Career guidance assignment:

How important is it that a person knows oneself in his/her daily life? Knowing who we are, and understanding oneself is not only important so that one can set proper goals, but also to have healthy relationships, a fulfilling life and in turn, leads to better decision making, setting and reaching appropriate goals thus altogether living more productively.

As stated by Arnold (1997) a career is “The sequence of employment-related positions, roles, activities and experiences encountered by a person.” In my case I always felt the urge to help others. Keeping the ones I cherished happy was a constant goal. I used to be fascinated by human behaviour. I used to try to analyse why my family and peers acted in certain ways. This was the very beginning to what led me to the studying of such a career. According to Savickas and Porfeli (2011) this is called the concerned stage.

Robert Havighurst has proposed 4 stages for his theory of Vocational Choice. These where based on age as Identification, Acquisition, vocational and productive stage; The Identification Stage ranges between when the child is 5 to 10 years old. During this stage the child establishes a contact with a core family member. Usually it’s one of the parents or guardians. The child observes the role of this family member and starts imitating him/ her. From what I can recall and from what I was told I used to imitate my mother in every way imaginable. For instance I grew up always trying to solve other people’s problems because it’s what I admired most from my mother, every member of our family seeked her help for every difficult situation they would find themselves in.

Following the identification stage we find, the acquisition Stage which ranges between the ages 11 to 15 years. At this stage there was a transition in my life where from primary school I moved to the junior lyceum, which implicated having actual responsibilities, thus my own concept started developing due to the various responsibilities I was assigned too. From all this I acquired the qualities and abilities on the basis of which I dreamt for success.

The next stage was the vocational Stage between 16 and 25 years of age. At this stage I had already knew for a long time that my career was going to be in somewhat social care. But yet I wasn’t sure of the exact occupation I wanted to acquire. I continued my studies at MCAST where at the age of 19 I graduated with a Btec National Diploma in social care. During this period I gained my first skills in counselling and had my first very basic lectures of Psychology. Which continued to confirm my vocation in helping others. I found a job at Mater Dei hospital as a care worker at the outpatients. I passed two years at Mater Dei, always with the feeling of not being fulfilled thus I searched for better jobs with better status. Having a good status for me is important because of the previous experience as a care worker, where even though i was more than qualified for the job, other professionals and even patients used to look down at me as if I’m actually an illiterate. Thus I made it a point that I wanted a job with a good status where I could say proudly what it is. At the age of 21 I had the privilege to work as a supply learning support assistant. This shows clearly that my career started taking a spiral state as I am always changing to try finding something more suitable and better to fulfil my needs and expectations. I stayed in the same context of social care but this time I was dealing more in depth within one to one situations. i got to use some of the skills gained throughout my diploma. Surely this was more satisfying but yet it still wasn’t the path I had to take. So I came up with my own plan, I considered of going out of the lines, out of the plans I had for my future, I considered risking it all. I reviewed my long term goals especially my priorities and values in life; which have always been to have a double track career which combines my career and being a loving mother and wife Super (1957). Including having a stable job and being a role model to those who surround me like my mother is to me till present date. Apart from considering all this I took various personality tests such as the ocean personality test. In addition consulted various web sites to check what job opportunities this course offers also the curriculum of this course, I considered various opinion of past Bachelor of psychology under graduates and it all showed that it’s a beautiful and very interesting course but with very limited job opportunities, if one wants to work in Malta, whereas if one wants to work abroad the job opportunities concerning psychology are more vast. I decided to go against all odds and pursue my career dream, thus to further my studies and get back to square one. Get back to being a student, get back to have only a stipend to rely on. Therefore go out from my comfort zone knowing that whilst before I could have anything I wanted materialistically speaking because I had to salaries now I had to give up all that and rely on a stipend and a little help from my parents. Giving it a little thought although this decision may seem an extrinsic one, it really is more intrinsic, since this decision was taken on how I used to feel rather than for the advantages of this career such as a better salary than I used to have, being the boss of yourself and if so having a flexible hour job. This was definitely the hardest decision i had to face till present, but what kept me going is that I had plan for every scenario, I saved some money to remain comfortable, and I took three years un-paid leave from being a learning support assistant, so that in the eventuality that I don’t manage to get the degree or have to drop out of the course for other reasons, I still have a job waiting for me.

