Modern and Traditional Careers - Essay Example

EMPLOYABILITY AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PAPER …………………….. ………………………… …………… How do modern career forms differ from traditional ones and what does this mean for you and your future career? (400 words) Career is a lifestyle concept which involves a sequence of work or leisure activities that one person engages throughout his lifetime. Career is dynamic and is unique to each person and therefore it is largely influenced by individual characteristics (Schutt and Schutt, 2007, p. 2). A person’s career is the sum of his experiences over the course of a lifetime and in his single career he may be a student, a driver, a teacher and a manager etc. Career includes both occupations and pre-vocational and prost-vocational activities and how each individual integrates his work life with his other life roles like family, society etc. Technological advances, multi-education programs, highly dynamic business environments and human mind-set have caused significant changes in the job-market over the last few decades. When it comes to the present day job-market, modern and traditional career makes greater differences, for instance, women generally tend to choose traditional career opportunities than the other, although they too embrace modern jobs in greater numbers. Modern career spans various jobs like skilled trading, services, professional and technical career etc. Modern jobs seem to be more challenging and better paying opportunities than the traditional careers. Technical or professional careers require higher qualifications and specialized skills whereas traditional careers are ordinary stereo-typed jobs that do not require such qualifications and skills. Modern jobs are more paying than traditional ones due to that traditional jobs are easy to perform and are requiring less skills and qualifications. As there are major differences between modern and traditional careers in respect to the skills, qualifications, knowledge and experience required for each, matter of interest and job satisfaction also become significant factors. For example, people seem to enjoy more satisfaction from skilled trading or technical jobs due to that it is more paying and more dignified jobs than the traditional ones. In these days, modern jobs are preferred by women and this trend has been increasing tremendously in many countries. It is not unusual to see females in many skilled trading, technical and professional careers like nursing, managing, sportscaster etc. The career being chosen must be one that gives satisfaction so that it may not be a burden throughout one’s life. I consider modern career to be approached and I feel that modern careers are challenges. There can be many formal job-seeking steps to be followed like meeting the required qualifications, experience, resume-sending, interviews, trainings and career development programs. But, in fact, all these make modern careers different from the traditional and this is the underlying reason why modern careers give more satisfaction and why they are more interesting. What does the current graduate labour market look like and what does this mean for you? (300 words) In recent years, there has been significant changes in higher education and in the graduate labour market. The graduate labour market of twenty first century is characterized mainly by diversity (McNay, 2006, p. 76). The graduate population is increasingly diverse and women participation is growing in most countries. Population taking graduation from lower social classes and ethnic minority groups also have been dramatically increasing in recent years. The graduate labour market has almost dominated today’s entire job-market. As Furlong and Cartmel (2007) noted, the present day graduate labour market can be categorized in to four and it looks like traditional, modern, new and niche. Traditional graduate jobs have long been the preserve with university degrees like scientists and lawyers whereas the other three have recently become dominated by workers with university degrees (p. 44). Modern graduate jobs are new professions where graduation is highly required, new graduate jobs are those that have recently focused on graduate requirements and niche jobs are those in which minority of total jobs comprise of graduates like hotel management. I strongly believe that ‘a degree enough’ attitude is extremely inappropriate in present day dynamic job-market. A graduate degree is not a guarantee to a good job and thinking of a career being ‘typical graduate’ is not appropriate because coming years are more likely to see more fragmentation and diversity in graduate labour markets. In some developed countries, graduate un-employment has become an obviously known phenomenon. Graduation is often considered to be a ‘minimum-qualification’ for entering in to a career, especially in countries where population is high. A graduation degree is more or less an access point to professional degrees and therefore ‘graduation degree’ is not enough competency or is not giving any guarantee of better job opportunities. What is employability? (200 words) Employability refers the skills, knowledge and competencies that can enhance a person’s ability to secure a particular job, retain it and progress at work with an ability to cope with changes (Bibby, 2002, p. 33). Normally, those who are more educated, skilled and experienced are considered to be more employable than those who are not so educated or experienced or skilled. People who are more employable are given preference in employee selection and recruiting processes. Education, knowledge, basic and high-level skills, team-work aptitude, communication, physical soundness, languages, problem-solving skills, training, and professional development are some of the basic characteristics that determine the level of employability of a person. There are various methods to measure the employability like aptitude test, IQ test, interviews, questionnaire and so on. People who are more employable are more rewarded, more paid and more motivated by the employers. Human capital is most powerful assets of an organization and therefore Human Resource Management today is keen to assess and analyze the employability of employees while they are recruited so as to ensure selecting more employable people. Employability is closely related to the productivity because people who are more employable are normally found to be more productive and high performance in business and other organizations. How employable are you? What transferable skills do you have, what do you need to develop and how well can you sell yourself? (200 words) As detailed above, various factors like educations, skills, and qualifications determine the level of employability of a person. When my personal and professional qualifications are considered, I am relatively employable and fit for various careers like assisting managers or working as a superintendent etc. My strong desire and positive attitude to complete university graduations and other professional degrees will make more employable to higher level careers. Leadership qualities, education, communication