Module 11

FACTORS IN
IDENTIFYING CAREER
OPTIONS
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Career concepts
A career is defined as the combination and sequence of roles
played by a person during the course of a lifetime (Super,
1980). Your career determines the kind of lifestyle that you
will be leading, the quality of relationships that you have with
people around you like your family and friends, the kind of
balance you will be able to keep with your life and your
responsibilities.

There are two other concepts that we often associate with the
concept of career. One is a job and another is occupation.
JOB
A job is a position an individual holds
doings specific duties. For example,
if you would look closely at the job of
a lawyer, you can say that a lawyer’s
job is working as an associate in
Mahinay Law Firm.
 OCCUPATION
An occupation is defined as the similar
work for which people have similar
responsibilities and for which they
develop a common set of skills and
knowledge. For example, people who
are in the mental health occupation
would include psychologists, clinical
psychologists, counselors, and
psychiatrists.
 FACTORS
A lot of things can influence one’s career choice. A popular
career development model, the Trait and Factor model,
&
believes that skills and abilities need to fit the demands of
a particular career field. This being said, it is then the
important that you take stock of the skills, knowledge and
INFULENCES
abilities that you currently possess and those that you still
need to develop as these greatly impacts that kind of
career that could be a good match for you.

Another factor that could influence your success in a

particular career field would be your personality and interests.
John Holland, a popular career counselor personality traits
and must also fit our interests.
Our life roles are yet strong factors that
influences our career choices. Your role
as a child, a sister, a student, and
eventually if you choose it, that of a
parent would have an impact in the
decisions that you would have to make
as an adult.
One’s race and ethnicity could also impact our choices.
The culture in which we belong to shape our values and
expectations. In the Philippines, our collectivist
orientation makes our family a strong influence in our
career decisions. More often than not, the choice of
course to take in college, the location of our job, how
strong willed we will be in achieving great heights in our
career, would most likely be influenced by our family
roles, duties and obligations.
Our social identity, specifically our gender, also possess
challenges and opportunities for us when choosing a career.
Although nowadays, the gender divide in terms of careers have
slowly narrowed, it is a known fact that men and women
experiences career-related stereotypes.

One of the strongest considerations in career decision making

has a lot to do with social and economic conditions. Our
choice of career is contingent to our capabilities to sustain the
monetary demands of pursuing formal education to train for it.
Also, our financial obligations and roles likewise would
determine the kind of occupation we would be pursuing.
Furthermore, certain life events can also influence our career
choices.
WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR
When we think about career choice, several things immediately
come to mind - job description, training and education required,
career outlook, and salary - but there are a number of other factors
that may influence your decisions. Let’s explore some of these

CAREER CHOICE? factors as addressed by multiple career development theories.

Skills and Abilities - Considering your skills and abilities and

how they may fit a particular occupation comes out one of the
earliest career development fields, Trait-Factor theories, and is
still used today. These theories recommend crating
occupational profiles for specific jobs as well as identifying
individual differences,
SKILLS matching individuals to occupations
based on these differences. You can identify activities you
enjoy and those in which you have a level of competency
though a formal assessment.
Interest and Personality Type - Holland’s Career Typology is a widely used to connect personality types and
career fields. This theory establishes a classification system that matches personality characteristics and
personal preferences to job characteristics. The Holland Codes are six personality/career types that help
describe a wide range of occupations.

Life Roles - Being a worker is just one of your life roles, in addition to others such as student, parent, and child.
Super’s Lifespan theory directly addresses the fact that we each play multiple roles in our lives and that these
roles change over the course of our lives. How we think about ourselves in these roles, their requirements of them,
and the external forces that affect them, may influence how we look at careers in general and how we make
choices for ourselves.

Previous Experiences - Krumboltz’s Social Learning and Planned Happenstance theories address factors related to
our experiences with others and in previous work situations. Having positive experiences and role models working
in specific careers may influence the set of careers we consider as options for ourselves. One aspect of Social
Cognitive Career Theory addresses the fact that we are likely to consider continuing a particular task if we have
had a positive experience doing it.
Culture - Racial and ethnic background, as well as the culture of
an individual’s regional area, local community , and extended
family, may impact career decisions. Our culture often shapes
our values and expectations as they relate to many parts of our
lives, including hobs and careers. Multicultural career counseling
has emerged as a specialized field to take these influences into
consideration when counseling clients and students.

Gender - both men and women have experienced career-related

stereotypes. Gender is a factor included in multiple career
development theories and approaches including, Social Learning
and multicultural career counseling. How we view as individuals
may influence both the opportunities and barriers we perceive as
we make career decisions.
Social and Economic Conditions - All of our career choices take place within the context of society and the
economy. Several career theories, such as Social Cognitive Career Theory and Social Learning, address this
context in addition to other factors. Events that take place in our lives may affect the choices available to
us and even dictate our choices to a certain degree. Changes in the economy and resulting job market may
also affect how our careers develop.

Childhood Fantasies - What do you want to be when you grow-

up? You may remember this question from your childhood, and it
may have helped shape how you thought about careers then, as
well as later in life. Career counseling theories are expanding as
programs related to career choice are developed for an ages,
including the very young. Ginzberg proposed a theory that
describes three life stages related to career development. The
first stage, fantasy, where early ideas about careers are formed,
takes place up to age 11.
 WORK WITH YOUR CAREER COUNSELOR!
It is important to understand that career choice is not made
based on any one factor. Our choices are subject to many
influences - individual, cultural, social, and environmental. The
combination and interaction of various influences on your
decision-making are unique to you and your situation. There may
also be multiple options, several “good; fits” for you, instead of
a single, right choice. Keep in mind that as you change, learning
and experiencing new things, and external factors change, such
as the economy, you will continue to revise and fine-tune your
career choices.
There is a lot to consider, but you don’t have to
figure it all out on your own. Work with a career
services counselor at your institution’s career
center. These professionals will be able to
assist you with assessments and additional
resources, and discuss how different theories
may be applied to your career development
process.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?”
 THANK YOU!

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