Employment Projections

Sometimes we're lucky and know what kind of career we want at an early age. For me, it was being a teacher. Well actually, that's not quite true. I really wanted to be a nun. Made sense, since I went to Catholic school and most of my teachers were penguins, er, nuns. But then I hit 8th grade and got my first kiss and decided that the whole celibacy thing was highly overrated!

But I stayed focused on my goal and got my teaching credential and became a teacher.

If you know what you want to do when you become an adult......good for you! You're 5 steps ahead of most kids in high school.

In another blog entry I'll turn you on to some places you can take Skills Assessment tests and Interest tests to help you figure out where you should start on your career journey. But for right now, let me tell you about a nifty little tool that will tell you where the hot jobs will be in the next 5 - 7 years.

The U.S. Department of Labor  has a great website full of employment information. One of the things they make available to the public (that's YOU!) on a yearly basis is the Employment Outlook handbook . So what are the employment projections for 2004 - 2014?

According to the U.S. Dept of Labor, "Employment growth will continue to be concentrated in the service-providing sector of the economy. Educational services, health care and social assistance, and professional and business services represent the industry sectors with the strongest employment growth; these sectors are projected to grow more than twice as fast as the overall economy."

What does this mean? Let me see if I can give you some highlights. But before I do that, I would strongly recommend that you check out the actual document and read through it as much as you can stand without going blind or getting brain dead.

Educational Services = teachers. Yep, lots of those old farts who are teaching you right now are going to retire soon. You're probably thinking that they should have retired years ago ;-) Never fear, many of them will be retiring in the next 5 - 10 years. If you have a gift for inspiring people, sharing knowledge and like having summers off, then look into teaching as a profession.

Health Care = Nurses, Respiratory Therapists, Radiology Technician, Chiropractor, Dietician, and on and on and on! There is already a huge nursing shortage. One of the problems is that the nursing schools are full and it's very difficult to get in. I'll be devoting 1 or 2 blogs to this and how to increase your odds of getting accepted into the nursing school of your choice.

Social Assistance = Consists of four segments—individual and family services; community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services; vocational rehabilitation services; and child day care services. If you're a good communicator and like working with and helping people, then this is an area you should look into. I want to add on Police Officer to this list. Many police departments are in the same crunch as schools and hospitals -- there are a lot of police officers who are retiring and not a lot of new ones filling those holes. Requirements to be a police officer are very stringent. You would be amazed at how many people flunk out of the program because they can't pass the psychological exam. And it goes without saying that if you have a felony on your record, don't even bother applying.

Professional and Business Services = Scientific research and computing jobs as well as public relations and employment services. There will be a lot of research going on for drugs as the population ages. In plain English -- there are going to be tons of old folks out there who will have all sorts of illnesses and someone has to find medicines to help them. Also, and I know this from personal experience, there will be lots of people out there who are not trained or educated enough for good jobs. Someone has to train them and help them find jobs.

To find out more about the occupations with the largest job growth from 2004 - 2014, check out this page of the Dept of Labor's Employment Projections findings. http://www.bls.gov/emp/emptab3.htm 

• Note the Quartile rank by 2004 median annual earnings column. This tells you if the pay for the particular job is "VH" = Very High, "H" = High, "L" = Low, "VL" = Very Low. Even though a job may be in high demand, it may not pay very much. But, then again, if there is high demand and low supply, the salaries may increase to get good people.
• The percent column will tell you how much of a projected increase there will be in a certain job category.
• The last column is the source of postsecondary education or training column. This will tell you what kind of degree or certificate you need to get this job. DO NOT take this as the absolute truth. Gasp! - the government has been known to be wrong about things from time-to-time ;-)

I want to be perfectly clear here -- you should only use this information as a guideline. Maybe you aren't suited to be a nurse or a computer programmer. Maybe your interests lie in theater or journalism. If that's where your interests lie, then do something that you like. If you're good at it, you'll make a living at it.

