Professional self-determination is a form of personal choice that reflects the process of searching for and acquiring a profession. Self-determination is realized in the process of analyzing personal capabilities and abilities in relation to professional requirements. Currently, the understanding of professional self-determination takes into account the problems of the relationship with the life self-determination of the individual, and also includes the influence of the influence of the social environment on the individual and his active position. In a market economy, the problem of freedom to choose a profession and ensuring the competitiveness of an employee is acute.
Professional self-determination of students
Self-determination of students is the process of formation by an individual of a personal attitude towards professional activity and the method of its implementation through the coordination of socio-professional and personal needs.
Professional self-determination of students is part of life self-determination, since it is part of the social group for choosing a profession and lifestyle.
There are different approaches to professional self-determination: sociological - when society sets tasks for the individual, socio-psychological - step-by-step decision-making by the individual, as well as coordination of the needs of society and personal preferences, differential psychological - the formation of an individual way of life.
The interconnected stages of students’ professional self-determination are symbolically identified:
— preschool stage, including the formation of initial labor skills;
- primary school, which includes awareness of the role of work in the life of an individual through participation in various types of activities: educational, play, work.
Awareness of one's abilities and interests related to professional choice occurs in grades 5-7, and the formation of professional self-awareness occurs in grades 8-9.
In the professional self-determination of students, a significant role is assigned to the family and the state-social structure (vocational and general educational institutions; institutions of further education, employment services).
Psychological and pedagogical support for students’ self-determination is aimed at realizing a conscious choice of profession.
Students are determined to choose a profession in the process of learning basic sciences, as well as during vocational training.
So, the professional self-determination of students includes the process of formation by an individual of a personal attitude towards the work sphere, as well as the method of his self-realization through the coordination of professional and intrapersonal needs.
Professional self-determination of high school students
Determining high school students with a future profession is one of the forms of personal self-determination and is characterized by the process of acquisition, as well as the search for a profession, analysis of personal capabilities and abilities in comparison with the requirements of the profession.
At the age of fifteen, it is very difficult for a high school student to choose a profession. Often, professional intentions are vague and diffuse, and professionally oriented dreams, as well as romantic aspirations, are impossible to realize.
The unsatisfied coming future stimulates the development of awareness of the personal “I”. A high school student is “defined”: who he is, what his abilities are, what his life ideal is, what he wants to become. Self-analysis is a delayed psychological basis for professional self-determination for most vocational school students.
Those high school students who receive complete secondary general education feel more comfortable. At the time of graduation, high school students choose the most acceptable and realistic options from fantastic, imaginary professions. Children understand that success and well-being in life, first of all, depend on the right choice of profession.
By assessing their capabilities and abilities, the prestige of the profession, and the socio-economic situation, high school students self-determine in obtaining a vocational education.
Thus, for high school students, educational and professional self-determination acts as a conscious choice of paths to vocational education and training.
Professional self-determination of personality
Psychologists refer to professional and personal self-determination as the process of forming a person’s personal attitude towards the professional work sphere, as well as self-realization through the coordination of social, professional and intrapersonal needs.
Let's consider professional self-determination, including different stages of personality development.
In preschool childhood, children imitate adults in play activities and reproduce their actions. Role-playing games, some of which are professionally oriented, become widespread in preschool age. While playing, kids assume the roles of sellers, doctors, builders, educators, cooks, and vehicle drivers.
Initial work actions are of great importance in professional self-determination - performing simple actions to care for plants, clothes, and cleaning premises. These actions help children develop interest in the work of adults. Professional role-playing games, performing elementary types of work, observing the work of adults contribute to the self-determination of preschoolers. At primary school age, children willingly imitate the actions of adults and, based on this, they are oriented toward the professions of relatives, parents, teachers, and close friends. An important feature of schoolchildren is the motivation of achievements in educational activities. A child’s awareness of his or her capabilities, as well as abilities based on existing experience in play, learning, and work activities, forms an idea of the future profession.
The end of primary school age is marked by a significant increase in individual differences in the development of abilities between children, and this in turn affects a significant expansion of the range of professional preferences. Work and educational activities influence the development of children’s imagination, both creative and recreative. Thanks to this ability, ideas about various types of work are enriched, and the ability to see oneself in a certain profession develops. Often, a child has professionally colored fantasies that have a huge impact on professional self-determination in the future.
Adolescence is marked by the laying of the foundations of a moral attitude towards various types of work; a teenager develops a system of personal values that determine selectivity in relation to professions. Psychologists consider this period to be responsible for the formation of personality.
Teenage boys, imitating external forms of adult behavior, are guided by romantic professions that have endurance, strong will, courage, and courage, for example, astronaut, test pilot, race driver. Girls prefer the professions of “real women” - these are charming, popular, attractive top models, pop singers, and TV presenters.
Orientation towards romantic professions is directed under the influence of the media, which replicate examples of “real adults”. Such professional romantic orientation is facilitated by adolescents’ desire for self-affirmation and self-expression. A differentiated attitude towards various activities in clubs and academic subjects shapes children’s intentions and dreams. Dreams, examples of the desired future are touches of self-determination.
