Chapter 1 Blog

This first chapter of the career counseling and development textbook seems to be all of the foundational information that we will need to understand the upcoming material.  Even though it is a lot of definitions and statistics, it definitely got me excited to see how this course will go.  I think what interests me the most is how different the process will be for every student.  They will all have varying backgrounds, major life events and influential people in their lives that will lead them to be interested in different careers.

            I really enjoyed the part where they broke down the reasons that work is or isn’t important.  Brown covers things like work structuring your life, paying the bills, providing social opportunities and status.  These are things that we commonly think of when we think of working and jobs, but the things we do not normally think of that he covers are the historical and religious meanings of work, such as how it was initially viewed as punishment and then was reversed to believe that it was the best way to serve God.  Another thing we don’t typically think of is that work is beneficial to one’s self-esteem. 

            One statistic that really surprised me was that adult women were the lowest unemployed group among the major workers.  They are unemployed at a rate of 6.5%, whereas African Americans are 12.6%, adult men are 7.0%, teenagers 23.7%, and so on.  I am surprised by this statistic because I would like to see how this has changed over the years.  I feel like women still stay home to care for children at a higher rate than men do.  In my case I stay at home during the day and have a part-time job at night.  I wonder if this is becoming more common than women solely staying home and not having any employment. 

            Another point I found interesting in this chapter was when Brown discussed the fact that “…U.S. workers increasingly find themselves looking for jobs outside of this country, and they need to prepare for that eventuality” (Brown, 2016, p. 16-17).  I know that many companies are shipping their jobs overseas.  My mother-in-law is newly laid off due to her company manufacturing taking their business to Tijuana.  They are doing it for cheap labor and less taxes, but it surprised me that       people would relocate for jobs.  I can’t imagine that many people would actually move to another country in hopes of finding work. 

            Anyways, this chapter of definitions and everything has gotten me intrigued about where this course will take us.  I know Brown mentions it at one point that people find career counseling less attractive than it’s counterparts, but I think it will be an interesting part of the counseling job and I look forward to learning about it in the next few weeks.

References

Brown, D.  (2016).  Career information, career counseling, and career development.  Boston:       Pearson.