in the work market. For example as the minimum wage increases there is bound to be a pull towards finding a job whether it be a temporary job over the summer holidays or a job on a permanent basis.
These all influence an individual’s choice of career. A market with more prospects such as promotions will be inevitably more favoured or in demand. In my opinion this theory also applies for salary. Jobs offering more salary in comparison to others will to a certain extent have a pull towards them. These all narrow down to opportunities seen by individuals.
In conclusion, one can see that there are many underlying factors which affect ones choice of career from parents to personality.
However I feel I have acknowledged the main factors which summarize all sub-factors. These being Environment, Personality and Opportunities.
In my opinion I feel that there is not one most important factor out of these three identified. Reason being that, they go hand in hand where influencing careers, are concerned. Career choice is an ever-evolving process. Career choice is a process that includes experimentation, trial and error, and decision-making and eventually judgment leading to the assumption that one can find it very difficult to be satisfied and content with a job. Therefore one is always looking for ways to better there opportunities, to use their personality or to have a change of environment, in order to accomplish and achieve job satisfaction.
