Growing Up in Vietnam - Essay Example

Student’s name: Institution: Date: Part 1: My journey so far My journey so far has been pleasant and quite impressive despite the various challenges that I have encountered on the way while growing up in Vietnam. I did my junior school in Vietnam and the environment provided contributed greatly to my progress. During this tender age, I really wanted to grow up and be a doctor; especially given that, one of my uncles was a doctor and he spent most of his life saving patient’s lives. I admired him so much and this encourage me to work even harder to reach the same level as him. Mom and Dad were equally supportive during this time and they encouraged me to work hard and kept reminding me that I was the best and capable of becoming a doctor. Similarly, the school environment piled up more pressure that compelled me to work even much harder in my academics. The school subjected us to very tough rules, which included four hours in school each day, and we attended school for six days in a week. Most of our school days also began with tests, which were brought promptly to evaluate the level of preparedness we had for our exams. Mom and Dad were very keen on ensuring that my class performance was impressive since students that scored below average marks were often requested to bring their parents to school, a factor that my parents greatly detested. The teaching methods adopted by my teacher in junior high school were equally thorough and comprehensive with teachers requiring students to answer questions on the white board. I pursued 11 subjects, which were compulsory, and I scored impressive marks, which triggered my parents to provide me with more study materials for my studies. I finally graduated from my senior high school and my average marks were not as I expected. Perhaps I was over ambitious that I never attained the marks I was targeting; I could not proceed with my ambitions of becoming a doctor. I felt quite devastated and nearly gave up, but my parents still believed in me a strongly and the efforts that I pledged in my work. I began interacting with people from different career backgrounds and each person seemed to consider his/ her career to be the best and superior. Among the discussions, I had about career choices were becoming a lawyer, an accountant, designer and Tourism and hospitality management. The nature of interaction I had with various people enabled me to make critical decisions regarding my career. My family had the greatest influence on my career followed by my friends who from time to time gave me insightful information reading the courses I intended to pursue. Finally, i chose to pursue tour-guiding study to help me fulfil one of my wildest desires. One of the key factors that led to the choice of this alternative was my love for nature (Frochot 2010). From childhood, my parents often took me to game reserves and forests just to enjoy the beauty of nature and the various elements that comprised the natural environment. My childhood was characterised by reading and watching animal stories, a factor that spurred my inner thoughts into selecting a career that I would enjoy pursuing to the fullest. Tourism and hospitality was indeed a perfect course for me since it was based on my sound personal influence and desires. During my studies as a tour guide, i chose to pass highly and be among the topmost students in the class. The decision to excel in my class work was motivated by the fact that i had failed and did not want to fail again. I emerged top in that class and the school awarded me with a partial scholarship to study tourism and hospitality at Latrobe University, Melbourne Australia. My journey to the current point that I am in has been inspired by my friends, relatives and ambitions that have makes me work extra hard to achieve my target. Relatives and friends who are knowledgeable provided the best and most helpful information regarding career choices. One of the theories that relates to my journey so far is the Careers chaos theory. This theory recognises the fact that careers are complex, dynamic, unpredictable and highly sensitive to change. The theory states the need for adopting personal goals and ambitions to changing situations. This incorporates the possibilities off changes as well as alternative outcomes that may be anticipated regardless of the original plan. In my case, my ambitions of becoming a doctor were thwarted when I never met the qualification marks for pursuing that career. Furthermore, the theory reiterates that any decision, no matter how small have the ability to change the future, and revise the current goals that are ongoing. The job market environment is quickly changing and people are bound to change or reconsider their career choices. This theory explains my journey at the moment. Part 2: My future career Reflect on where you are in your own preparation for your future career My future career involves tourism and hospitality, which is what i am studying at the university. I love tourism and hospitality management, and learning in Australia has opened a variety of opportunities for me to partially practice my tourism skills. Tourism is becoming one of the most promising sectors worldwide. The improvements in transport and communication infrastructures have encouraged the development of more hotels and tourism destinations hence creating a large number of job opportunities. Moreover, many tourist destinations that were inaccessible are currently accessible hence making the study of tourism to be of great relevance and promising to persons pursuing studies in the line of tourism. The tourism and hospitality students have a number of choices to make in regards to