SSC PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT HAND-OUT 10

CAREER AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

August Turak, author of the book, Business Secrets of the trappiest Monks: One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and
Authenticity, and a contributor to Forbes Magazine, wrote an article about what leaders must know about personal
development. His proposition was that the purpose of developing ourselves is not just for a successful career in the future,
but for us to become the best person that we can ever be. Turak wrote:

What do you do for personal development?

The reason I find this question so difficult is that it assumes that personal development is something we do in order to get
“success.” And by success we usually mean having a successful career. It rarely occurs to anyone in our culture that
someone (a Trappist monk for example) might become an artist, entrepreneur, leader, or politician as a means to
personal development and not the other way around.

This entire world view tragically puts the proverbial cart before the horse. Whether you call it personal development,
personal growth, self-actualization, self-transcendence, or spirituality does not matter. What matters is realizing that the
reason you were born is to become the best human being you can possibly be. Personal development is not a tool for
reaching a bigger goal. Becoming a complete human being is already the biggest and most noble goal you can aspire
to.

Often, when we speak of being productive, the first thing that comes to mind is “work” or “occupation.”
However, as Turak proposed to create a mind-shift in our understanding of personal growth, he speaks more of a vocation,
rather than a career. A vocation is about what you love to do and employing all your knowledge, inherent skills, and
personal traits to fulfill your life goal.

Whether one agrees with Turak’s proposition about the objective of personal development, that it is not merely
for success (and we mean success here in terms of material wealth, pursuit of one’s career plans) but most especially to
fulfill one’s fullest potentials as a person, is everyone’s personal decision to make. In the end, success is how it is defined
by the person and no one else.

CAREER
A career is a profession that a person may get into, either because he has found a good match between his life
goals, skills, personality, or interests with a dream job, or it may just be a means to earn a living. While careers can
change through time, and this has been proven ever so often, such as the medical doctor who, after so many years of
studies and practice, decided to pursue his passion, which was to become a chef of his own restaurant, vocations are more
consistent even in different situations and conditions. Someone who is passionate about education need not be a teacher or
a professor I an academic setting. Education, in its broadest meaning, can be formal or informal; with formal being in a
school, whereas informal can be in any other situation, such as social worker training people on basic hygiene or
parenting, for example.
In the Philippines, education takes top priority among the majority of families after basic necessities are met. The
belief that a college diploma can improve one’s life is the major factor that drives many Filipinos to seek out the most
popular courses in college that can offer the best chances of employment
This is evident in the way families literally enshrine the diplomas received by members of the family and lining it
up along the walls, together with honor ribbons and medals, if they received any. A college degree is the ticket from
poverty to a more comfortable life. It is also perceived as a way to garner respect and pride within one’s community.
During the past few generations, the padre de familia selected the courses each of his children would take up.
Among the roster of first choices were medicine, law, accounting, engineering, and education. Later on, business
administration was added to the list including nursing, management engineering, and hotel and restaurant management.
Newer courses such as physical therapy, ad computer science were later added to the preferred list of courses. Then about
decade ago, the need for medical nurses became high globally, which prompted many local colleges and universities to
offer nursing graduates in the employment market both locally and abroad left many nursing students taking up
employment that is not related to their degree. Many ended up as call center agents.
The illusion of good paying jobs and quick employment has pushed many parents and students to pursue college
degrees that oftentimes are not in consonance with their interests, skills, and passions. The pressure to please their parents
has become the basis of student’s selection of what course to take. In some instances, however, adolescents who were
given a free hand in choosing their course either select the right one for themselves, graduate with good grades, and
happily find the right job, or mess up in their selection because they based their decisions on what their peers say or think
rather listening to their own voices. Peer pressure is a very strong influence in choosing a course and school to go to.
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In a study conducted by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) from the academic year 2007 to 2012, the
top five fields of study chosen were:

Discipline/Field of Study % Share of Total Enrollment

for AY 2011-2012
Business Administration and Related 27.69
Education and Teacher Training 14.83
Information Technology 12.88
Engineering Technology 12.26
Medical and Allied 9.26
All Others 23.07
Source: Commission on Higher Education

There are over three million students enrolled in these fields of study during the academic year 2011-2012. The table
below from the same CHED website source indicates a breakdown of which courses or fields of study Filipino students
from 2007 up to 2012 chose to take.