Remember.........

"Career development is a process; a journey for the rest of your life. Always keep your options open."

Why You Should Take The PSAT

Bet you didn't know this little bit of information......

What is the PSAT/NMSQT exactly and why should you take it?
PSAT.-The Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test.
NMSQT-.National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

The PSAT/NMSQT is basically a verbal and math practice test to prepare for the SAT I test generally taken in the spring of your junior year. The nice thing about the PSAT is that you can take it twice; once in the fall of your sophomore year and again in the fall of your junior year.

No matter how smart you are, you won't qualify for a National Merit Scholarship if you don't take the PSAT. For some reason people seem to neglect telling you that fact.

Here are some useful links:

• Collegeboard.com has tons of info on picking colleges, college exams, scholarship info and much more. The test takes 2 hours and 15 minutes and includes Math, Critical Reading and Writing.
• The Princeton Review  offers practice PSAT and SAT tests. They also have a tool which can find you a tutor in your area.
• Yahoo! Education offers practice tests in all areas of the PSAT as well as test strategies and other helpful tools.
• Powerprep has a brief Q&A on the PSAT and other tests.
• Education Planner has an overview of the PSAT as well as helpful strategies, sample questions and a sample test.

You can also purchase software or download it online, to help prepare you for the PSAT, SAT and ACT. The one I like is Kaplan's. 
And lastly, check with your high school counselor or career resource center at school to see if they already have tools to help you prepare for the test.

Expectations

For the most part, parents and teachers have expectations of you. They want you to get good grades, go to college and be a happy adult. But what counts more than that are your expectations of yourself.

Alexander Pope once said, "Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."

Well you might not have heard of Alexander Pope but I'm betting that you've heard of His Airness, Michael Jordan. Ironically, Michael was cut from his high school varsity basketball team in his sophomore year because the coach thought he was underdeveloped. From that incident, Michael realized that, "If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome."

Maybe you're one of those students who is gifted but you've been labeled an underachiever because you're not getting A's and B's. You could easily pull A's and B's but you choose not to. You have other interests or you just want to cruise through school and get the Hell out as quick as you can! You're bored. You just want people to leave you alone and let you do your own thing.

Or, you might be the kind of student who struggles just to get a "C". Chances are that school is not your idea of pure, unadulterated fun. But you know you need an education to get a good job. People's expectations of you aren't high. They say you'll be lucky just to graduate. A person who takes charge of their life will want to prove those people wrong. However, if you lack self esteem and self confidence, you'll most likely prove them right.

More than what anyone else thinks or expects of you, is what YOU expect of yourself. You can never set the bar too high for yourself. "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it" (Michelangelo). But it helps if you have a roadmap to get there.

More on the roadmap......................

Beginning the Journey

Going through high school is tough. You have to figure out who you are. You're treated as a kid but expected to act like an adult. High school is a major transition from childhood to adulthood. You go through 4 years of Math, Science, English and whatever else is needed to graduate. Too many students leave high school without the occupational or life skills to succeed in the adult work world. And here's an interesting little fact. Nearly 70% of high school students will never even go to college or, if they do go, they never finish and get their degree. 70%! So if you're sitting around with 9 of your friends, take a good look at them. Can you guess who the 3 are that will actually finish college?

And let's be perfectly honest. When you're a teenager, the last thing on your mind is what kind of career you're going to have. How can you have a 1 Year Plan or a 5 Year Plan, when you can't even plan for the next week?! Are you really able to get your head around the fact that, after you graduate from high school, you'll be responsible for most of these bills:

- Rent
- Electricity
- Garbage
- Water
- Food
- Car payment
- Car maintencance
- Clothing
- Internet access
- Satellite or Cable service

A job at Burger King or your local gas station isn’t going to allow you to be independent. Having a high school diploma is a good thing. But it should only be a part of your plan. In future blogs, I hope I can give you some helpful pointers in taking charge of your life and having a clear path to a successful career.