Search for Opportunity
Moving up socially and economically is a problem which the sophistlcated student plans for. Recent research emphasizes that upward mobility depends not only on training and aspiration but also on opportunity. Workers often feel that pull and luck spell advancement. In contrast, for the more thoughtful individual, getting ahead is a game in which education, formal or otherwise, is essential for understanding how opportunity can often be made. There is some tendency for people to advance during their careers. but for most people the advancement is not very far. The skilled industrial worker finds himself basically a commodity, the demands for which fluctuate with the economy and with technological change, Above the skilled level the individual is in many respects more on his own,
Do opportunity and income increase with age? Economists answer both "yes" and "no," In managerial jobs and in the professions earnir:gs do increase with age. This is not true in the lowest-paid manual jobs. For such work, a man reaches his peak in his early twenties; after that he goes downhill. .
In early childhood career thinking involves a fantasy stage in which interests are generally unrelated to potential capacities and change rapidly. The child wants to be a fireman, doctor, teacher, or astronaut without considering how 01 why. Following this period, in early adolescence, comes the stage of tentative choices. Here there is some vague relationship between interests and vocational preferences, but career planning is little more than daydreaming. In the late teens comes a third stage of more realistic planning, when school or work alternatives are forced on the person.
Not all people have a choice in selecting their careers or jobs.
Opportunity, economic responsibilities, intelligence, and various other circumstances enter in. One person may have to quit school early because of a family problem. Another may stay in school longer only because work opportunities may not be available. And one reason students with some types of technical training (e.g., computer programming) never finish their formal education is that their services may be in such demand that they cannot turn down an uffer. The same is true of many jobs related to the health field.