Professional self-determination of an individual in early adolescence is the most important task. Often, a teenager’s plans are very amorphous, vague, and represent the nature of a dream.
A teenager most often imagines himself in various emotionally attractive roles and cannot make a psychologically sound choice of profession on his own. And at the beginning of adolescence, this problem arises for boys and girls who leave the basic secondary school. They make up a third of older teenagers who enter secondary and primary vocational education institutions, while others are forced to begin independent work.
Psychologists have found that often students receiving education in vocational schools, vocational schools, colleges and technical schools have not finally decided and their choice of educational institution was not psychologically justified.
The vast majority of young people aged 16 - 23 years old receive education or undergo vocational training in institutions or enterprises. Often, romantic aspirations and dreams are left in the past, but the desired future has already become the present, and many experience disappointment and dissatisfaction from the choice made. Some are making attempts to make adjustments to their professional start, and most boys and girls, during their training, gain confidence in the correctness of their choice.
At the age of 27, social and professional activity is noted. Already have a job and some experience. Professional growth and achievements become relevant. However, the vast majority begin to experience psychological discomfort, which is caused by lofty, unrealized plans, as well as work saturation.
Uncertainty of career prospects and lack of achievements actualize the reflection of personal existence, giving rise to self-esteem of the “I-concept” and introspection. This period is characterized by mental turmoil. The audit of professional life pushes us to define new significant goals. Some of these include professional development and advancement; changing jobs and initiating promotions; choosing a new profession or related specialty.
For many people, by the age of 30, the problem of professional self-determination again becomes relevant. There are two possible ways here: either to establish yourself further in your chosen profession and become a professional, or to change your place of work, as well as your profession.
The age period up to 60 years is considered the most productive. This period is marked by the realization of oneself as an individual, and is also characterized by the use of professional and psychological potential. It is during this period that life plans are realized and a person’s meaningful existence is justified. The profession provides a unique opportunity, using one’s abilities at work, to realize the need to be an individual, as well as to develop an individual style of activity.
After reaching retirement age, people leave the profession, but by the age of 60 a person does not have time to fully exhaust his potential. This period is marked by an alarming state, since stereotypes that have developed over decades, as well as a way of life, collapse overnight. Skills, knowledge, important qualities - everything becomes unclaimed. Such negative aspects accelerate social aging. Most pensioners experience psychological confusion, worrying about their uselessness and uselessness. The problem of self-determination arises again, however, in a socially useful, social life.
Psychology of professional self-determination
Domestic psychology connects the processes of professional self-determination with personal self-determination and lifestyle choice. By choosing this or that profession, a person plans his way of existence, while correlating his future professional personal status with life values.
The following researchers worked on this problem: M.R. Ginzburg, K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, N.S. Pryazhnikov, E.I. Golovakhi, E.F. Zeer, E.A. Klimov.
The most comprehensive and consistent issues of professional self-determination of the subject were studied in the works of N.S. Pryazhnikova, E.A. Klimova, E.F. Zeera.
E.A. Klimov attributed professional self-determination to the quality of the mental manifestation of human development. Over the course of his life, an individual develops a certain attitude towards different areas of work, develops an idea of his capabilities, professions, and identifies preferences.
According to E.A. Klimov, the most important component in self-determination is the formation of self-awareness.
The structure of professional identity includes:
— awareness of personal belonging to a specific professional community (“we are builders”);
— assessment of one’s place and personal compliance with standards in the profession (one of the best specialists, a beginner);
— the individual’s knowledge of his recognition in a social group (“I am considered a good specialist”);
- knowledge of strengths and weaknesses, individual and successful methods of action and ways of self-improvement;
- personal idea of yourself, as well as work in the future.
E.A. Klimov notes two levels in professional self-determination:
- Gnostic (restructuring of self-awareness and consciousness);
— practical (changes in a person’s social status).
E.F. Zeer highlights the problem of individual self-determination in the context of applied psychology, where professional self-determination is noted:
- selectivity in the individual’s attitude to the world of professions;
— choice taking into account the individual qualities and characteristics of a person, as well as socio-economic conditions and requirements in the profession;
— constant self-determination of the subject throughout life;
— determination of external events (change of place of residence, graduation);
- a manifestation of the social maturity of the individual with a close connection with self-realization.
Problems in self-determination are solved differently at each stage of professional development. They are determined by interpersonal relationships in the team, socio-economic conditions, professional and age-related crises, but the leading role remains with the activity of the individual and his responsibility for personal development.
E.F. Zeer believes that self-determination is an important factor in an individual’s self-realization in a particular profession.
N. S. Pryazhnikov proposed his own model of self-determination, which includes the following components:
— awareness by the individual of the values of socially useful work, as well as the need for professional training;
— orientation in the socio-economic situation, as well as forecasting the prestige of the chosen work;
— defining a professional dream goal;
— highlighting immediate professional goals as stages for achieving further goals;
— search for information about specialties and professions corresponding to educational institutions and places of employment;
— an idea of the personal qualities necessary to implement the plans, as well as possible difficulties in achieving goals;
- availability of backup options in choosing a profession in case of failure with the main option of self-determination;
— practical implementation of personal perspective, adjustment of plans.
