The Choice of an Occupation
Most worthwhile careers require some kind of specialized training. Ideally, therefore, the choice of an occupation should be made even before the choice of a curriculum in high school. Actually, 1 , most people make several job choices during their working lives, 2 because of economic and industrial changes and partly to improve 3 position. The "one perfect job" does not exist. Young people should 4 enter into a broad flexible training program that will fit them for a field of work rather than for a single 5 .
Unfortunately, many young people have to make career plans without benefit of help from a competent vocational counselor or psychologist. Knowing 6 about the occupational world, or themselves for that matter, they choose their lifework on a hit-or-miss basis. Some drift from job to job. Others 7 to work in which they are unhappy and for which they are not fitted.
One common mistake is choosing an occupation for 8 real or imagined prestige. Too many high-school students or their parents for them choose the professional field, 9 both the relatively small proportion of workers in the professions and the extremely high educational and personal 10 The imagined or real prestige of a profession or a "White-collar" job is no good reason for choosing it as life’s work. 11 , these occupations are not always well paid. Since a large proportion of jobs are in mechanical and manual work, the 12 of young people should give serious 13 to these fields.
Before making an occupational choice, a person should have a general idea of what he wants 14 life and how hard he is willing to work to get it. Some people desire social prestige, others intellectual satisfaction. Some want security; others are willing to take 15 for financial gain. Each occupational choice has its demands as well as its rewards.