Blog 1, Chapter 1

            I was very eager to begin reading chapter 1.  While reading it I found a ton of very interesting facts and topics. The chapter begins with a condensed history of vocational guidance and career development. I found the Table 1.1 to be very informative as it showed highlights from certain years between 1883-2013 in career development. One of the more interesting facts I read about was that the need for career development services was at an all time high. This included the era during the Great Depression (pg. 7). The next part of the chapter that intrigued me was the definition of career. There were five bullet points but the one that stuck was "the totality of work one does in a lifetime". This interested me because I originally believed a career was one's occupation. But in fact, your career is the work path you had your entire life. Each job/occupation may have led you to next which in turn is overall career development. (pg. 8) 

            I was surprised to see that there was a section, "Why Work is Important- or Not" because I have always just grown up believing that work was important and never really questioned it. Most people like to work for a reward and I would include myself in this. With everything that I do, I try to look for the positives in the situation. If work can get stressful, which is does, you have to look at the positives and realize it can be rewarding somehow. Going along with this, I definitely agree that work structures your life and I found that section really interesting because it gave me a new perspective. When you have a career/job, you usually have a schedule that you must follow. I never really thought about how difficult it would be to not have a job and still try to maintain a good schedule and have a structured lifestyle at the same time. When Brown says that most people that retire or lose their job 'suffer', would that be financially, emotionally or mentally? Or all or a combination of the three? One thing that I read that made me question was when Brown said "one's occupation generally determines where and how one lives." Although a nice job and a nice salary are convenient and makes living easier, with the right attitude, you can find positives within any situation. This is especially true with one that involves you being employed in a country that unemployment has been such a big topic of debate in. 

            This chapter was helpful to me because it gave me a great overview of where this class was going to lead and a good background on career development and some of the language.  It also listed goals that Brown is going to talk about throughout the book and the line that has me the most eager to get started is "successful workers engage in lifelong learning."

Brown, D. (2016). Career information, career counseling, and career development, (11th ed.). Chapel Hill, NC: Pearson.