Chapter 17

We are in the 21^st century and with all the technological advances that have happened over the last 10 decades, it amazes me that we are in the midst of getting ourselves out of what I feel could be called a depression. Un-employment is up; jobs are being shipped across the country to places that pay their workers little to nothing compared to US dollars. The stock market has more downs then ups and the possibility of not having a retirement plan or social security is looking more like a reality. My dad, who should have been able to retire by his early to mid sixties, will now have to work well into his seventies. It is crazy to think that almost 50 years ago, most of the goods and services consumed by the US were produced in the United States, and now everything is made over seas. Heck, people are no longer being used to connect you to different departments of companies; automatic systems are now in place where you push numbers ranging from 1-10. This is not time saving and for the consumer, can we say increase in phone bill every month. Sorry guys, I get a little heated about this, especially when I am calling a company and you dial 0 or what ever number you need to speak to a person and then the person has such a thick foreign accent you can’t understand a word they say. Is it really costing that much less to have the person on the other line be from another country? I am all for spreading the love and opportunity but the conversation literally consists of what? Can you repeat, sorry I couldn’t understand you! Is this really necessary? 

      I realize there are other things that affect the economy such as natural disasters like, hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Sandy, and then you have disasters caused by others like the planes that crashed into the World Trade Centers or oil spills that damaged not only plants and foods but also hurt the business that rely on  fresh seafood. Brown states that “the workplace in this country has always been in a state of flux” (2012, pg 362) and to be honest it probably always will be, but did I ever expect it to be like this in 2012, not at all.
      In the beginning of this chapter, along with the statement of the economy always being in a state of flux, it also makes the point that this is because of technological advances and ever changing economic conditions. Because of all the upgrades in technology, we as a country and world perhaps rely more heavily on computers to do everything for us because it costs less. This is interesting because as you look table 17.2 on page 370 of Brown’s text, which shows future projections of openings in specific jobs and percentage of growth jobs that you would think would increase, do not. They tell you to go to college, get a good education and you will find a great job, but to be honest there are so many of my friends that have bachelor and masters degrees that can not find jobs. My husband has a manual Labor job, where he makes way more than a lot of teachers; he doesn’t have a college degree, and I am not saying he is any better than those who do have degrees but it seems like it is harder to find a job with a degree than without. The chart on page 362 our book shows more jobs available that do not require a college degree, just on the job training. Truckers, home health aids, supervisors, receptionists, these are some of the highest areas of growth and only require on the job trainings. Now ironically, one of the jobs that do have a positive projected growth is teachers especially in elementary schools and post secondary schools, which I feel, is the hardest to find a position for now. This is not a bad thing because we need more qualified teachers.
There are a lot more jobs on the increase that involve one on one interaction between people than using a computer. Maybe it will start to go back to people being valued more than computers, the way it was before all this technological advances.
I apolgize if this blog is all over the place, but my brain was working in many different directions while reading this chapter.

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