The Strategies of College Students for Chose of Successful Career Path - Term Paper Example

As early as when children learn how to talk, adults persist asking the children what they want to become when they grow up. When young, children’s responses are that they want to become heroes as the ones read in fairy tales. As they grow up, the answers to this question become more aligned to their areas of interests. These interests set the course for the career students choose to study for in college. Sometimes, however, students fail to transform their interests into careers. It is sad to not that almost 80% of the students do not end up in careers related to their field of study. For students to have a successful career in the future, it is important that they choose the careers with much caution. Students can apply several strategies when choosing the careers to ensure that they are successful in the future. People hold the beliefs that when one has money and wealth, they will be happy. This belief passes from generations to generations. Students get the beliefs that by working hard, they will get a lot of money and be happy. This has an effect in career choice for students, as they choose careers that will earn them a lot of money and be happy. Super- replicators influence the way of thinking of the students, in that they make students believe in what they have achieved in their lives. Students take super-replicators as their role models and choose their careers depending on the latter are advice. Ego-centered networks have the ability to produce super-replicators (Gilbert 171). This is because; they have their own means of transmission from generations to generations. Their proportions increase over time thus creating super-replicator and becoming dominant over other networks. Happiness also plays an extremely significant role in career choice, as students want to choose careers that will make them lots of money and wealth. They believe with money and wealth they will have a happy future. One way for a student can choose a successful career is through other people’s experiences. Students should seek advice from the teachers as to the best careers available in the market. As hard as it is to predict and envision the future, the teacher should be able to give guidance to the students. Even when students have ideas of the careers they want to pursue, they should still ask the guidance of a teacher. This is because; they can be able to get lessons from the experience the teachers went through when growing up rather than trying to figure out everything on their own. Moreover, the teachers will advice the students depending on their capabilities. This will help students avoid the common mistakes people make in choosing career paths. Another way of choosing a successful career is through listening to the correct advice and accepts. Studies show that the average American changes jobs more than three times in his/her lifetime. This mostly results from the poor decisions that people make as they grow up. The reasons for poor decisions making are two; one that people receive the wrong advice from other people and foolishly believes them. Secondly, that people receive appropriate advice but foolishly discards. Some people fail to listen and learn from other people’s experiences since they think every person is unique and different. However, it is true that people’s experiences are immensely helpful in predicting one’s future happiness and career thereof (Gilbert 170). Students who lack information about the future use other people’s imaginations and experiences as surrogates to predict their own future and their careers thereof. In the absence of other information, students make use of the current feeling, satisfaction and happiness of other people today to predict their careers and happiness in the future. However, students refuse to use surrogates when choosing careers since they believe they are remarkably different and unique from other students (Gilbert 179). Consequently, students make use of technology help them decide on the careers they want to choose. Technology, though computers and the internet provide large volumes of information on the marketable careers, changes in career demands, relevance of the career they are interested in and new trends in careers. This way, students are able to make informed choices on the careers they want to pursue and the course to undertake to support the career. Students always consider themselves brighter than the other average students (Gilbert 182). Consequently, students fail to choose careers that other students choose because they feel different and unique. They, thus, choose careers that seem highly promising and interesting as opposed to the usual careers so that they will be better than the others. People’s choices and students for that matter also depend on the social norms. Students choose their future careers depending on the advice they get from friends, families and neighbors. Students place so much trust in their experiences and choose careers depending on how successful these people have been in their careers. By so doing, students are able to choose between different careers depending on how successful other people’s careers have been. Surrogating, thus, becomes not very useful for students in determining their careers in the future. As students choose their career path, they all aspire to get to the highest levels of the career, say to be successful chief executives. However, it is imperative to note that physical appearance plays a very crucial role in determining the success of some careers in some industries. According to a recent research, likeability and competence closely relate to the maturity of facial features. People perceive mature looking individuals as more competent and proficient but less likeable. These two characters, according to the research, relate to CEOS. Such facial traits also distinguish the CEOs who can manage a big company from those who can manage small companies. Though other factors come into play in determining the career success, appearance plays a significant role. Success depending on appearance is majorly a perception from other people, though we also have self-perception, where people believe that the can climb their career ladder depending on the physical appearances. Some industries seem to be predominantly staffed with people from one gender. Sociologists argue that sex segregation results in other differences between males’ and females’ careers. There are some careers greatly associated with men like engineering and automobile repairers. Most employers in these industries become reluctant in employing females. In the same way, there are careers associated with women, like nursing, sales and marketing. People still hold onto these perceptions, explaining why one gender dominates some careers, while the other dominates in other careers. Careers dominated by men present certain challenges for women participation. This discourages women from venturing into these industries for fear of biases. Gender play a very important role in career choice for most student, though the trend is changing with either gender venturing into other sectors considered to be dominated by the opposite sex. Established attitudes towards particular jobs ensure that specific industries continue to be dominated by one gender. Females, for instance, will fail to choose some careers since there is the conception that the careers are male-dominated. They fear threats and biases developed towards women who try to venture in such industries. There has also been evidence that employers fail to employ women in male-dominated industries. Consequently, females choose careers that will get them employments without many difficulties. Various groups that individuals identify with influence the career choice of individuals to a large extent. The family is one group that greatly influences the career choice of students. Children brought up in families they where the parent had good jobs tend to follow the same career path. They would want to live the same kind of life they grew up. In families where the parents did not have a very satisfying job, students will tend to change their careers so that they can meet the needs their parents were unable to meet. In addition, students have role models with whom they associate with. These people influence the career these students choose in a big way. Students also associate with students they feel they share common goals in life (Nathan 230) and thus students end up spending more time with such students as they probably pursue the same course in school. In addition, there are countries where communities decide on the career choice for an individual. In such cases, an individual do not have the powers to make a career choice on his own. Students form groups in school with other students with whom they have common backgrounds. According to Nathan, students always lie that they relate well with groups from different backgrounds but the closest friend are people from their own backgrounds. These are students with similar experiences instilled before they join college. Consequently, it becomes very hard for these students to try to cross boundaries of these groups to other groups. Students want these communities/ groups to remain closely knit though they would not want to make many personal sacrifices like demands on their freedom and time (Nathan 231). The groups, therefore, tend to influence the choice of career a student makes. Work cited Gilbert, D. “Reporting Life from Tomorrow.” Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Vintage Books, 2006. pg.169 – 184. Print.  Nathan, Rebekah. Community and Diversity. Ed. Barclay Barrios. Boston: Bedford, 2010. Print.  Read More