Professional self-determination according to N.S. Pryazhnikov occurs at the following levels:
— self-determination in a specific labor function (the employee sees the meaning of activity in the high-quality performance of operations or individual labor functions, while the freedom of choice of actions by the individual is limited);
- self-determination in a specific work position (a work position is marked by a limited production environment, which includes certain rights, means of labor, and responsibilities), while the performance of diverse functions provides the opportunity for self-realization of the activities performed, and a change in work position has a negative impact on the quality of work, causing employee dissatisfaction;
— self-determination at the level of a certain specialty provides for a change of job positions, which allows expanding the possibilities of self-realization of the individual;
— self-determination in a specific profession;
— life self-determination is associated with the choice of lifestyle, which includes leisure and self-education;
- personal self-determination is determined by finding the image of the Self and its affirmation among the surrounding individuals (the individual rises above social roles, profession, becomes the master of his personal life, and the people around him classify him as both a good specialist and a respected, unique person);
— the self-determination of an individual in culture is marked by the individual’s focus on “continuing” himself in other people and is characterized by a significant contribution to the development of culture, which makes it possible to talk about the social immortality of the individual.
The problem of professional self-determination
The experience of career counseling shows that students who have not chosen a profession often seek help from a psychologist to determine the type of activity where they will be most capable. Behind this lies an unconscious desire to shift the solution to a life problem to another individual. Difficulties of this kind often arise due to the lack of adequate ideas among schoolchildren about professional suitability, the inability to assess their abilities and capabilities, and also relate them to the world of professions.
Many students cannot answer: “What activities would you like to engage in?”, “What abilities do you see in yourself?”; “What qualities are important for success in mastering a future profession?”
A low culture of knowledge, as well as ignorance of modern professions, complicates the choice of a life path for high school students.
The career guidance work of a psychologist should turn from diagnostic to formative, developmental, diagnostic and correctional. The stages of consulting work should be aimed at activating students to form a desire for a conscious, independent choice of profession, taking into account the knowledge gained about themselves. 
Career guidance is a set of psychological and pedagogical measures aimed at optimizing the employment process in accordance with desires, inclinations and developed abilities, as well as taking into account the needs for specialties in the labor market.
Career guidance is a scientifically based system of preparing young people for the free and independent choice of profession, designed to take into account both the individual characteristics of each person and the need for a full distribution of labor resources in the interests of society.
There are two forms of career guidance. Career guidance on a narrow basis consists in the fact that in an educational institution that trains specialists, students reveal all the features of the activity ahead of them. Career guidance on a broad basis consists in introducing young people who have not yet made their choice to the world of professions.
Career guidance is aimed at solving the following problems:
- introduction to the world of professions;
- study of interests, abilities, inclinations and motives of activity;
- familiarization with the rules for choosing a profession;
- motivation to think about your professional future
Since the object career guidance activities is the process of social and professional self-determination of a person, it is important, first of all, to formulate a group of principles that guide adolescents when choosing a profession and place in the social structure of society.
Principle of Consciousness in choosing a profession is expressed in the desire to satisfy with one’s choice not only personal needs in work, but also to bring as much benefit to society as possible.
Principle of correspondence the chosen profession, the interests, inclinations, abilities of the individual and at the same time the needs of society for personnel in a certain profession expresses the connection between the personal and social aspects of choosing a profession. By analogy with a well-known thought, one cannot live in society and be free from society - one can also say: one cannot choose a profession based only on one’s own interests and regardless of the interests of society. Violation of the principle of matching the needs of the individual and society leads to an imbalance in the professional structure of personnel.
Activity principle in choosing a profession characterizes the type of activity of an individual in the process of professional self-determination. You have to actively look for a profession yourself. The following must play a big role in this: practical testing of the students themselves in the process of labor and professional training, advice from parents and their professional experience, searching and reading literature, work during practice, and much more.
Development principle reflects the idea of choosing a profession that would give the individual the opportunity to improve his qualifications, increase his earnings as experience and professional skills grow, the opportunity to actively participate in social work, satisfy the cultural needs of the individual, the need for housing, recreation, etc.
Career guidance, which performs the functions of vocational training, involves two ways to obtain it - self-education or training in educational institutions of vocational education. The success of vocational education is determined by such an important psychological moment as readiness (emotional, motivational) to acquire a particular profession.
Choosing a profession, carried out by a person as a result of analyzing internal resources and by correlating them with the requirements of the profession, is the basis for a person’s self-affirmation in society, one of the main decisions in life. Choosing a profession- this is not an instant act. Choosing a profession consists of a number of stages merging into one process. The duration of the stages depends on:
- external conditions;
- individual characteristics of the subject of choice of profession.
The system of professional guidance work includes such a concept as professional self-determination, since choosing a profession and mastering it begins with professional self-determination. is one of the most important components of human self-awareness as a subject of activity.