Throughout the past year I experienced university life, met new people with very different perspectives and views of life than mine. I also learned how to manage better my money, how to be more responsible and how to manage my time better and give it a value. I have changed a lot and all this has just helped me get rid of any doubts both about my career and also about myself. I got to know myself better and I know that I’m capable to reach my goal now. The past year have enriched me with different skills and experiences. But these didn’t change my morals nor my values. I have grown up in a catholic family, where our morals and values always surrounded the happiness of our loved ones health wise, spiritually and economically and providing security. These values are a central part of ones ‘career anchors’. Ones ‘career anchor’ is like an internal compass that guides and defines his/her ‘internal career’. It is the motivator or driver and is the one thing one will not give up, even in the face of difficult choices. In my career the anchor is security, I wouldn’t have applied for this course if there was the chance it would jeopardise my family, also I made sure that if anything goes wrong and drop out of the course I’d still have a full time job with the government which awaits me. Although my morals and values didn’t change my priorities for this career did. Whereas previously I wanted to have a double track career and finally settle down; now my priorities are to graduate, make some experience in the field whilst getting married than specialise by making a master’s degree and at last enlarge my family.

Until I started this course I always thought to specialise either in clinical psychology or criminal psychology. However now that I know more about actual job opportunities in Malta regarding psychology, I’d rather specialise in Education Psychology and Family therapy since they are the two criterias that offer most job opportunities for psychologists. Than later on when I’m all settled, if my priorities permit I’ll do a part- time Master degree in what really I’m interested in thus criminal psychology, this way I’ll still have a good job to stay in secure grounds.

The last stage proposed by Robert Havighurst is the Productive Stage. This stage ranges between 26 and 40 years. At this stage, “the person touches the height of his task efficiency. The person tries to maintain his productivity from 40 to 70 years of age. During this period, he makes trials to gain reputation in his occupation.” Sampath Solutions (2009). In my case since I am already twenty-five years old ill make this experience later in my career. Although I have already started trying to gain reputation with some NGO’s, by doing voluntary work and also helping these organisations in meeting needs such as helping I collecting foods and other goods for the YMCA. I aim to get known by these organisations not only because of the fulfilling feeling I get in helping others but also to have better opportunity in finding a job as an undergraduate.

The Labour market is where workers compete for jobs, whilst in the mean-time the employers compete for suitable workers. This is the world of commercial activity where jobs and job seekers are considered as goods and services are thus here us where they are bought and sold;

From all the knowledge that I have about myself I can say I’m an adaptable person with clear goals. I’m not afraid to get out of my comfort zone to achieve what I want. I can say I like being in control but I am able also to work as a team member. As mentioned previously the labour Market in Malta for psychologists isn’t a vast one, although late research is showing that it is getting slightly more open for counsellors and clinical psychologists. But as higher education has expanded, not only in Malta but also in all Europe, employers are concerned, thus they are emphasising more to assess and measure that the impact of the wider generic skills that students derive from participation in tertiary education has grown. Thus students have to increase emphasis on the skills they have achieved throughout their time in higher education. This must go further beyond their knowledge, their technical and academic skills related to the subject they have achieved a degree in. Therefore I got to this course with an aim that I don’t just get the degree but also excel and have good grades. I’m always keeping an eye open for job opportunities that help me gain more experience, for instance apart the voluntary job I am also working a inspire to help children with autism in their school home-work and daily needs. But most importantly I’m always searching for a bigger way that I can get out of my comfort easily, if that is what it takes to have a brighter future and the achieve my goals and feel fulfilled.

From my perspective one needs to take account of all the factors that most have impact on how one makes sense of his/ her life experiences. The theories mentioned above all help me to throw light on how I actually made my career choices, but I consider my-self lucky because all this helped in showing me how i chose to thread my life experiences together into the notion of a career.

References:

• Arnold J, (1997) cited on (how do you make career choices?, 2007)

http://www.nursingtimes.net/how-do-you-make-career-choices/207670.article

• Savickas and Porfeli(2011) cited on (Career Development and Counselling. Putting the theory and research together. 2013)

• Robert Havighrust, cited on Sampath solutions, (2009)

http://www.sampath.myehome.in/virtualinstitute/vocationaltheory4.html

• Super, (1957), cited on Sampath solutions (2009)

http://www.sampath.myehome.in/virtualinstitute/vocationaltheory2.html

• Ocean Personality test,

http://www.testsonthenet.co.uk/ocean12/TestsOnTheNet/B2B/Clients/LatPro/Report-BigFive/OCEAN120bIG5.HTM