Angela DeFreitas Presents Conference Paper

On October 11, 2007 in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Caribbean Career Key (CK) publisher Ms. Angela DeFreitas presented a paper on the Caribbean CK at the annual conference of the Caribbean Area Network for Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education. Please let me know if you're interested in obtaining a copy and I can send it to you.

Career Choice a Process?

Should making a career choice be a process? A series of actions or steps you take? Most experts I know would say, "Yes, for most people." And, we have designed our website with this in mind. We encourage users to see it as a process, to follow the steps in the self-help articles that apply. Most will agree that the breadth, depth, and quality of our articles are unrivaled. But, with a few exceptions, the percent of people who look at them is quite small.

For example, on our home page we say, "Learn to use the Career Key website guided by these three principles: 1. Know yourself, 2. Know your options, 3. Make a good decision." But, fewer than ten percent of our visitors click the button, "Learn More". The same is true for most of the other articles on our website.

The authors of an article in the Journal of Career Assessment (2003) recommended three criteria for evaluating online self-help career assessments; one is "Emphasis on Process": The material communicates to the user that career planning and development are ongoing processes . . . Clear steps in that process are identified so that the user can understand where she or he is in the process and what the next steps might be."

We describe those steps, but most Career Key visitors do not seem interested. Why? Do we need to do more at our website to encourage users to do this? Is it that they do not have to pay and, thus, do not see them as valuable? People want a quick answer? What do you think?

Does college pay?

I've recently seen in the Seattle Times an article questioning whether college pays, citing CollegeBoard.com's figures that it takes 14 years for a college graduate's salary, net of loan payments, to equal that of a high-school graduate. I've seen other concerns raised about the high costs of going to college, but I don't think that changes the fact that college graduates have access to higher-paying jobs over a lifetime.

The only downside I see to getting a college degree is if you make a poorly researched career choice and spend the money for a type of degree that becomes practically useless when you want to change careers later. So for example, if you complete an Investigative major like engineering and later want to become a museum curator (or vice versa), you may have to start from scratch with taking classes. Reading Dr. Jones's ePublication, Choosing Your College Major will help you make a good decision that avoids this trap.

I've also seen criticisms of parents who leave the traditional workforce to take care of children, which some view as a "waste" of the degree. But I reject that conclusion because (a) skills and knowledge gained from a degree help to raise a child and run a household, (b) many of these parents start businesses, and (c) the degree serves as a safety net so that if circumstance (divorce, financial, or kids leaving home) necessitates a return to work, that parent will have better job opportunities.

An alternative to an expensive college degree is technical training in a particular field where you can learn valuable, transferable job skills in a well-paid job. For example, an apprenticeship program with a public utility or with a corporation like Boeing. Shortages of highly skilled workers in fields like health care and technology have been predicted as baby boomers retire. The key is to keep people not destined for college from becoming "techno-peasants" as one expert calls them - left behind by the need for technology skills.

All this recent emphasis on whether college is financially worth it stems from the rapidly rising costs of college tuition, even for public, state-run institutions. The danger of rising costs excluding people from getting a college education is a legitimate concern. However, responding to high cost by giving up on a college education needs to be weighed against the opportunities available to high-school diploma/GED holders. If you're a Realistic personality type and mechanical skilled apprenticeship programs look attractive, then maybe it would make sense for you to forgo hefty college loans. All the more reason to use our tips on how to make a good decision up front.

What is the purpose of a college education?

For those of you considering higher ed, or advising students who are, you're probably aware of the recent debate over whether the high costs of a college education are worth it, and if you do go to college, for what is that time best used? Self-exploration? Career preparation? One or both? My opinion is that it should be both - they do not need to be mutually exclusive.

In a recent NYT interview, the new president of Harvard University, Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust, took issue with the federal government's emphasis on higher education's training a globally competitive workforce. She paraphrased W. E. B. DuBois: “Education is not to make men carpenters so much as to make carpenters men.” Dr. Faust was reacting to a September 2006 federal Commission's recommendation that college use more standardized testing (a la No Child Left Behind) to raise student standards. Here's another critique of that report.