Table 2.
Number of Enrollment by Academic Year: AY 2009/10 to AY 2011/12

For so many years, the academic and business sectors have discussed the mismatch between what skills
college graduates learned in school versus the skills needed in the workplace. While this is a different topic altogether, we
can point out that the selection of the fields of study available to the Filipino high school graduate is very limited in
variety compared to the selection of courses found in other countries. There are many other fields of study not yet popular
or available in the Philippines, such as the highly specialized fields of nanotechnology or renewable energy engineering,
and creative and artistic courses such as digital animation.
Then there is the field of arts and crafts, trade and industrial skills, or technical and vocational courses,
they are usually perceived as inferior, low-paying, and often associated with manual, labor, and therefore not that socially
appealing. Apparently, the notion of dignity in labor does not always apply in the Philippines where most employees
would rather be in white collar jobs and get together with friends after work in a nice coffee shop or eat in the latest and
trendiest dining places around.
c THEORIES
Let us now take a look at some career development theories or concepts to
identify what researchers have found out as factors that affect and influence career
selection ad reflect on these to determine which are relevant to you.
Richard A. Hansen of City College of the City University of New York, who
conducted a study in 1976 on the career development of high school students
talented in science, is often quoted in his definition of career development. Hansen
defines career development as the “continuous lifelong process of developmental
experiences that focuses on seeking, obtaining, and processing information about
self, occupational andSchool
educational alternatives, life styles, and role options.” I
High

other words, we go through life doing things to earn a living while we reflect on
what we have learned and where else we can employ these skills and knowledge to
improve our lives.

There are four categories of career development theories

(www.pacareerstandards.com and
http://www.ccdf.ca/ccdf/NewCoach/english/ccoache/e4a_bp_theory.htm):
 1. Trait factor – skills, values, interests, and personality characteristics are analyzed and match with job factors
or an occupational profile. The Trait Factor Theory was formulated by vocation experts Frank Parson and E.G
Williamson back in the 1900s, and is still the basis of many career counseling and aptitude tests.

2. Psychological – developed by John Holland. This second category is an offshoot of Parson’s Trait Factor
Theory where Holland identified six personality categories: realistic, investigative, social, conventional,
enterprising, and artistic. A person usually made up of all six categories, will have one dominant type, but
may exhibit up to three of these types. People in search of their career path are often confused because they
mix their dominant type with their other preferences. We often hear a high school student saying he or she is
interested in political science but would also like to design clothes or experiment on cooking different types
of dishes.

3. Decision – this theory is based on Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, which means that a person may
exercise control over his or her thoughts, beliefs, and actions, and that self-efficacy is the predictor of
behavior. Self-efficacy is defined as the belief in one’s capabilities to plan, organize, and execute, a set of
actions that will produce the desired results. Self-efficacy may be construed as the same as self-competence.
Bandura explains that self-efficacy is tied to motivation, which is the most important driver of one’s career
development.

Another proponent of this theory is John D. Krumboltz who theorized that social learning is the basis of our
career decisions and development, and that people choose their careers based on what they know and have
learned. Krumboltz identified four main factors that influence career choice: genetic influences, and skills
such as goal setting, information gathering, and self-observation.

4. Developmental or the Life-Span or Life-Space Theory – proposed by Donald Super who based the theory
on the idea that humans are always in constant change and go through life learning and doing new things
while changing roles in the process. We often hear of people in mid-life talking about reinventing themselves
and in the process acquiring new set of skills and attitudes, and occupy themselves with new things they have
never done before.

Always bear in mind that there is no one particular theory that can explain everything about career
development. The challenge to us is to develop our own approach and methodology in finding out our career
choices. Keep in mind that career choices may change across time for many possible reasons since our life
circumstances are also in a state of flux or constant cultural character nuances that may not necessarily have
been reflected in any of the theories presented above.

INTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING ONE’S CHOICE OF CAREER

Challenges are real for everyone. Even in ideal situations where there are
minimal challenges like financial constraints and parental approval, other
obstacles might still be present. Let us take a look at the internal factors that
may affect your decision I your career choice.
1. Self-concept or self-identity
If your self-identity is not as solid as it should be, then choosing a career
or even a course to take up in college will be difficult. There is a need to
know and understand what you want to do or not want to do. This is tied
on how you see and think of yourself. For example, you want to become
a medical doctor, but then you think you do not have the perseverance
or the intelligence to become one, the self-defeating thought will take
you miles away from fulfilling your dream. Your values will also play a
role in your career choice. People who are very much it helping other
people will be unhappy in a work situation where profits take highest priority over other important things like
developing human resources.

