How to choose a profession?
1. A profession must be interesting
One of good reasons of choosing a profession is interest to its content. If it is pleasant to you, you will work willingly, will try not to lose your job, will improve skills, will gain authority of people around and, eventually, you will earn more.
2. The profession has to correspond to your own opportunities
Any profession imposes the requirements to a person: to his health state, level of his /her qualification and his/her abilities. For example, if you chose to be an ecologist which is trendy now, you have to know that you must graduate from higher education institution, it is necessary to have abilities of analytical thinking, observation, and civil courage. Besides, if you have skin and allergic diseases or musculoskeletal device diseases, you cannot be the ecologist.
3. The profession has to be demanded
When the person chooses a profession, he does not always think whether this profession is demanded among employers, whether it will be easy to find a job on this specialty. Sometimes it may happen that after you had chosen a profession you graduated from a university or a technical school and when you started to look for a job, you realize that there is no demand for these types of specialists. Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell precisely how demand for professions in 5-10 years will change. However, it is possible to find some information what specialists are required today, and to assume what professions will be required in the future.
Conditionally it is possible to call all these three requirements as “I Want”, “I Can” and “It is necessary”. And your professional choice will be successful if you are able to combine them among themselves.
Is it always possible to determine exact profession`s coordinates on the psychological map?
Certainly, division of professions to psychological types and classes is rather conditional.
Surely several subjects of its activity characterize any profession. However, one of them is more essential, and others – less. Thus a professional lawyer works with people therefore, it can be referred to the “person – person” type of professions. However, significantly the lawyer should deal with text information: documents, laws, etc. Therefore, professional features like “people – sign system” can be inherent in the lawyer`s work.
Another example is a nurse who first of all has to be able to communicate with sick people, but besides she has to have skills of taking care of patients and using the technical equipment, and also has to know fundamentals on Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology of the person, Chemistry and Pharmacology, to be attentive during working with documents, data of analyses, equipment indicators. As an example of other adjacent professions, it is possible to list professions of a seller, a security guard, an administrative assistant, a hairdresser, a cutter.
Besides, the common professional categories can include some specializations. Therefore, the person who got education in Law and has a profession of the lawyer further can choose one of several ways of the professional career. For example, he can become a lawyer, a crime investigator, a legal adviser, a notary or a criminalist. If work the lawyer`s work is directed generally on people, the notary deals with documents, and the criminalist – with information more often.
Therefore, knowing only the general names of the whole category of professions it is difficult confidently refer them to one exact type. Thus, there is quite large number of different specializations of agents, sellers, doctors, managers, teachers, and engineers.
Where is it possible to read or look up materials about various professions?
The informative materials about professions published in various editions are the fullest and exact. However, not everywhere and not always at your disposal there can be a convenient access to all these materials. Besides, search of necessary information can be rather difficult work demanding certain skills and patience. Sometimes you may need other people`s help. The following sources of information can represent the greatest interest:
- books;
- newspapers and magazines;
- TV broadcast and radio;
- Video films;
- Information on computer disks;
- Information in the Internet.
Books, textbooks, reference books, encyclopedias that contain systematic data on different professions, can be found in libraries, bookstores, booths and trays, on bookshelves at the acquaintances. Sometimes librarians, sellers, teachers and professional consultants can help to find and choose necessary books. Literature data about professions are the most objective and exhaustive though not always are modern enough.
Information on separate professions is published in newspapers and magazines, usually it is reported about specific representatives of these professions, and events in which they participated are described. Reading any of most ordinary journalistic story or interview, it is possible to receive information on what professions and specialties are met in our life. However, not all professions are equally presented in the press but only those that involve journalists and interest readers.
Presently, along with a large number of arts, entertaining and musical video movies videotapes with educational movies start appearing. Some of them represent video descriptions of concrete professions. You can learn about some ways to be acquainted with such movies, at professional consultants in the centers of career guidance and job centers. Find out, whether there is such opportunity at your school, in libraries and video studios.
If you or your acquaintances have an access to a computer or even the computer itself you might know that, you can find a lot of information on computer disks. Especially, on computer CDs (compact disks) which in large numbers are on sale in book and computer shops of a city, and in the markets? Among disks with numerous computer games and software, you can find the numerous databases, texts, electronic versions of books, reference books, encyclopedias training programs, psychological tests. Including those that contain data on different professions.
Finally, the most convenient source of information in general and about professions also is the Internet. It is possible to find many things, in particular, data on educational institutions, on professions according to which they teach, about workplaces, etc…
How is it possible to be acquainted with different professions?
Certainly, before choosing a profession it is necessary to do some research on it. How it can be done? There are some ways of search and collection of information about professions.
Firstly, you can ask acquainted people to tell about the professions that interest you. Secondly, you have an opportunity to read about different professions in books or to learn about some of them in movies. Thirdly, in certain cases it is possible to observe the experts` work on their workplace. Fourthly, sometimes there is an opportunity for you to try to work.
Where did professions come from?
The term “profession” comes from the Latin word meaning: to speak publicly, to declare, to announce. By the way, the word “professor” arises out from that. However, the origin of the word “profession” confuses rather than explains our understanding of its meaning. Let`s address to history.
