Deciding on a Career Goal
How do you decide upon a career goal? Have you ever received help in making a career decision? I ask these questions often in my work as a counsellor at the University of Manitoba's Student Counselling and Career Centre. Unfortunately, few students answer these questions positively. That is, most students have no clear idea of how to make a career decision and most students have never received any significant help in making a career decision. Consequently, most students rely on one of four, highly questionable career decision making strategies, each of which is frought with problems.
(1) "I'll do what my friends are doing." This strategy is doomed to fail because your friends do not have the same interests, values, personality, and abilities that you have. Following their lead is analagous to imitating their respective lives.
(2) "I'll heed my family's advice or I'll follow in my ______'s (place relative's name here) footsteps." It is always wise to consider the council of others who know and are attempting to help, however, following this council blindly without scrutiny and without attempting to incorporate it into your own beliefs will likely lead to problems. Advice from others, be that person your father, mother, friend, or great aunt, is likely to be derived from their values, interests, abilities and personality and therefore may not be consistent with your needs.
(3) "I'll base my career decision on my high school performance. I did well in physics and geography; consequently, I'll go into geophysics." Basing a career decision solely on the abilities you demonstrated in high school is risky because this decision making process does not consider values or personality. In addition, doing well in a high school subject does not automatically mean that you are interested in that subject manner.
(4) "I'll decide by not deciding." This strategy of abdicating responsibility for your own career decision can be very dangerous because by doing so you are letting other factors (factors that will not take into account your personal needs) make a career decision for you.
Your Life Mission Statement
So how do you begin to make a career decision? I recommend beginning the career decision making process by considering your life goals, or rather, your life mission statement. A life mission statement represents an integration of your values, interests, philosophy of life, gifts, and talents. The key components of a life mission are: Integrity (Who am I?); Service (What does the world need?); Enjoyment (What do I love to do?); and Excellence (What can I dedicate to enough to persist to excellence?). You can begin to construct your life mission statement by answering the the aforementioned questions and by identifying your values, interests, accomplishments, worries, weaknesses, and envies. The next step is to weave the information you have identified into two or three coherent sentences (e.g. "I wish to promote the fulfilment of each person's capabilities by helping people understand their past and how this past affects their self. I also wish to promote overall health and longevity by facilitating self-care.") Please contact the Student Counselling and Career Centre if you are unable to construct your mission statement on your own.
There are several advantages to having a life mission statement. For example, a life mission statement can greatly facilitate the career decision making process: It cuts through stacks of job data, career planning books, and employment statistics to help you generate career alternatives based on your needs. Matching career alternatives to your life goals will begin to provide you with viable career options that are based on your values, personality, interests, and abilities. In addition, knowing your life mission can promote the development and retention of positive characteristics (e.g., self-motivated, purposeful, energetic, committed) which others, including potential employers, will find attractive. Eschewing the development of your own personal life mission statement can result in you: (1) following someone else's life mission; (2) endlessly chasing mission statement goals perhaps without knowing it; (3) feeling that you are living your life against the grain or that there is an imbalance in your life; and (4) having impaired decision making abilities becasue you do not have a template (i.e., your mission statement) to help you make major life decisions.
1st W: WHAT is it?
The World Wide Web, or WWW, is a part of the global information superhighway that we call the Internet. The WWW consists of millions of inter-linked documents ("home pages"), one of which you will see when you reach a certain site on the Web. The "site" that you reach could be anything from a University's home page, to a site where free games can be retrieved for your personal computer, to a student's own personal home page! The World Wide Web is accessed with the use of an application ( a web browser) program designed to view the WWW home pages, usually either Netscape or Mosaic. World Wide Web pages are written in hypertext format, meaning that certain words in the document can be clicked on that will lead to more information on that topic.
2nd W: WHY do I need to know how to access the WWW?
As mentioned earlier, you can access information on the WWW on practically any topic, from anywhere in the world! There are a number of reasons why students interested in researching their career plans would want to use the Web in their information search. These are just a few examples of what you can find:
3rd W: WHERE can I access the WWW?
In order to access the World Wide Web, you must have an Internet account. Most students at the U of M are able to obtain a UNIX account, however, access may vary depending on year of program and faculty. Call or visit the Computer Accounts office, 629 Engineering (474-9788) if you are unsure if you qualify or if you must sign up for an account in person.
