The Big Picture:
Some Thoughts About Career Choices
First of all, it isn’t easy to choose. I don’t care if a career guru tells you that if you just follow your instincts or complete the exercises in this workbook, the answers to questions about your future will simply reveal themselves. Discovering your future is not, I repeat, is not like peeling an orange. However, each person is given a number of pieces of string. These are their strengths, experiences, values, interests, and gifts; these are all hints and indicators of good career choices. With these pieces of string and with great effort, a person can choose to construct a rope, a tool for getting to where you want to go.
It also helps to see your career choices with a view to how it fits into the entire world. We live such insular lives, it somehow helps to put your choices in the perspective of a greater context. For starters, look at the world’s population: 6.15 billion people. In the U.S., we have 284 million residents.
Very few people can relate to the size of these numbers, so let’s simplify. If the world were made up of 1000 people who lived in a village, this is how the world would look:
Ethnicities
� 584 Asians
� 124 Africans
� 95 Europeans
� 84 Latin Americans
� 55 Soviets, Latvians, Lithuanians, etc.
� 52 North Americans
� 6 Australian & New Zealanders
Languages
� 150 Mandarin Chinese
� 86 English
� 83 Hindu & Urdu
� 64 Spanish
� 58 Russian
� 37 Arabic
Religions
� 329 Christians
� 178 Moslems
� 167 Non-religious
� 132 Hindus
� 60 Buddhists
� 45 Atheists
� 3 Jews
� 86 Others
Ages
� 330 Children ages 10 and under.
� 610 ages 11 to 60
� 60 over age 60
Wealth
� 60 would have one-half the Village’s income.
� 70 would own an automobile ( some have more than one car).
� 500 go to bed hungry.
� 600 live in sub-standard housing.
� 700 are illiterate.
With a budget of $3000.00, the village would spend like this:
� $ 181.00 goes towards weapons and warfare.
� $ 159.00 goes towards education.
� $ 132.00 goes towards health care.
Life in the U.S.A.
States with Highest Life Expectancy:
Hawaii
Minnesota
Iowa
Utah
North Dakota
States with Highest Suicide Rate:
Wyoming
Nevada
Colorado
Arizona
Montana
New Mexico
Source: Harold Hodgkinson, Demographic Presentation, Orange Coast College, 1992
The Breakdown of National Boundaries
� 1960 Census: White and Other: How low can you go?
� 2000 Census: 18 Ethnic Categories + Other.
� Coca Cola, Chevrolet Nova, Osco, Geo: Terrible mistakes!
� NAFTA, European Economic Community
� Bilingualism & Biculturalism
� Largest Ethnic Group Increase in U.S. population
Source: Harold Hodgekinson, Demography Lecture, OCC, 1992
Some Family Trends
� In 1998, 110.6 million adults (56% of the adult population) were married and living
with their spouse.
* Children living in traditional 2-parent households increased from 51% in 1990 to
56% in 1996.
�Nearly half of women 65 years old and over were widowed. 70% of these lived
alone.
� About 20 million children under 18 lived with one parent. That’s 27.7% of all
children under 18. 1.8 million of these children lived with their father.
* About 4 million children (5.6%) lived with their grandparents.
� From 1990 to 1998, the proportion of married couples who identified the woman as
the householder (main wage earner) has tripled to 22.9%.
* In 1996, 17% of all children (12 million) lived in blended families (those families
formed when remarriages occur).
* 28% of children (about 20 million) live with unmarried parents.
�One-half of all children will spend some time with single parents.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Marital Status Report, March, 1998
U.S. Census Bureau, Household Economic Studies, April, 2001
Other Trends
�Higher the high school dropout rate, the higher the prison population; in 1990, 30% of American high school students dropped out.
�One half of all growth is in 3 states: California, Texas, & Florida
* You men can expect to live about 74.1. Women 79.8. Unfair! These projections
vary by race, Asian women having the greatest projected longevity, African-
American males the lowest.
* 10.4% of the U.S. population (28.4 million) were born in another country.
* Half of these foreign-born came from Latin America.
* About 40% of the foreign-born reside in the Western U.S.
* By the year 2025, 1.2 billion people will be over age 60.
Source: U.S. Census,Bureau, National Projections Program and Office of Statistics, January, 2000
Harold Hodgekinson, Demography Lecture, OCC, 1992
Lisa Lollock, Current Population Reports, January, 2001
Orange County Trends
� Since 1987, Orange County has added 750,000 jobs
� A large portion of these jobs are for retail clerks, restaurant workers, cashiers, & maintenance - many people working in Orange County really can’t afford to live here.
� Of the new entry-level workers in O.C., 3 out of 4 will be a combination of minority, immigrant, or female.
Source: Harold Hodgekinson, Demography Lecture, OCC, 1992
New Organizations, New Directions
� Fewer large companies. Chances are good you’ll find work with a company having fewer than 11 employees.
� Fewer manufacturers (except electronic, high tech manufacture), more service industries.
� New technologies changing most workplaces.
� American workers are being temped.
� Economy has doubled in size every decade since end of World War II.
Source: William Bridges, Job Shift, 1994.
More New Directions
� Less lifetime employment.
� A need to elaborate and describe your skills.
� Chances are, you’ll be doing this electronically using on-line resumes.
� Regular people may use "agents".
� Increasing number of people employed to do a specific job by a company who aren’t permanently employed there.
Source: Harold Hodgekinson, Demography Lecture, OCC, 1992
David Zach Predicts:
� Don’t believe trend extrapolation.
� Your morning paper is inconceivable to a peasant or even a king in Fifteenth Century France.
� Don’t forget your tools, says Maslow.
� 3 predictions: In ten years A) voice recognition B) combined laptop & cellular phone C) less need to be at a work place.
� Women born after 1960 can expect to have more husbands than children.
� By age 11, American children have seen 50,000 murders on their televisions.
Source: David Zach, Futurist, Lecture at OCC, 1993
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