I think both Dr. Faust and Margaret Spelling's Commission on Higher Education raise good points. Having gone to an expensive private university myself and having witnessed a few fellow students wasting 4-5 years "finding themselves" through hours of video games and partying, there is some merit to the Commission's position that college should be a training ground to enter a competitive workforce and accordingly tough. Our website addresses the reality of the Free Agent workforce.

But many students, some of whom use The Career Key test, need some time to learn about themselves and to explore different majors and different career paths. And that takes freedom and time to take different classes, which some science majors like pre-Med and engineering may limit. Writing skills, for example, may be neglected in some science focused curricula. So exploration outside one's chosen field would be wise.

I think students should take advantage of the freedom to explore, while keeping in mind the end game. After graduation, you need a job, preferably one that you enjoy or at least is a step on a ladder in a career that matches your personality. Or you need to enter a graduate school that is a prerequisite to the same path. The reality of our global economy is that the job market for good, high paying jobs is competitive. You might as well choose a satisfying career at the beginning.

Dr. Jones Publishes Article on Harmful Tests

The American School Counselor Association magazine School Counselor will publish in its November/December 2007 career development issue Dr. Jones's article, "Harming Students by Using an Invalid Career Test." It is an expansion on the article he wrote here drawing attention to the widespread use of invalid career tests. In 2003, The Journal of Career Assessment devoted several articles to the use of internet career tests and the poor quality and lack of validity of many of them; and yet people continue to use, recommend and link to these invalid tests.

Although this issue may seem self-serving for The Career Key and Dr. Jones, a test developer, to raise, anyone who knows Dr. Jones knows that much of his professional career has been devoted to measuring results in the career guidance area. Also, The Career Key was started as a philanthropy - free of charge for almost ten years until the costs of programming and web hosting made charging for the test a necessity. Now, Dr. Jones continues to provide most of the website content for free while providing heavy group purchase discounts to counselors.

I am sure and I hope there will be many more posts and discussion on this topic.

The Self-Employment Key Nears Completion

We're excited that the programming for our new test, The Self-Employment Key, is almost complete. It is now being tested. This unique test will help people decide whether self-employment is right for them and what type of business best fits their personality.

Work Life Balance? Be prepared to make your own rules

Using my own experience as a guide, I think many young people may underestimate the impact of having a family on their career. Given the amount of books, articles, and blogs I see about "work/life" balance, the same issue appears over and over again. How can I maintain a good career and enjoy a healthy family life? Here's my answer: get the best, most valuable skills you can in whatever career you choose, so that you can move jobs or become self-employed and make your own rules. Otherwise you will be forced onto someone else's treadmill.

I graduated from high school in 1989. Feminism of the 1970s and 1980s was supposed to have stamped out sexism and opened up job opportunities for women; in many respects it did. I can't recall ever thinking that there was any job/career not open to me. This was a gift - and I thank my parents and the women's movement for it. Having it all (great work, great family) seemed truly possible. And thankfully, the desire to spend time with family while having a good career has expanded to include more men. On average, fathers now spend more time with their children than their own fathers did. Good news for everyone.

But the reality is that the workplace, and particularly now in the U.S. with such long work hours expected in most jobs, is not family friendly. This isn't necessarily sexist, although it disproportionately impacts women since women continue to do the bulk of domestic work. But it impacts parents. Good childcare is hard to find and expensive, and some parents do not want to outsource 100% of their childcare. Flexible schedules are hard to negotiate and find.

To find part-time work, flexible schedules, or a work day that allows you to get home by 6:30 p.m. most nights, you must find the right employer. And some careers lend themselves to better work hours than others. So when you're looking at a career, work schedule and availability of contract work or self-employment may be important. See informational interviewing. I know researching that issue was important for me when I chose law. I knew I could "hang a shingle" and become self-employed if I needed to - and sure enough, I needed to and it worked out well.