Week 2 Blog

The small group discussion we had this past week on career development services was something that I found to be interesting. When thinking about my personal experiences with career development and guidance counselors throughout my academic career, I have realized that the need for career development services is paramount to the children in today’s schools.

            My group and I discussed our experiences that found that most of us either failed to take advantage of career services available to us or were ignorant to the fact that they even existed. We also concluded that most of us would be in the 7 to 10 group of individuals that would like to have gotten more information about jobs if we were starting over. I know that I chose my undergraduate major (psychology) based on how well I did in high school psychology classes and I didn’t pick my major until my second semester at Millersville because even then I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I didn’t know what was out there because my teenage brain wasn’t processing future dilemmas or career opportunities. I was more concerned with my social group and what the plans were for the upcoming weekend.

            I find it unsettling that “two-thirds of all workers would seek more information about jobs if they were starting over” (Brown, 2012). The study conducted by Hoyt and Lester (1995) found this to be the case. Being in the position I am in now, I don’t believe that I would actually change anything about my future career as a psychologist, but hindsight (and a fully developed brain) indicates that I would have liked to have had the opportunity to learn as much as I could have in high school about careers that way I could have made an informed decision instead of a gut feeling. It just so happens that this time my gut instinct was right and I will be able to provide the society with a service that it needs. The feeling of career self-esteem was also interesting  in that unemployed people have a lower self esteem than others because of their idea that they are unable to provide others with things of value (Brown, 2012). This is another reason why I think that career development is important and should be taken seriously at all levels of education. If we start conditioning young children that talking about careers and jobs is essential, by the time they reach high school, they will be expecting to talk about what they might want to pursue in college. Perhaps then the time and money they spend on studying microbiology is something they want to do and not something they’re stuck with.

Reference:
Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.