Unit 4 Career Planning新编大学英语第二版第三册课文翻译

Unit 4 Career Planning

Career Planning

Career planning does not necessarily follow routine or logical steps. Each of us places weight on different factors and may consider certain phases of career planning at different times. Career planning includes gathering information about ourselves and about occupations, estimating the probable outcomes of various courses of action, and finally, choosing alternatives that we find attractive and feasible.

Many observers have pointed out that students are not very efficient career planners. They cite evidence that (1) most students choose from among a very narrow group of occupations; (2) as many as 40 to 60 percent choose professional occupations, when in reality only 15 to 18 percent of the work force is engaged in professional work; (3) young men show a striking lack of interest in clerical, sales, and service occupations, although these fields offer many job opportunities; and (4) as many as a third of the students are unable to express any choice of occupation.

In their book Decision Making, Irving Janis and Leon Mann identify serious flaws in the ways many people make decisions. These flaws seem to be associated with the patterns people use to cope with problems. The first flaw is complacency. People who ignore challenging information about the choices they make demonstrate complacency. People who take the attitude that \won't affect me\or \will never happen%use complacency as a dominant pattern of behaving. Of course, complacency is appropriate for any decision in which nothing much is at stake, but that does not describe career decisions.

A second flaw in the way people cope with decisions is defensive avoidance. When confronted with a decision and unable to believe they can find an acceptable solution, some people remain calm by resorting to wishful thinking or daydreaming. Students who fail to think about the implications of their career choices often engage in rationalization (deceiving oneself with self-satisfying but incorrect explanations for one's behavior) or procrastination (putting off or delaying). Facing the situation may produce anxiety, but examining alternatives could also bring relief.

A third flaw is hyper vigilance. This occurs in career decision making when people believe there is not enough time to find a solution and they panic. They search frantically for career possibilities and seize on hastily invented solutions, overlooking the consequences of their choice as well as other alternatives. People who are in a panic sometimes do not think clearly or logically.

The best coping behavior is vigilance. Vigilant decision making occurs when people believe that (1) a choice should be made, (2) they can find a solution, and (3) there is enough time. Under these conditions, students can conduct an effective search for alternative careers, carefully evaluate each alternative, and work out contingency plans in case one or another risk appears.

Following are the keys to career planning.

1) Study yourself. This is the key to career planning. Understanding what you are like, what you value, and what you want to become is the foundation for all career planning. In studying yourself, you examine your strengths and weaknesses, your goals, and the trends in your personal development. The self-understanding that you gain enables you to imagine how certain occupations may best fit your personality, interests, abilities, and goals. All career decisions require us to learn both about ourselves and about work, and to integrate these two kinds of knowledge.

2) Write your career goals down. A technique useful for organizing ideas about your career development is actually to write them down by time blocks in your life. Writing something down forces you to crystallize your thinking and to recognize unclear and half-formed ideas. It may lead to new insights into your possibilities and may help you to see new relationships, patterns, and trends, or to identify gaps in your thinking about your career development.

3) Review your plans and progress periodically with another person. Every so often, take stock of your situation and consider what steps have to be taken next. Taking inventory of progress and planning further steps can help you cope with the changes that you undergo and the changes that take place in the labor market. Talking over your plans with a college counselor, your parents, and your friends helps you define your goals and improve your career plans or make them work.

4) If you choose a career that does not fit you, you can start over. Today, growing numbers of men and women are changing careers or getting second starts in careers that have greater appeal to them. Many of those who find that their line of work is unsatisfactory retrain themselves for a different occupation. Often their new occupation is one that they overlooked when they were young or that they did not have an opportunity to pursue at that time for financial or other reasons.

Sociologists say that there are few changes in careers that involve \movement; most involve the traditional business of \ahead\Society no longer attaches the stigma of \

Job changes and career shifts occur at all ages. It has been estimated that as many as one out of four male workers between the ages of twenty and twenty-five change their lines of work. About half that number do so between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four.

Career planning does not guarantee that all the problems, difficulties, or decision-making situations that face you in the future will be solved or made any easier. No formula can be given to do that. But career planning should help you to approach and cope better with new problems, such as deciding whether or not to enter educational or training programs, deciding whether or not to change jobs, and analyzing the difficulties you are having with a situation or a person.

Nobody can foresee what the future holds for any of us. There are social, emotional, and moral considerations in our future that cannot be foreseen. But the most important lesson of this often unhappy modern world is that progress comes from planning. Ignorance about one's career is not bliss; reason is better than chance and fate. Although there is no sure way to make career plans work out, there are things that you can do now to shape your career possibilities.

Career Planning

1 进行择业规划不一定要遵照常规的或合乎逻辑的步骤。我们每个人对不同的因素有不同侧重，也许在不同的时候会考虑择业规划的不同方面。进行择业规划，要收集有关我们自身以及职业的信息资料，估计采取各种举动可能出现的结果，最后作出我们认为有吸引力并且可行的选择。

2许多观察家指出学生在择业规划方面不是很在行。他们列出了以下事实：1）大部分学生选择职业的范围很窄；2）多达40％至60％的学生选择专业性的职业，而实际上只有15％至18％的从业人员在做专业性的工作；3）男青年对文书、销售以及服务性行业兴趣索然，尽管这些领域会提供许多就业机会；4）多达三分之一的学生说不出选择什么职业好。 3 欧文?贾尼斯和利昂?曼在他们的《决策》一书中指出，许多人的决策方式存在严重缺陷，而这些问题似乎与人们处理问题的模式有关。有些人对于要费心考虑的择业信息置之不理，这就是自满的表现。有些人采取“这不会影响我”或“这永远也不会发生”的态度，他们这样做是将自满作为自己占支配地位的行为模式。当然，对于那些不决定成败的决策，自满是可以的，但做涉及职业方面的决策时，来不得自满。