skills, team-spirit, self-motivation and flexibility to adapt to changes are some of the transferable skills I have and these make me confident that I am relatively more employable. If I am appointed to a company or any other organization with responsibility to assist managers or top level directors, my communication and problem-solving skills would be additional qualifications that can help me improve myself further yet. To be more employable to a higher level career, I need experience and training for the respective job. When my professional experience and development are considered, I may not be well employable to some higher-level jobs. What is plagiarism? (100 words) Plagiarism is copying or theft of language, ideas and wordings of others. Plagiarism is a serious offense and is considered to be a fraud. It occurs when one author or student publishes or submit a paper which is fully or partly copied from someone else’s wording or ideas without proper references or acknowledgment. In recent days, many students, giving no much seriousness, use internet as an easy source to copy and paste part of their papers or assignments. Students and any one who writes a paper or book are recommended to use referencing systems like MLA, APA and Harvard so that they can avoid plagiarism from their papers. If a paper takes an idea from another one’s work without giving proper referencing, it would normally be considered as plagiarism. What is the Harvard referencing system and why do we use it? (200 words) As a student or as a professional article or book writer, the most accepted way to avoid plagiarism by acknowledging the work of others is using a referencing system like MLA, Harvard and APA. Harvard referencing provides a framework for both in-text citations and referencing to other’s wordings, that are mainly intended to reduce the potential for plagiarism ambiguity. All statements, opinions, conclusions etc taken from another work should be cited, as referred in text by giving the author’s surname and the year of publication and must be listed in the bibliography at the end of the text. Neville (2007) pointed the very basic two idea of Harvard styles as: 1- Using citations in the text, by citing the last name of the author(s) and the year of publication 2- Listing all references in full and in alphabetical order at the end of the paper (51) Citing the sources in the body of the paper in partial or shortened reference and giving its details (in the form of Name, Initial, year, title, publisher) gives more convenience to both writers and readers. All its rules and conventions regarding name list of authors, years of publication, in-text citing and referencing, name list when there are more than one authors, electronic materials and journals given a framework to help avoid plagiarism. What are the key things YOU have learned from this module? (100 words) This paper helped me identify difference between modern and traditional career and also to recognize why modern career is more attractive and more interesting. I learned that graduation is not a guarantee to modern career, but rather, it is only an access to selecting an appropriate professional degrees that can help me become more competent in today’s job-market. Various factors determining the employability of a person have been highlighted in this paper that helped me learn how employable am I and what specific areas I need to improve to make me more employable. I also learned that copying or stealing of others’ work is a serious offense and it can be avoided only by adhering to any of the referencing systems like Harvard or MLA. Post Graduation in Marketing Due to the increased availability of online education and various professional degrees, nowadays most candidates seeking a job are well qualified. Most of the graduate students go for post graduation in various fields. I too thought of doing post graduation in marketing from a reputed university so that my candidature will be more acceptable and my employability will be improved further. I believe that post graduation can add more values to a person and make him fit for various jobs and opportunities. Many studies have proved that candidates with post graduation are well knowledgeable and due to their excellence in the required field, they tend to adjust easily with the environments. My major is marketing and I prefer marketing for Post graduation. With post graduation in marketing, I am highly confident that I will be able to access various opportunities like lecturing university degree students or marketing executives or marketing manager for business organizations. Applying for post graduation will certainly require submitting samples of my writings to show my competency in literatures, writing and understanding of various marketing concepts. I do understand that, as a student, one of the very basic and primary point to be noted is regarding the reference style of the paper, no matter how big or small it is, and strict adherence to a specific format so as to avoid plagiarism in writings. Before approaching post graduation, I would like to make use internet and any available journals or sources to deeply study and practice the referencing models like APA, Harvard and MLA. I hope this paper can be used as a sample for my writing skills and also to check my understanding of Harvard referencing style. Many businesses, especially those large scale operators that go global, are badly in need of marketing professionals. They were looking for qualified marketing professionals like managers and executives who can help the company study marketing opportunities, international marketing environments, study and find easy entry modes for various countries and do relevant marketing researches. In today’s highly complicated marketing landscape, a marketing manager will be extremely responsible person and he will be committed to work well for better marketing of its products and services. My keen interest in doing post graduation in Marketing, my academic degree and performance, research aptitude and understanding of various referencing formats will be some of my personal values that can merit approval of my request to a post graduation degree. A Post graduation is my dream and its success will certainly make me a man fit for the desired career and I can contribute my candidature to the filed I prefer for my career as well. References Bibby, A, 2002, Employment, employability and equal opportunities in the postal and telecommunications services: report for discussion at the Tripartite Meeting on Employment, Employability and Equal Opportunities in the Postal and Telecommunications Services, Geneva, 2002, International Labour Organization Furlong, A and Cartmel, F, 2007, Young people and social change: new perspectives, Second illustrated edition, McGraw-Hill International McNay, I, 2006, Beyond mass higher education: building on experience, Illustrated edition, McGraw-Hill International Neville, C (2007), The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism, Illustrated edition, McGraw-Hill International Schutt, D. A and Schutt, D. A, 2007, How to Plan and Develop a Career Center, Illustrated second edition, Infobase Publishing Read More