Professional self-determination- a process that covers the entire period of a person’s professional activity: from the emergence of professional intentions to exit from work.
The formation of professional self-determination occurs on the basis of mastering the social experience of the individual with the inclusion of this experience in the “professional self” of the individual.
Young people are constantly told: look for a profession you like. And any mature person will confirm these words - only employment, for which there is an internal desire, allows you to receive satisfaction from work, motivates you to new heights and professional self-development. But how to find it? The easiest and most accessible way is to determine the professional personality type. To do this, you need to pass one of the simple tests available today in printed reference books, the Internet, and mobile applications. They can be used not only by a young person, but also by a specialist, for example a school psychologist.
Personality and profession
Before we move on to professionally oriented personality types, let’s consider what a profession is in psychological terms. Here, the judgments of the domestic scientist K. M. Gurevich are authoritative. He argued that a profession is an objective and regulated organization of a person’s activity. The demands that it makes on a person leave a mark on his entire lifestyle.
One professional type is characterized by common goals and objectives, working conditions, living conditions, career paths and self-realization. On this basis, similar manners of behavior and communication are developed, as well as interests and life attitudes, values and traditions. What does this ultimately lead to? People of similar professions develop similar psychological traits and characteristics. The profession also influences the development of certain traits of memory, attention, thinking, etc.
Important research by scientists
Professional personality types have been the subject of research by many prominent scientists. These include the following:
- K. M. Gurevich.
- M. Ya. Basov.
- A. F. Lazursky.
- J. Holland.
- E. Spranger.
- Le Senne.
- A. Szondi.
- E. Ro.
- D. Guilford.
- A. A. Bodalev.
- E. S. Chugunov.
We will consider some studies and classifications in detail.
Holland test
The most common definition of a professional personality type is Holland (J. Holland), an American psychologist. The test helps to identify personal characteristics that will have a direct impact on future work activity and interaction with the team.
Professional personality types according to J. Holland are six varieties:
- Realistic. This is a bright, energetic personality. Stands out for his aggressive behavior and lack of sociability in groups. Strives to work on specific material objects. Has outstanding mathematical abilities and motor dexterity. People in this category are wonderful engineers, builders, mechanics, and agronomists.
- Research. This personality is characterized by a fundamental cognitive spirit. He is a curious, creative, original, independent person with an analytical mindset. Theoretical values will dominate in his mind. Strives to solve problems that require developed abstract thinking and intellectual effort. J. Holland recommends that individual researchers devote themselves to biology, astronomy, physics, chemistry and other exact sciences.
- Social. The aspirations of the individual are mainly directed towards the external environment. She prefers emotional and sensual activities. Active social contacts are necessary for such a person. He does not hide his desire to teach and educate. The personality is characterized by developed The desired field of activity for such people is medicine, education, social work.
- Conventional. And this type of personality is characterized by a clear craving for clearly structured activities. The person is conservative, practical, loves specifics. Has developed mathematical abilities. Holland recommends that people of this type pay attention to the field of finance and accounting.
- Artistic. This personality most of all strives for self-expression. She has vivid emotions, developed imagination and intuition. This person is independent and original in his decisions. Society's opinion never comes first. His motor and verbal abilities are excellent. Naturally, such a person is directly shown creative activity - music, cinema, theater, writing, etc.
- Enterprising. First of all, this personality is characterized by proactive behavior. She is only interested in those goals to achieve which she can show her enthusiasm, impulsiveness, and energy. This person most of all strives for dominance and power, reaching the top. An enterprising person tries himself in business. Also recommended for her are social and political activities, management (leadership positions), and jurisprudence.
So there you have it, Holland's six professional personality types. In his classification, the scientist paid great attention to the environment of the person being tested at his future place of work. He believed that the surrounding group is a fundamental factor for a successful career. As you can see, the questionnaire allows you to determine your professional personality type based on many factors. This is character, intellectual development, temperament, interests, as well as the degree of their expression.
Spranger classification
The German philosopher and psychologist E. Spranger proposed his professional personality types. The scientist also divided all workers into six categories:
- A theoretical man. Individuals who gravitate toward theory rather than practice. They like to analyze problems and look for answers to questions.
- Economic man. For the individual, the main place is the usefulness and practicality of work activity.
- An aesthetic person. He cannot imagine everyday work without art and the contemplation of beauty.
- A social person. The main object of his attention is the people around him. Loves to help, advise, teach.
- A political person. He sees the meaning of his life in constant struggle, the path to unconquered heights, and gaining power.
- A religious man. Finds himself in spiritual life.
Szondi classification
We continue to consider scientific views on the professional personality type. The position of the Italian psychologist A. Szondi is interesting here. In developing his classification, the scientist relied on the ideas of Sigmund Freud. When choosing a profession, he considered the subconscious impulses of the individual to be fundamental.
From this point of view, eight personality types can be distinguished:
- Homosexual.
- Sadistic.
- Hysterical.
- Epilepsy.
- Depressive.
- Manic.
- Catatonic.
- Paranoid.