Once you have an account, the WWW can be accessed in certain labs across campus. Machray Hall (Science), Education, 5th Floor Engineering, and Duff Roblin (psychology) are some examples of labs that can access Mosaic and/or Netscape. Consult with the lab advisor or a computer-savvy friend if you are unsure of how to access the Web. Students with computers and modems at home can use Netscape or Mosaic at home - contact the Microcomputer Resource Centre (474-6536) for more information.
Happy Web-surfing!
The following are just a few of the possible occupations that require a talent for design:
CLothing Designer - Furniture Designer - Package Designer - Aircraft Design Engineer - Interior Designer - Toy Designer - Exhibit Designer - Graphic Designer - Textile Designer - Set Designer - Layout Designer - Floral Designer - Jewellery Designer - Industrial Products Designer - Naval Architect - Costume Designer - Lighting Designer - Hair Stylist
Most Web documents contain hypertext, which allows you to "link" to other web sites (audio, graphic or text files) on the Internet by simply clicking on the underlined word or phrase in the document. The best way to learn your way around the WWW is to just browse. Any Web page can be linked to any other page through the use of unique web addresses called URLs (Universal Resource Locators). These are based on the Domain Name System (DNS) which is a service housed on several Internet servers that allow users to specify remote computers by host names rather than numerical IP addresses. Basically all you need to know is that everything that can be found on the "Net" has a URL, be it a web site, FTP site, gopher site, newsgroup, and also that no two URLs are the same. The address for a site is found in the Location Box, near the top of the screen:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/counselling
http:// <-- "protocol" - specifies want to access
www.umanitoba.ca/ <-- "server name" of the site
counselling <-- files "pathname" or location in the document
So if you know the exact URL location of a web page, you can get to it without using hyperlinks by simply typing in the URL manually. When using URLs, be careful of proper capitalization, spacing, punctuation and special characters, otherwise you may get the message "unable to locate server...server may not have a DNS entry" which is a common problem.
Search tools, such as InfoSeek, Webcrawler, and the World Web Worm, are also available to help you find more on a general topic. Some will search titles or headers of documents, others will search other indexes or directories. Almost all involve manually typing in a word or phrase to search, and the search engine will list all available documents.
These are the basic ways to start learning the Web. There are a few good sites listed here to help you on your way to career information, but you will find that the best method to discover the 'Net is to explore and click your way to new levels of information and knowledge.
Q. How did you decide on your career?
There were many reasons for my choosing dentistry as a career. I had always enjoyed the health sciences and was very interested in pursuing something in that field. I am someone who enjoys working with my hands, and so I found this type of work appealing. In addition, I enjoy working with people, and helping them, and so I felt that dentistry would satisfy this need as well.
I am a very family-oriented individual, and I wanted a career that would provide me with a lifestyle where my family could remain a priority. Dentistry helps me to fulfil this in that there are so many options available, such as working part-time, establish your own practice, or working as an associate. There are also opportunities other than working in private practice. You may choose to become an instructor, or work in a hospital or community setting. I find it to be a very versatile career.
Q. How did your education provide you for your career?
My education provided me with the clinical skills and academic knowledge necessary to practice dentistry with competence.
Two things I feel that my education did not prepare me for include the business expertise needed to make a practice profitable, and the patient management skills neede to promote treatment options. I have found it necessary to develop these skills as I work.
Q. What are the duties of your job?
First and foremost, my main job is to maintain and promote the oral health of my patients. In order to accomplish this, I must reassure and gain the trust of my patients; perform dental treatments, maintain the dental equipment and supplies; work with, oversee, hire and train staff; fill out charts and maintain records for patients; and market myself and my practice.
In addition, I must attend continuing education courses each year in order to maintain my license and to keep myself informed of new techniques and information.
Q. What has been the most challenging aspect of this career for you so far?
The most rewarding part of my job occurs when patients are appreciative of my efforts to provide the best dentistry possible, whether it is a big or small job. It is a rewarding feeling when patients put their trust in me and my work, and refer others to me.
Q. What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing this career?
I would advise the person to be prepared to have plenty of energy, to be a 'people-person'. Dentistry is a combination of performing highly competent treatment and incorporating business and marketing skills.
If you can coordinate all these things, dentistry can be a very satisfying career!