In the article “The Pink Floyd Night School”, Professor Mark Edmundson writes about his experiences during life after graduating from college. Now, as an english professor at the University of Virginia, Edmundson tells his readers about the benefits of taking your time to find a career after college. Edmundson describes his course of action after college by saying he “spent five years wandering around doing nothing”. Edmundson took up odd jobs such as cab driving and teaching to make ends meet. His most significant job was as a stage crew member. In this position, Edmundson set up stages for rock bands to perform. Using a narrative style, Edmundson takes the reader through his “most memorable night” as a stage crew member, the night Pink Floyd performed. This night is reflected on by Edmundson in such detail, in order to give the reader a good example of how “taking it slow” after college could potentially create many enjoyable life experiences that could be missed when rushing into a career.
I enjoy the way that Edmundson uses a personal narrative to get his point across. I believe the way Edmundson uses his experience on the night of the Pink Floyd concert to portray a laid-back, but still interesting and exciting life after college, is a great way to convey his message. I agree with Edmundson’s stance on not rushing into a career. I support the idea of graduates taking their time to explore multiple options and avenues now that they are equipped with a college degree. However, I also believe that this strategy could lead to graduates losing focus on their career goals and getting lazy. While Edmundson was still able to find a successful career, taking this path could lead to graduating students finding themselves stuck “wandering around doing nothing” because they lost momentum and are no longer motivated. Although Edmundson is grateful for the years he spent moving between jobs, I believe that for many graduates, this could just end up being a waste of time that they could have spent being productive in the pursuit of their life goals.
Edmundson concludes the article by coming full-circle with his narrative. Beginning the narrative as a college graduate himself, Edmundson closes his story as a professor speaking to a room full of graduating students. He asks them the same question he was asked when he was in their position, “‘So, what are you doing after graduation?’”. Edmundson takes this opportunity to show the reader that there is a parallel between what the acceptable response to that question is today, versus what was expected when he was a graduate. The standard response for Edmundson’s graduating class was that they were “taking it slow”, whether that was the truth or not. Today, however, students respond with elaborate and ambitious plans to attend “law school and med school and higher degrees in journalism and business”. Even though these responses impress Edmundson, he finds himself “worried about them too”. Since taking his time ended up working in his favor Edmundson believes that graduates should explore their options before making big career decisions. Reminiscing about the night of Pink Floyd, Edmundson expresses concern that the students are rushing into their futures, and he believes it is unfortunate that they will likely miss out on having nights similar to the ones he had during his post-college experience.
Although I support Edmundson’s views on taking your time after college, I believe having a plan should also be encouraged among college graduates. For some, like Edmundson, not having a specific plan could work. However, I do not believe that is the case for everybody. Many people need to have an outline of goals to stick to in order to keep advancing successfully, and I would have liked Edmundson to acknowledge the fact that every situation is unique. Many graduates have a tendency to feel lost after college if they do not have anything planned directly after. I believe that if a student plans to take a year or two off from pursuing their career, they should at least be prepared with a plan to work during that time. It is also my opinion that continuing to move towards your career goals after graduation could prevent graduates from losing motivation to pursue careers to which they can apply their degree. Edmundson’s article could be stronger if he had addressed this counter argument and disputed it in his own way, rather than ignoring the benefits of having a concise plan after college graduation.
Career Is A Lifelong Endeavor
A career can be a life-long endeavor, with the need for continued training, education and experience, therefore choosing a career can be difficult. Even if a person knows a career they want to pursue, it still takes time and planning to get there. Once education is completed, this provides a broad area in which to further specialize. A career plan can assist with this by providing clear insights into what a person requires.
Each person has different plans and goals in mind of their career, it can be the same career path, but no two people are alike. Work values and career skills vary per person even. Some might be more administration based, whereas others are more client based. Both will intertwine and have mixed results of both needs. Yet, one may have a calling to do more than the other. Five work values to show the most interesting aspects of a job can help outline what you want your career to give to you. It can be hard to pick just five but with work it can be done. Picked for these work values were autonomy; flexibility; help others and society; impact, and working with others.
Autonomy is an important part of a job and most people should have the ability to be able to do this, but some feel the need to have this an important aspect of their job. Allowing little to no supervision unless required gives the individual freedom to make their career the most fulfilling for themselves. This could be a large responsibility that some people do not have the structure to follow.