Each type has its own characteristics, as well as professions recommended for it. For example, sadistic individuals are cruel, powerful, aggressive people who also have impressive physical strength. Work as a miner, animal trainer, veterinarian, or surgeon is recommended for them.
This definition of a professional personality type is unpopular today. After all, here future work is considered a platform for demonstrating one’s far from the best subconscious characteristics.
Le Senne classification
How is this different from the Holland Professional Personality Test? The division is based on the biological predetermined qualities of any individual. It can be said that Le Senne's professional types follow a gradation in temperament.
- phlegmatic;
- choleric people;
- sanguine people and so on.
Lazursky classification
Groups according to A.F. Lazursky are based on division according to practicality, the material result of a particular activity. The scientist identifies the following professional types:
- Impractical idealists and theorists.
- Practical realists.
- Mixed types: artistic-practical, scientific-practical, etc.
Classification by E. Ro
One of the main “competitors” of the Holland test for determining a professional personality type is the classification proposed by the American psychologist Ann Roe. It should be noted that in her research she does not consider education to be a profession, but an activity to which a person has devoted most of his life.
According to E. Ro, we can distinguish eight groups:
- Service. Social workers working in the domestic sphere.
- Business contacts. Businessmen, corporate agents.
- Organizers. Directors, top managers.
- Working outdoors. These are foresters, fishermen, and agricultural workers.
- Technical professions. Mechanics, engineers, builders.
- Scientific professions.
- Cultural workers.
- Artists.
Each group is characterized by character traits, psychological attitudes, interest in communication, and interactions in society.
Research by D. Guilford
For professional self-determination, familiarity with the research of American psychologist Joan Guilford is very useful. She found outstanding representatives of several professions who built brilliant careers. Compiled by D. Guilford, the test of 653 questions for each respondent was aimed at determining what factors allowed these people to reach dizzying heights.
The psychologist found out that every profession has its own “secret of success.” For example, journalists could not imagine their life without society and valued aesthetic trends. Entrepreneurship and exact sciences aroused their antipathy. These are emotionally unstable, even irritable people. They do not like to clearly plan their life, but prefer unexpected decisions.
Now you are familiar with the most famous classifications of professional personality types. The most popular of them is based on the J. Holland test.
WHY DO YOU NEED VOCATIONAL DETECTION?GRADUATE!
Very soon you will meet a huge world of professions.
You have a very important, perhaps the most important choice in life to make.
There are very few things in the world that we cannot choose. These include our own body, the historical era in which we were born, our parents, and the events of early childhood. Everything else in life depends to one degree or another on our choices. And one of the most responsible choices that determine our destiny is the choice of profession. It makes sense to take this as seriously as possible.
Our attitude towards our life as a whole largely depends on how successful our professional activities are. Having something you love that brings satisfaction and respect from others is a great success in life. Whether this will happen or not largely depends on the desire to make a thorough and reasonable choice of profession.
Vocational determination helps:
If you don’t yet know what you want to become, career guidance will help you choose specialties that best suit your interests and professional expectations.
If you like any professional field (for example, economics), professional determination will help you choose a list of specialties that meet modern labor market requirements.
If you have already chosen a profession, career determination will help you correlate your choice with your abilities, preferences and professional expectations, as well as navigate your future educational and professional activities.
STEP 1- Professional education includes work to promote information about the world of professions, personal and professionally important qualities of a person that are essential for self-determination, about the system of educational institutions and ways to obtain a profession, about the needs of society in personnel.
Part of vocational education is vocational education, which includes the formation of inclinations and professional interests of schoolchildren. The inclination develops in the process of activity, and professional knowledge is successfully accumulated in the presence of professional interests. Therefore, it is important to try yourself in a variety of activities.
STEP 2- Professional diagnostics and counseling - studying a person’s personality (value orientations, interests, needs, inclinations, abilities, professional orientation, professional intentions, motives for choosing a profession, character traits, temperament, health) and on this basis issuing professional recommendations.
Professional consultation is most often individual in nature.
Why is this important:
Satisfaction of such needs as the need for professional self-determination or self-affirmation occurs in the process of a person’s practical activity, and only if the chosen profession, as they say, is to one’s liking;
- identifying inclinations that, in relation to knowledge, skills and abilities, act as a certain opportunity, allows us to create conditions under which the likelihood of a person acquiring this knowledge, skills and abilities will increase significantly.
- identifying the psychophysiological characteristics of a person is necessary to identify a person as a performer of certain types of work activity, as a future organizer, commander of the production process in various areas of physical and mental labor.
STEP 3- Pre-profile preparation and specialized education make it possible to concentrate teaching activities on the student’s personality during the transition from apprenticeship to adulthood.
What influences the choice of profession?
What factors determine a person’s choice of a particular profession?
In practice, it turns out that inclinations are taken into account last, but the opinion of parents has a huge influence.
8 factors for choosing a profession /According to E.A. Klimov/:
1. Position of senior family members.
There are elders who are directly responsible for how your life turns out. This concern also extends to the question of your future profession.
2. Position of comrades, girlfriends.
At your age, friendships are already very strong and can greatly influence your choice of profession. We can only give general advice: the correct decision will be one that suits your interests and coincides with the interests of the society in which you live.