Long time ago, primitive people when there was no division of labor yet and did not have different professions. Each person was compelled to do everything by himself. However, after all some division of labor took place – between men and women. Men, as a rule, hunted on animals, built the dwelling, did the weapon, tools, boats. Women collected edible plants, cooked food, made clothes, and raised children.
Then in process of society`s development among people market relations began to arise and there was a specialization of people in work types. Some people became hunters, others – fishermen, the third – farmers, the fourth – builders, the fifth – weavers, the sixth – potters, and the seventh – smiths, and the eighth – sorcerers, shamans, and priests. They exchanged products of their work with each other. The knowledge and skills accumulated in each group of people passed from father to son. Division of labor appeared, professions appeared too.
How the profession and hobby are connected to each other?
Your hobby can become a profession. Equally, as your profession can be fascinating to you. Any of your hobbies can be valuable from the professional point of view. If you can make beautiful things, sew, cook well, cut, do massage or give a jab, grow flowers or to breed pets, repair household appliances, write computer programs, play chess, go to backpacking, be engaged in oriental martial arts, you dance or you go in for city history, you not only have an opportunity to relax completely and to communicate with interesting people and to be an interesting companion. Every hobby of yours can become a reason for setting of business acquaintances, a source of the additional income or even a turning point for a choice of a new profession.
Of course, an ideal option for the person would be the case when his/her profession is one of his/her interests, a hobby. In this case, the person derives a maximum of pleasure from the profession and goes to work with desire and enthusiasm. In another case, the person looks for possibilities of realization of the interests and tendencies somewhere else. Treat the profession as the compelled activity, a tool for satisfying other requirements.
Choice of a university
It is necessary to come to this issue with special care. On the one hand, there are ratings facilitating universities` classification. On the other hand, ratings do not reflect everything that is important at a postgraduate study choice. I took various ratings and analyzed universities of the first twenty in each of them. As the main criterion were a variety of research laboratories and subjects of researches on my narrow subject (fundamental cellular and molecular immunology), and level of these laboratories proceeding from publications in the last 5 years served. Out of this I made my own rating of twenty chosen schools, divided them into three categories – A, B and C.
Various universities` ratings are based on their own assessment criteria, and often many top-schools from one rating can be found in number of outsiders of another. Therefore ratings only should be considered, but in any way not to base the decision on them. In my opinion, the variety of the laboratories and professors working on the subject that interest you, and also the level of their researches is much more important – it is possible to judge it according to their publications in recent years. After completing postgraduate study in your CV will be a place not only fort receiving degree, but also the publication in magazines, and recommendations of your colleagues and chiefs. All this should be weighed and considered at a choice of future school – in my opinion, it is better to receive a degree at good professor with good publications at university with lower rating than in weak laboratory of strong university. Though, of course, it would be better everything to be at the good level.
Here are some various ratings of the American Graduate Schools on various disciplines:
- http://www.usnews.com/rankings
- http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings
- http://www.toprankedgradschools.com
If you are at a loss with a specialty choice so far, the following web sites might be helpful:
- http://www.petersons.com
- http://gradschools.com
The big name of university often does not extend on the program chosen by you. For example, little known in wide areas Baylor College of Medicine in ratings of USNews and NIH of medical schools on researches (Biomedical Sciences) stands above than well-known University of Chicago or Cornell (Weill). In addition, Harvard, for example, in a rating of Computer Science programs is considered as the outsider. However, Harvard belongs to universities, which have high ratings almost in everything and are considered prestigious almost in any category – as well as MIT, UC Berkeley, Duke, Stanford, Princeton, etc.
In a number of schools (for example, UC San Diego (Biomed) and Emory University) there is so-called preliminary application – that is the predemand considered by a committee. It is completely free and consists of a number of forms – as well as a usual application, only slightly less extensive, without recommendations, official results and full-fledged statement of purposes. If the selection committee approves your candidacy, you pass to official competition (at both UC and Emory refused me). Advantage is that it really allows saving money.
It is reasonable to choose several schools from each category of A B and C – depending on the level of your preparation and results of examinations. The best students should count on schools of A category, adding couple of schools from group B to the list and one-two sure-shots (outsiders from C). The lower you estimate yourself, the lower accents have to be displaced on groups.
After you made the approximate list of schools, it is necessary to find out all details of admission at each university. It is very important because unexpected obstacles will be unpleasant or will not allow to be admitted to this school at all. For example, almost at the stage of application filling I found out that University of Michigan does not accept foreign students on the program in immunology. Or UC Irvine demands Test of Spoken English necessarily – and by then neither opportunity, nor desire to hand over it wasn’t any more (in modern TOEFL of iBT there is a separate speaking section which allows not to take TSE – I passed TOEFL PBT which did not include this section). Besides, suddenly it will become clear that deadlines for foreigners passed in this university for a long time – all these moments need to be found out still before dispatching transcripts, results of tests and other. Respectively, it is necessary to do it in October – the beginning of November edge and it is better earlier.