Worker's Guide to Get and Keep the Corporate Job (eBook)

Chapter One

Your Career Counts

Technology and market conditions are changing jobs and the workplace. Many jobs that existed twenty years ago are gone or replaced with computers, robots, artificial intelligence applications, and models. Whatever job you take or already have will be impacted by technology sometime in the near future. When choosing a career, you need to factor in the uncertainty that this technological disruption will cause throughout your working life and be ready to grab the opportunities that come along with these workplace disruptions.

Choosing Your Career

Careers can begin with high school graduation, or getting back into the workforce after raising your children or caring for an elderly or disabled family member, or having been unemployed or retired and wanting to get back into a hot labor market. Some people fall into a career working for a family member and stay with that career for the rest of their working life. Most people don’t have that chance but instead must choose a career, plan to achieve their career, and stay focused and develop their career. You cannot pick a career off of a shelf because they do not come in nicely, contained packages. Choosing a career requires thoughtful consideration, planning and research of your intended career path. When choosing your first career or the next career, you need to think about the following questions:

• What type of training or education will I need?
• Where can I get the training or education?
• How long will the training or education take?
• How much money will the training or education cost?
• Will this career be financially rewarding to me?

Most workers will change jobs several times throughout their working life because of changes to their employer or industry, the need for more money or more challenges, the desire to pursue a passion, and for various changes in circumstances.

After high schooling, you will spend most of your life working. Therefore, select a good career to ensure you will live a rewarding life. Whatever you do, don’t let fate or a leap of faith determine your career for you.

How will you choose a career? How did you select the career you are in?

• Figured it sounded cool
• Always wanted to do it
• Had a calling for it
• Money potential
• Prestige, maybe the job title
• Mom and Dad wanted me to do it (NOT A GOOD REASON)

Did you research the college you attended or the curriculum and major you selected? Are you ready and prepared for your first job or your next job? Have you developed a plan to guide you to a rewarding career? Have you selected the best post-high school education for your new career? Will your post-education prepare you for your career, give you the base needed for your chosen career? Will your new career enable you to pay back your school loans?

The Occupational Outlook Handbook by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics is an excellent source of information on various careers including description of the career, educational requirements and salary information. The Occupational Outlook Handbook can be accessed at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.

Planning and Preparing for Your Career

Environmental issues like where you grew up, the quality of school(s) you attended, and the upbringing provided by your parents are key to starting out on the right foot in life. But you can always change the hand you were dealt. However, remember that only you can make this change. Love, stability, and talent (and there are millions of kinds of talent) will set you firmly on the path to a successful and rewarding future. Beyond those three circumstances are luck and effort.

The overall cumulative grade point average (average of all course grades) and the grade point average for your major are the true indicators of whether you learned anything in college. Was yours or your parents’ investment worth the time and cost? Did you strive for a very high average in your major (high B up to A) and a solid, modestly high cumulative average overall (C+ up to high B or A). Any higher grades are great, and honors are even better. Getting and working on an internship with a company in your major field is very beneficial.

Take heart: If you did well in high school and really learned what was taught, you will do fine in college. If you didn’t do well in high school (not studying, skipping classes, not being serious, taking the wrong curriculum), don’t even think of going to college. College is more difficult than high school, and you need to be more disciplined to get to classes and study. Your grades reflect your commitment to learning.

For those of you who didn’t do well in high school, go to the military branch of your choosing (there, you may grow up, learn an important skill, and then you can decide on a career and use the G.I. Bill to pay for your schooling) or go to a technical school if you have the acumen, talent, and ability for it. You must do something after you leave high school. If you did well in high school but don’t plan to further your education, there are still plenty of good jobs paying a good wage and offering advancement. But you will have to work hard and pick the right field, wherein your job won’t be later taken over by a computer or robot. Or if you have a skill and the knack, you could start your own business and be your own boss. Maybe if you were born lucky and one or both of your parents have an operating business, you could be employed with them.

A study by The Wall Street Journal, published on December 11, 2018 (see graph below), reported the following:1

• Forty percent of students who enrolled in four-year colleges and universities do not graduate within six years.
• Students who attend some college but do not earn a degree are worse off economically because they leave college without a degree but with student loan debt.
• College graduates, on average, earn about $1 million more than their high school–educated peers over their lifetimes.
• Even ten years after graduation, thirty-two percent of college graduates end up with jobs that do not require a college degree.
• Recent graduates have more than twice the student loan debt than graduates did twenty years ago.

The takeaway from this study is that students entering college should be sure they make the commitment to finish college, pick a major that is likely to prepare them for a solid career, and avoid taking on too much student loan debt. Deciding what to do after high school, or planning to start a new career, has become an increasingly high-stakes gamble unless you properly prepare for the challenge.

You should have been preparing for college or some other post-high school education and training since first grade. Have you been a “slacker” since first grade? If you have been a slacker most of your life, there’s always the local government or welfare, via which you can make a simple living of your choice.

If you were average in high school or planning to start a new career, you should start your college education by going to a community college. Community colleges have very good curricula and courses in the business, technical, and computer science fields, and most community colleges offer associate’s and bachelor’s degrees. Community colleges have cheaper tuition and other fees and are usually near residential localities so you can continue to live with your parents and save money on room and board, which is a major expense at colleges. Community colleges are also a great choice for furthering your education to qualify for a change in your career while working at a job. Most community college course credits are transferable to four-year colleges, where you may want to get your degree. If you know which four-year college you want to go to, be sure to check on the transferability of your community college course credits.

Interest in online colleges is growing for both bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and will continue to grow because of their accessibility and convenience. Many brick-and-mortar colleges and universities provide online education programs, as do “for profit” colleges and universities. The interest and acceptance of online colleges has gotten a major boost with the closing of college campuses due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Students have to continue their class work and courses online from home or other off-campus residence. This online trend should continue long after the pandemic is over and college campuses reopen.

For-profit colleges refer to higher education institutions operated by profit-seeking private businesses. An example of a for-profit college or university is the University of Phoenix. For-profit colleges are run like any other business; the owners and shareholders expect the school to turn a profit. Nonprofit universities aim to provide a full educational experience to each attending student. These universities want to help students achieve their academic goals. An example of a...