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© 2006, All rights reserved; Article may be reprinted only with permission from Teena Rose FOR GRADUATES & ENTRY-LEVEL JOBSEEKERS: CHOOSING A CAREER PATH, PART#1 Teena Rose is a seasoned, certified, and new graduate resume wizard with GraduateResumes.com, a Resume to Referral site. She's helped many college students and new graduates over the last 6+ years. Contact Mrs. Rose if you need advanced career strategies to complement your college degree. Possessing a great resume and cover letter can mean all the difference in the world when packaging yourself as a "seasoned newbie." She’s authored several books, including Designing a Cover Letter to 'Wow" Hiring Personnel and Cracking the Code to Pharmaceutical Sales. From the time children are old enough to talk, grown-ups persist in asking the foolish question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Most of the time, a four-year-old will answer something like “a fireman, a policeman, or a dancer”. Little children want to be heroes and fairy tale characters because these are the larger-than-life characters that populate their worlds. It is rare to encounter a preschooler who plans on a career as a nuclear physicist or a sous chef. As children grow up and mature, they will answer the question more along the lines of their interests. A typical preteen will answer “jet pilot, NFL star, or movie star” as their chosen career field. A high school student will start to consider the career question in a realistic manner but usually from the point of view of what career is popular or what career pays well such as “physical therapist, doctor, or lawyer”. The career choices have changed as they have grown and experienced more of the world but are still idealistic to some degree. As college students, these recent-high school students are required to decide at the beginning of their college careers what career path they want to pursue. When naming a major course of study, a college student usually is still in the “doctor, lawyer, chief operating officer” mode and decides to select a career path based on career popularity and income potential. Interest starts to play a role at this stage, but many students find it difficult to translate interests into careers or employment. The choice they make will determine the course of the next four years of college study and set their investment toward a specific career path. Is it possible to successfully make a career choice and plan an education to achieve that goal at the tender age of 19? Obviously, it is because many people go straight through college to become physicians, engineers, and other professions with never a hesitation. It is interesting to note, however, that 80 percent of college graduates never work in a career related to their major field of study. The average American will also change complete career fields at least three times during his lifetime. Such statistics bring into question the value of choosing a career path as a freshman in college. (read Part#2 of Choosing a Career Path)
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