their career (Kayne 2007). One such choice is to become a tour guide, in which case, the main function would be walking people around their tourist destination. In addition, the graduates can decide to begin their own company and offer the desired services. As a graduate in this field, I intend to use my skills and passion for tourism in assisting people professionally using my knowledge and skills in the area of tourism. Moreover, to succeed in this career, one needs to develop proper understanding of the tourism and is elements, the responsibilities and duties of a tour guide, and other essentials that are mandatory to this. As well, the individual ought to pass highly in the examination assessment to prove competent in the area of studies. One of the areas that have been emphasised on during our learning is proper communication skills. This is the ability to seamlessly communicate to people at all time. The message should be clear and straight to the point. Most employers in this field demand that people posses such lucrative skills. Another skill is adaptability; this is the ability of an individual to adapt to a given environment sufficiently (Joppe 2010). Tourism includes travelling to different places, and therefore a person interested in pursuing such a career must be ready to face different environments most of which may be challenging. Relatively, flexibility is a major attribute that one must possess in the tourism industry. A person must be willing to work in different environments or perform different tasks such as tour guiding, serving visitors, explaining to visitors certain myths or history of the region’s geography among others. Personally, I need to further develop my communication and interacting skills. I intend to learn other foreign languages such as French, Chinese, and German to make my career path more lucrative. In this way, i will be eligible to work in a number of places around the world (Go 2009). At the same time, i intend to develop more knowledge in regards to tourism attraction sites, their history, their features and their geographical location. This will enable me to give detailed information to visitors who may want to know further about the region they are visiting. To develop the above skills, I will enrol for short periodic lessons that will refresh my knowledge on tourism and hospitality industry (Smith 2012). The lessons are important in updating on the current tourism trends that will make an individual more competent. Moreover, I will perform a deeper research on the various tourism attraction sites and know their features, after which I will visit the regions to confirm that which i read about the places. Luck readiness index Component Scores Flexibility Average Optimism Above average Risk Below average Curiosity Average Persistence Average Strategy Average Efficacy Average Luckiness Below average The above are the results of my Luck Readiness Index test. The areas that are wanting in my LRI test are mainly Luckiness and risks. The average and the above average postings on the table indicate good performance and progress on the career path. This means I can adapt and utilise various opportunities that may come way efficiently to pursue my career. Change perception index Component Scores Acceptance of continuous change Above average Need to control uncertainty Average Non-linearity Below average Phase shift Average Emergence Average Goal attractor Above average Routine attractor Above average complexity attractor Below average Purpose spirituality Average From the above CPI results, the areas that are mainly limiting my ability to change include non-linearity and complexity attractor. The other components hold at least an average or above average scores which depict a good trend. The above tests have reflected on a number of areas that need to be improved to enable proper and improved decision-makings. The below average scores are mainly from the regions that have not yet been perfected and I am currently working on improving. Chaos Reality Check List I agree with the general interpretation of the report, and the most surprising part was that of the opinion offering. As much as the test may reflect departure from reality, it is worth noting that some instances are compelling and likely to place an individual in such a compromising position. The dimensions that indicate strengths for me are the decision making and the ability to take risks. Risk taking is imperative for attainment of any success, however, if the risks do not go as planned, the individual can experience a great downfall. There are many opportunities, most of which can be easily explored through risk taking and ensuring that viable options arte put under consideration. Career decision-making questionnaire According to this report, a number of strengths have been reflected. Some of these include the gathering and processing of information, which the findings reveal that I am thorough in. Much effort is equally invested during the process hence making it engaging. Relatively, the report has revealed the ability to make group decisions for more effectiveness. References Frochot, I., 2010, Tourism and hospitality marketing “ A global perspective. Tourism Management, 31(5), 692-693. Go, F,2009, Tourism and Hospitality Management Education: New Horizons. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2(2), 12. Joppe, M, 2010, Benchmarks in hospitality and tourism. Tourism Management, 25(6), 812-813. Kayne, S, 2007, The 4th World Conference for Graduate Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26(3), I. Smith, W. W, 2012, Cases in hospitality and tourism management. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(3), 1737-1738. Read More