Flexibility is slowly coming into the field. While owning your own business allows you to set your own hours, more companies are noticing more production out of employees when they schedule themselves to come in. This can help a large group of people and could be a benefit in a career. A mom is more likely to work harder in a career for the hours she picks as it would be less involved with limiting the time she does have with her children.
Helping others and society, is also a work value. Many people who go into the psychology field wish to help people. Yet, in what way? A work value in this is seeing that the work they do for the community seen in continuing the betterment of that community. Doing so is a very rewarding thing for many people. Seeing their hard work help others is extremely rewarding and can give a feeling a great happiness.
Impact follows closely behind helping others and society. They want to feel that sense of accomplishment. This doesn’t need to be as large as a community. This impact can be small like a workplace or self-impact.
While some people want to work alone and avoid working with people. Others enjoy being a part of a team. Feeling like their co-workers and themselves are all working towards a common goal. This can be found often in the psychology field of work. As everyone is working towards one common goal, the health and support of the patient.
A career is a give and take. While you look at what you are given and rewarded with while working, like mentioned before with the rewarding aspects of your career. There is a take aspect as well. What do you bring to the table of your career? There are skills everyone has but it is different for everyone as well. Strengths and weaknesses are different for everyone. Each person needs to reflect on themselves and pick their strengths that they bring to a career. Communication is the biggest thing people see and state is a strength. Though it isn’t the only thing employers are looking for in an employee. Can you deal with sudden changes and the unknown? This is something that is a needed strength within parts of the psychology field, like case workers for children.
Attention to details is also needed as when going into some fields even the smallest of detail will matter. In a lot of fields, the saying: “make sure you dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s” is a very real thing to worry about, a simple piece of information could be the difference between failure and success. Problem solving is something that most people have to learn to work towards when working with anyone besides themselves. Within the psychology field there are even more things that require problem solving to succeed in getting the tasks done. Each case is different and has its own individual problems that need to be worked out.
In the child service field where you are helping children, it can be anywhere from protecting a child from an abusive parent, to helping a parent with depression get the resources they need. Being able to solve these problems is extremely important and a required competency within a social service career, but it is needed in many other fields of employment as well. Finally, following procedures is critical as each place will have their own procedures. The APA provides a set of minimum procedures that everyone within the field of psychology follows, such as the Code of Conduct but beyond that the procedures set by one place could differ from another and the ability to learn them and act on them in an efficient manner are important to providing the service.
Goals and career plans can be a difficult thing that one can struggle with. At first maybe you do not know what you want to do or not sure how to even reach the goal. Maybe your goal seems so far off that it is unable to be reached. Each person has a professional philosophy they follow. This personal professional philosophy is something every person has even if they don’t realize they have it. It can be anything from being caring and child centered to the needs, skills, opportunity, engaging, communicative, and impactful philosophy they have. My professional philosophy is child-centered, trust, relationships, caring, supportive, hands-on, engaging, and satisfaction. My short-term career goals are to enter the social service realm of employment. I would like to start off by helping children and their families during times of need and for many, rock bottom. My career plan is to work in this field until I am comfortable within it and have at least 5 to 10 years of experience under my belt before going into graduate school. My goals then expand away from children, in particular, and back more towards the parents, and in more depth, to be specific, the mom.
My very long-term goal is to work within hospitals and serve those who are in times of grief. This grief in the events of child loss, anywhere from early stages of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or still birth. This is a very personal goal for me as I suffered from an ectopic pregnancy and there are no mental health services in my area here to help those who are going through this very mentally trying time. These goals and career choices align with my life values and interest because I have been there. My goals and career will allow me to help those who are there and give them a buffer for when things no longer look up for them.
We have these services available for those who go through other traumatic times, like rape. A woman or man who is in the hospital for rape will not be touched by staff or officers until a specialist who is trained comes in and talks with them. They will make sure they are aware of their rights, their choices, and walk them through everything the staff is going to do to them. Along with holding their hand and being there every step of the way. Yet other things like still birth and ectopic pregnancies that feel like your whole world is now flipped on its head, people are expected to walk through it alone. My goal is to change all of that and no longer have anyone walking alone. I can at least help and assist those in my area.
Having a plan is all well and good but to achieve that plan takes work and motivation is a key need in succeeding in this plan is motivation. The Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education (CPSE) has four psychological principles: intrinsic motivation; mastery goals; teacher expectations; and goal setting. For teacher expectations, this is likely to be of little motivation during a career plan, although a teacher may have expectations of their students beyond their teaching, this may not be as impactful a factor during later career progression.