3. Position of teachers, school teachers.
By observing the behavior, academic and extracurricular activities of students, an experienced teacher knows a lot about you that is hidden from unprofessional eyes and even from you.
4. Personal professional plans.
In this case, the plan refers to your ideas about the stages of mastering the profession.
5. Abilities.
The uniqueness of one’s abilities must be judged not only by academic success, but also by achievements in a wide variety of activities.
6. Level of claims for public recognition.
When planning your career path, it is very important to take care of the reality of your aspirations.
7. Awareness.
It is important to ensure that the information you acquire about a particular profession does not turn out to be distorted, incomplete, or one-sided.
8. Tendencies.
Tendencies manifest themselves in favorite activities, on which most of their free time is spent. These are interests backed by certain abilities.
Seven steps to an informed decision about choosing a profession:
1. Make a list of suitable professions.
Make a list of professions that you like, that are interesting, that you would like to work in, that suit you.
2. Make a list of the requirements of the chosen profession.
Make a list of your requirements:
chosen profession and future occupation;
chosen profession and life values;
chosen profession and life goals;
chosen profession and my current hot issues;
chosen profession and actual employment in the specialty;
desired level of professional training;
chosen profession and my inclinations and abilities;
Desirable content, nature and working conditions.
3. Determine the significance of each requirement.
Determine how significant all of the listed requirements are. Perhaps there are less important requirements that, by and large, can be ignored.
4. Assess your suitability for each of the eligible professions.
In addition to the requirements that you have for the profession, there are also the requirements of the profession itself. Analyze whether your professional qualities are developed, whether your intellectual abilities, psychological characteristics, and state of health meet the requirements of the profession
5. Calculate and analyze the results.
Analyze which profession from the entire list suits you best in all respects.
6. Check the results.
To make sure your thoughts are correct, discuss your decision with friends, parents, teachers, psychologist, and career counselor.
7. Identify the main practical steps to success.
So, you have made a decision, now it is important to determine: in which educational institution you can receive a professional education, how to develop professionally important qualities in yourself, how you can gain practical experience in this specialty, how to increase your competitiveness in the labor market.
Mistakes when choosing a profession:
1.
Attitude to the choice of profession as unchangeable. In any field of activity, there is a change in occupations and positions as a person’s qualifications increase. At the same time, the greatest success is achieved by those who have passed the initial stages well. Analyze the situation on the labor market. Please note that every year new professions appear. Be prepared for the fact that you will have to regularly improve your skills and master related specialties. Do not be afraid that the choice of profession now, in the 11th grade, will fatally determine your entire destiny. Changing your choice and mastering a new specialty will make you a valuable specialist in demand in interdisciplinary fields of activity. Your first profession, even if you later change your mind and find something more attractive, will come in handy in unexpected situations. For example, the first education of an art critic will help a lawyer with his second education to understand the complex issues of inheritance of antique values...
2.
Current opinions about the prestige of the profession. In relation to the profession, prejudice is manifested in the fact that some professions and occupations important to society are considered unworthy and indecent (for example: garbage collector). An economist or psychologist is no more useful to society than a chemist or mechanic. The prestige of the profession should be taken into account - but after taking into account your interests and abilities. Otherwise, you will have (if you have) a “fashionable” but not enjoyable specialty. Or, what the hell, you will find yourself unfit to perform basic job functions...
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. Choosing a profession under the influence of friends (for company, so as not to fall behind). We choose a profession according to our “taste” and “size” just like clothes and shoes. The feeling of a group and orientation towards peers are very positive characteristics of children your age. They are needed to master the norms of behavior in society, form the image of “I” and self-esteem. Therefore, look back at others, COMPARING (yourself with friends), and not blindly repeating. Try to see how you differ from your comrades - and how you are similar. This will help you understand that if Vasya becomes a firefighter (and he is a risky person), you may not like this profession (you are very careful and reasonable).
4. Transferring the attitude towards a person, a representative of a particular profession, to the profession itself. When choosing a profession, you must first take into account the characteristics of this type of activity, and not choose a profession just because you like or don’t like the person who is engaged in this type of activity. Being fascinated by a teacher is especially dangerous (if you admire the sincerity of a physicist, this does not mean that you like physics in itself, outside the “set”). In addition, guys often make the mistake of trying to get the profession of an idol - an athlete, politician, journalist, artist. Athletes - they are not all like that.
5. Passion only for the external or some private side of the profession. Behind the ease with which an actor creates an image on stage, there is intense, everyday work. And journalists do not always appear on television programs - more often they sift through a lot of information, archives, talk with dozens of people - before preparing a 10-minute report that... who will be announced by another (TV announcer).