2. Personal Preferences
You might have decided to take up accountancy but your mother told you that being a nurse like one of
your aunts will help you earn a lot of money especially when you work abroad. This usually happens I many Filipinos
homes. For a mother and father, they will always think of the best for their child. However, no matter how good their
intentions are, these can still backfire because the child is force to do something opposite – what his or her parents wants.
There are some instances when the adolescent will abide by the wishes of the parents over what college course to take.
Take for example the story of Joey. Joey always wanted to become a copywriter for an advertising agency. His father’s
wish was for him to take up engineering. Being the eldest in his family, Joey set aside his personal preference in deference
to his parents. He took up engineering, did well since he was quite intelligent, graduated on time, and then after that he
took the board exam. When he passed the board exams, he went to his father and gave his engineering diploma and his
professional license and told his father now that he has fulfilled his father’s wish, he would like to fulfill his own wish of
becoming a copywriter. The father allowed him to take his destiny in his hands. Joey became a successful copywriter and
eventually became the president of an advertising agency.
3. Motivation
The drive to fulfill one’s fullest potentials is the best motivation any person can ever have in living a
meaningful life. Sure, there are some motivations evolve around amassing wealth or obtaining power, but the majority of
the Filipinos are motivated primarily by their desire to improve the quality of their family’s lives. Millions of Filipinos are
now working abroad for this very reason. They went to college to take up a course that can provide them with
employment abroad. Once they graduated, they ventured out into the world to seek their own fortune for themselves, as
well as for their families. When they have saved enough, they return home to pursue their personal dreams. We hear
plenty of success stories of OFWs coming back and setting up their own business, and succeeded in doing so. A person
without any motivation will end up wasting a life of fulfilled potentials.
4. Self-confidence
“Yes I can!” “Kaya ko ito!” Notwithstanding the challenges an adolescent faces after high school, the self-
confident person will keep his eyes on his goals, and declare to the world that he can do it and will succeed in the pursuit
of his dreams.
5. Personal Skills
As children, we already learned certain skills just by observing our parents and siblings, classmates, and
school authorities. Basic education teaches us the hard skills we need to acquire so we may qualify for higher education,
such as learning math and sciences. The softer skills such as dealing with people or the skill to communicate a feeling or a
thought on-verbally are skills that are not taught in our educational system. Be aware of the inherent skills that you have.
Ask yourself what you like ad enjoy doing. If you enjoy drawing, then that is a skill. If you like to listen to music and
learn how to play a musical instrument, then that is another skill. If you can listen to people and put their ideas together,
that is a skill called synthesizing ideas. If you can tell what is not right about a person’s overall image, you have the eye
for proportions, color coordination, design, poise, and style. The skill that you have may be hidden because some people
around you do not accept it or you may be afraid to show it because you might be misjudge. Have the courage to stand up
and take the relevant course that will hone your skills and be the master of your own destiny.
6. Personality Characteristics
Knowing your personality characteristics will definitely help you in choosing a career. Certain characteristics are
compatible and matched with certain types of work or occupation according to Holland’s trait factor theory. What are
some of your personality characteristics? Are you the quiet type who would rather work alone than with a group? Or are
you the more sociable type who enjoys working with a team? Do you have knack for details or are you irritated by them?
Would you rather memorize information rather than analyze them? Later on, we will engage in some exercises to help you
identify your personality characteristics.
7. Personal Health
The condition of your Health is a major factor in the career choice you will make. Are you healthy enough
to take on the rigors of some tough courses like law or medicine? You might aspire to become a physical education
specialist but your asthma or allergies are getting in the way. Many health conditions can be handled given the proper
guidance from a professional medical specialist. In many instances, however, physical conditions or health issues did not
deter certain individuals in pursuing their dreams.

8. Emotional considerations
Generally, it is difficult to make a decision when one is experiencing some strong emotions such as anger
or sadness. Oftentimes, an emotionally disturbed individual will end up deciding on what course to take. It is always best
to be levelheaded ad calm when making these life-directing decisions.
9. Self-sabotaging thoughts
Self-sabotaging thoughts are thoughts that deter a person from developing a healthy and wholesome self-
concept. Statements such as “I cannot do this. I will never succeed.” “I am not intelligent enough for that course.”
“Nobody believes in me, so why should I even believe in myself?” are the stumbling blocks in your journey toward self-
actualization. Knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses will put a person’s feet on the ground and make him realistic
about his capabilities and limitations. However, to immediately put a halt to one’s dream is to sabotage what could have
been a realization of that dream.
Many of these challenges are real, but there are some that are just figments of one’s imagination that sow fear in the heart.