4 人们在决策方式上存在的第二个缺陷是消极回避。每当面临抉择而又自认为找不到合适的解决方法时，一些人或想入非非或做白日梦，以此来保持平静。有些学生没有考虑到职业抉择会产生的影响，往往采取文过饰非（对自己的行为所作的解释虽能自我满足但却是错

误的，以此来欺骗自己）或者拖延（推迟或耽搁）的态度。面对现状也许会令人焦急不安，但认真考虑一下各种方案也能给人宽慰。

5 第三个缺陷是过分地提心吊胆。当人们面对职业选择而又感到没有足够时间找到解决方法时，会感到惊慌失措。他们紧张地寻找各种就业机会，然后采取匆忙产生的决定，忽视了这样的选择会带来的后果，也忽视了其他的择业机会。惊慌失措的人往往会思路不清，缺乏逻辑。

6 最好的做法就是眼观六路，耳听八方。当人们确信以下三点时，会做出机敏的决策：1）应该做出选择；2）自己能找到解决问题的办法；3）有足够的时间。这样，学生才能够有效地寻求各种可能的职业，仔细地掂量每一种可能性，并且制定出应变计划，以便应付各种风险。

7 以下是择业规划的关键步骤：

8 1．研究自我。这是择业规划的关键所在。了解自己是怎样一个人，看重什么以及想成为什么样的人，这些是整个择业规划的依据。在研究自我的过程中，你审视自己的长处与弱点，自己的目标以及自身发展的方向。对自己的了解使你能够设想哪些职业最符合你的个性、兴趣、能力和目标。所有的职业抉择都要求我们既要了解自己又要了解有关工作，并把这两方面的情况结合起来（加以考虑）。

9 2．把自己的事业目标写下来。要把自己对事业发展的设想归纳起来。一个切实可行的做法是把这些设想按照你一生的各个时间段一一写下来。写作过程迫使你理清思路，并认识到那些是模糊、不成熟的想法。这会使你对自己的发展前途有新的了解，并有助于你看清新的关系、模式及方向，或者明确你在考虑自己事业发展方面还有哪些不到之处。 10 3．定期与他人一起检查你的规划与所取得的进展。有时候要估量一下自己的情形，考虑下一步该采取什么步骤。评估一下自己的进步并计划下面的步骤，这有助于你应对自己要经历的变化以及劳动力市场的变化。与你的大学辅导员、父母与朋友探讨你的计划，这有助于你明确目标，改进择业规划，或使计划得以实施。

11 4．如果你选择的职业不适合你，你可以重新开始。如今，越来越多的男男女女在变换职业，或者重新开始一份对他们更有吸引力的职业。其中许多人一旦发现自己所从事的行业不尽如人意，就重新参加培训以谋求其他职业。这些新的职业常常是他们年轻时所忽视的，或者是由于当时的经济或别的原因而没有机会从事的。

12 社会学家们说几乎没有什么职业的变换是“走下坡路”的，大部分都是按传统的关注“往高处走”的。社会已不再像过去那样把跳槽看成是一种“不安分”、可耻的事了。

13 换工作和改职业在任何年龄都会发生。据估计, 20岁到25岁这个年龄段的男性中多达四分之一的人更换职业。而在25岁到44岁的年龄段，该比例大约是八分之一。

14 择业规划并不能保证你将来所面临的所有问题、困难或决策形势都能得到解决或变得容易。没有任何妙方能做到这一点。但是，择业规划能够帮助你面对或更好地处理新的问题，诸如决定是否要接受某方面的教育或培训，是否要更换工作，还能帮助你分析所面临的困境

或与某人交往中所存在的困难。

15 没有人能预见我们任何一个人的未来。未来的一些社会、情感、道德等方面要考虑的因素是无法预见的。但是这个往往不尽如人意的现代世界给予了我们一个最重要的教训，那就是进步来自于规划。对自己职业的无知并不是一种福气，理智比机遇和命运更重要。

Summer Job Planning

Assuming that you know what you want to do after college—and you may be considered shortsighted these days if you have not picked a career by the time you enter college—you should start thinking about a job even before you graduate.

What companies or organizations have the job you want? Let's say you majored in English or history and you want to write a great novel. You need a job to support and educate you. You have to select from a list of several possibilities, not unlike choosing an option from the 'menu on the screen of a personal computer. Your options might include:

A. Working for a publishing company B. Writing for a scientific company C. Working for a public relations firm

D. Going to graduate school to postpone decision E. None of these

If you select option A, for example, it would be a good idea to write letters while you are in college to a dozen or more publishing houses and ask for an interview with the personnel director. If you happen to have a contact such as an editor who might be willing to meet with you, so much the better

Make every effort to have an interview. You should be familiar with the company before your interview and your aim should be to express to the personnel manager your interest in working for the company. You might ask if a summer job (with pay, if possible) or an internship is available. In many cases interns do receive a small stipend; in others no pay is offered.

It is important at this stage of your life to find a summer job that will enhance your future career. If you cannot find one in your field, then the alternative is to take another type of summer job—lifeguard, housepainter, landscaper, waitress, or worker in a retail store or supermarket. These jobs tend to pay quite well, and you can save enough for many college expenses. That aspect has to be weighed against the fact that they might not help your career plans. Any summer job that requires hard work and a certain amount of

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