6. Identification of a school subject with a profession or poor differentiation of these concepts. There is such a subject as a foreign language, and there are many professions that require language ability - translator, tour guide, international telephone operator, etc. Therefore, when choosing a profession, you need to take into account what real occupations and professions are behind this subject. To do this, it is best not to just study profession charts or dictionaries of professions. It is worth analyzing newspapers with vacancies on the labor exchange (they usually indicate what education is required for a specific vacancy). For example, a person with a linguistic education (Russian language and literature, foreign language at school) can work as a teacher, translator, editor, and assistant secretary. Moreover, keep in mind that there are more professions than school subjects. You can become a lawyer, marketer, or apparatchik. Professions can usually be associated with several school subjects (usually corresponding to entrance exams to a university when entering this specialty). For example, a future economist may like both mathematics and geography at school.
7. Outdated ideas about the nature of labor in the sphere of material production. Complex and interesting technology is being introduced into all professions, and especially blue-collar workers, and the work culture is improving. And computers are being introduced into absolutely all areas of activity - right down to livestock farming.
8. Inability/unwillingness to understand one’s personal qualities (inclinations, abilities). Career consultants, parents, teachers, and comrades will help you understand yourself. Psychological tests, as well as articles and publications on popular psychology, may also be useful. However, keep in mind that many of them are unprofessional, so be critical of both the test results and what is written in psychological books. The task of popular tests is to intensify the activity of self-knowledge (self-observation, introspection), and not to give a ready-made answer to the question of who to be or sticking a label on what kind of person you are.
9. Ignorance/underestimation of one’s physical characteristics and shortcomings that are significant when choosing a profession. There are professions that may be contraindicated for you, because... they may worsen your health. There are few such professions and they include mainly those that require prolonged stress of certain physiological systems. Computer scientists strain their eyes, but pilots strain their hearts...
10. Ignorance of basic actions, operations and their order when solving, thinking about a problem when choosing a profession. When you solve a math problem, you perform certain actions in a certain sequence. It would be wise to do the same when choosing a profession.
Memo for parents
Give your child the right to choose their future profession.
Discuss with them the possible pros and cons of their chosen profession.
Consider choosing a future profession not only from the position of material satisfaction, but also from the position of moral satisfaction.
When choosing a future profession, take into account the personal qualities of your child that he needs in this specialty.
If there are disagreements in choosing a profession, use the opportunity to consult with specialist consultants.
Do not put pressure on your child to choose a profession, otherwise this may result in persistent conflicts.
Support your child if he has the patience and desire to make his dream come true.
If your child makes a mistake in his choice, do not reproach him for it. The error can be corrected.
If your child becomes interested in some profession early on, give him the opportunity to support this interest with the help of literature, activities in clubs, etc.
If you have ever asked questions about what career guidance is, how to choose a profession, who to be and where to study, how to avoid mistakes when choosing a future specialty, what types of career guidance exist and are available to every person, regardless of age, then this material will give you the answers all of the above and even more. Starting with basic concepts, you will gradually learn all the necessary information in a concise form for the first steps in the difficult path of choosing your first profession or consciously correcting the mistakes of your youth and acquiring a new specialty.
What is career guidance
At a certain stage of life, every person has to make one of the most important decisions in his life: decide on the field of education and choose a profession. As practice shows, many people have difficulty choosing a career path for a variety of reasons. These reasons differ markedly depending on the age and position of the person, but there are also those inherent to almost everyone without exception. Let's try to understand career guidance in Russia, starting with the very basics and gradually moving towards the problem facing many people of career guidance and choosing a future profession.
Career guidance(career guidance, choice of profession, orientation to the profession, professional self-determination) is a set of actions to identify a person’s aptitudes and talents for certain types of professional activities, as well as a system of actions aimed at helping people of all ages choose a career path.
The concept of career guidance appeared as a result of the merger of two words from different languages: Latin profession (occupation) and French orientation (attitude).
Career guidance is based on psychology, sociology, economics, philosophy, law and medicine.
Unfortunately, at the moment there is no large-scale and systematic work being carried out to help in professional self-determination, from schoolchildren to adults. And if for adults such career guidance work is partially carried out by employment services, although it is considered more as an additional service, then in schools, career guidance for schoolchildren is left to the administration and teachers. Fortunately, many people understand the importance of choosing a profession and organize various events aimed at identifying students’ aptitudes and abilities for a particular profession. Such events include psychological testing, excursions to enterprises, lessons with presentations of professions and much more.
Thus, in general, the processes of helping the younger generation with the choice of profession are in a rather deplorable state and are highly dependent on people on the ground. However, the fact that every parent can help their child decide on a profession cannot but rejoice. Information resources and a variety of career guidance tests will greatly facilitate the selection process and help you make the right decision.
“What to become?” or how to choose the right profession
Choosing a profession is one of the most important decisions, which often determines the rest of your life, and a frivolous attitude towards it is completely inappropriate.
Before you start choosing an interesting career path, you need to listen to yourself and determine the most important criteria for your future profession. Conventionally, the reasons for choosing a particular profession can be divided into two groups: external and internal.
External reasons for choosing a profession
Internal reasons for choosing a profession
- Interest– along with abilities, one of the most important reasons for choosing a particular profession. Having interest can compensate for deficiencies in other areas, such as aptitudes, talents, knowledge and the like.
- Physical capabilities– if you are allergic to pollen, then botanical and agricultural professions are highly likely to be inaccessible. For musicians, hearing is necessary; for singers, voices, cooks and tasters cannot do without naturally developed taste buds. There are exceptions, of course, but they are rare and more than confirm the rule.
- Presence of inclinations, talents, abilities– already in kindergartens and schools, aptitudes for different types of activities become visible. If a person had difficulty mastering mathematics and physics at school, then it is unlikely that he should connect his career path with these areas.
- Possibility of self-realization– a natural desire to be a master of your craft, to grow and develop as a professional.
Undoubtedly, we have not given all the reasons associated with the choice of profession. You can find out more about them in our material The main reasons for choosing a profession.
The importance of career guidance
In the modern world, there are a huge number of professions and with the development of society, new ones are constantly appearing. Finding the right one for yourself is not an easy task, sometimes requiring the ability to understand yourself: to know your weaknesses and strengths, to adequately assess your physical and mental capabilities, to be ready to constantly learn and absorb large amounts of knowledge.
The most successful person in his career is the one who happily goes to work as if it were a holiday, and this is only possible with competent career guidance work. In the best case, such work continues throughout a person’s life, starting in kindergarten and school and continuing in the workplace. At different ages, career guidance solves different problems: at school it is a matter of choosing a profession, but in an organization it can be an adaptation to the work process.
In Russia, the importance of labor education for the younger generation has significantly weakened. Both the media, which shape a predominantly consumerist attitude towards life, and a significant division in the prestige of professions, although not always coinciding with reality, played a role in this process. Young people dream of being able to make an easy and quick career in economics or law, while science, manual work and agriculture are often perceived as jobs for losers. However, a competent specialist at a large enterprise can receive a significantly higher salary than another economist in the office.
The number of people working outside of their acquired specialty has also increased noticeably; this trend is especially noticeable among graduates of higher educational institutions. Thus, the labor market, at the expense of public funds spent on student education, is saturated with useless specialists.
These and other problems can be solved by competent and timely career guidance, starting from kindergarten and throughout the entire period of study at school and secondary specialized or higher educational institutions.
Functions of career guidance
Career guidance work includes diagnostic, organizational, informational and preventive functions.
Diagnostic function
- Reveals a person’s abilities and inclinations for certain types of activities
- Finds positive personality traits
- Explores the cognitive interests of children and adults
- Explores the influence of parents and loved ones on a child’s choice of profession
- Reveals the student’s aspirations and intentions when choosing a profession and further education
- Determines the adequacy of a person’s assessment of his achievements and successes and their relationship with various types of activities
Organizational function
- Organizes cultural, leisure and socially significant activities
- Organizes the transfer of experience and impressions from working specialists
- Introduces you to the multifaceted and diverse world of professions
- Helps in self-realization and development of the potential inherent in nature
- Conducts a variety of career guidance events (introduction to professions, excursions to enterprises, competitions, etc.)
Information function
- Conducts information events and campaigns on issues of obtaining education, available specialties in educational institutions, admission rules and passing scores for the Unified State Examination and State Examination.
- Informs about the current situation on the labor market and planned changes
Preventive function
- Reduces the number of mistakes when choosing a profession
- Prevents misperceptions of the professions available on the labor market
A more detailed analysis of errors and methods for overcoming them is in a separate material.
Types of career guidance and career guidance services
There are 4 main areas of career guidance work. All of them are important in their own way and are usually used in combination for effective work.
- Professional information– introducing people to the variety of types of possible professions in modern society. Collection, processing and publication of information materials about the state of the labor market and educational services, their development prospects. It also includes information about the forms of professions, their requirements for future specialists and opportunities for professional growth.
- Professional selection (vocational selection)– determining the degree of compliance and suitability of a person as a professional for a specific workplace or position based on job descriptions and regulatory requirements.
- Professional Consulting– a large number of proposed types of assistance to a person in his professional determination so that he can make an independent, informed decision in the difficult issue of choosing a profession. It also helps to determine further directions for vocational training and employment, taking into account the capabilities of a particular person, his psychological and psychophysiological capabilities, along with the requirements of the labor market.
- Psychological support– diagnosis and correction of a person’s mental state, psychological support of his professional activities. Helps to adapt to the current situation, increase psychological competence, reduce cases of professional burnout and deformation of specialists.
In addition to general areas, it is worth highlighting and noting specific types of career guidance work and service provision:
Conclusion
Having all of the above information, it will not be difficult for you not to fall for the bait of charlatans who, having proliferated in large numbers, offer to take supposedly free career guidance tests on the Internet, suddenly demanding payment to get the results, but to begin a conscious, independently chosen path to your profession dreams.
If you still have questions or want to find out more detailed information on a particular topic, then this site was made specifically to help you. Here you will find a large amount of news and materials covering all aspects of choosing a profession, preparing for the Unified State Exam and State Examination, as well as the opportunity to take career guidance tests online. All our tests are completely free and the result is available immediately after completion.
We sincerely and with all our hearts wish you to solve all the questions on the topic “Who to become?” and choose a profession you like.