Setting goals, including mastery goals gives specific targets to aim for. As a person achieves these goals, they not only feel successful but understand that they are mastering the task they have set themselves. The use of SMART goals provides achievable goals by being Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time bound, these goals ensure that a person does not become overwhelmed and unable to feel motivated.
The most important type of motivation, however, is intrinsic. This motivation is based on the wants of the person. Without motivation rom within, a person can set as many goals as they want – which is likely zero as they are not motivated – but unless they want to achieve something and have the motivation to do so, they will fail. A person must want to do something for themselves, not because others want them to do so.
It is recommended that to make a good action plan you think SMART. To start with these smart goals, picking a specific thing is needed. Getting involved in the social work field as a volunteer will get the time requirements that most employers are looking for. Along with making yourself seem more employable as you have already gained experience within the field and know what you are up against. After getting one to two years of experience with volunteering, I will then work my way into joining the place I’m volunteering at and get employed by them.
After this point, it would be a case of gaining more experience over a number of years until I felt comfortable to enter graduate school and obtain my Master’s degree and finally my Doctorate. Upon achieving this my final goal would be to open my own business within five years to allow myself to start my final career as a grief counsellor.
Careers are a huge part of a person’s life and choosing the correct one can be difficult. With planning and the right motivation, the career path of a person can be well laid out and easily completed. Even so, a career path may not work out for everyone, it can be derided due to outside factors that cannot be planned for. Motivation is a key part to achievement and will well thought out goals, it can be smoother than anticipated.
Planning For A Successful Future
My roots stem from Philadelphia Pennsylvania, I have 5 siblings along with my mother and father. I came from a strong Christian background. I had a strong Christian Grandmother and Mother who taught me everything I need to know about God.
They both instilled solid family values that involved putting God first in everything that you do, strong principles, high standards and never to compromise your beliefs or lower your standards to fit in. My greatest strength is to push myself to be the best I can be.
My greatest weakness is not having the ability to say no without feeling guilty.
Prior to coming to Grand Canyon University, in 2005, I had gone to school for my associate’s degree in allied health services. What I like most about getting my associates degree was that I wanted to advance myself in a career that would allow me to help and care for people. Ms. Samantha Fletcher was my favorite teacher because she was my instructor, my mentor and we had a personal and spiritual connection. Even after graduation, she still was my spiritual advisor. After the children were older, I knew it was time to go back to school; so I chose Grand Canyon University, because I wanted to advance myself further by getting my degree in health management. I knew I would have challenges and obstacles before me but I was up for the challenge. I wanted to be a role model for my children by going back to college. Going back to school requires a plan, when incorporating a plan, you must have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. In order to attain success, one must plan accordingly. I expect to gain the core academic classes that I needed to advance my career and spiritual foundation and principles of Christ that the University offers to their students.
My academic goals are to be strong in my critical thinking and writing skills, learn how to mange and prioritize my time wisely. My personal goals are to be the best version that I can be, spiritually and personally, Also, strengthen the core values and principles that Grand Canyon University instills in their students. I will reach my goals by managing my time wisely, set realistic goals, motivation and determination to reach my goals. At this particular time I do not have an estimated time when I will complete my studies. However, I hope that I will be able to finish my studies by 2019 or 2020.
Upon completing my studies I would like a job in upper management in the medical field. I currently worked in the medical field and I would to continue to work in this field. I chose this profession so I could advance my career but also so that I could set an example for my children through work and dedication. As for my salary expectations, I would like to make more money than I am currently making at this time.
My life will change upon graduating from Grand Canyon because I will be able to advance in my career, and help others in a spiritual manner and be a successful woman and dedicated Christian. I have learned so much professionally from Mark Wallace, who is the CEO of the hospital that I currently work at. The qualities that I admire most about Mr. Wallace are his ability to communicate effectively with anyone of all walks of life.
He has a compassionate and kind nature and he is dedicated to meeting the needs of his employees and the patients. Mr. Wallace achieved success through hard work, dedication and perseverance. I see myself in 10 years being successful, advancing in my career in doing what I do in management. I see myself in 20 years not only successful professionally but in ministry as well. My life will contribute positively to the lives of others because I will show compassion, love and kindness and treat everyone with the equal respect that I would like to be treated with. I also can help others through my medical educational background and my years of service in ministry.
I define success as loving God and helping others and giving of oneself to have a better and peaceful world. I will know in the future if I have achieved success because I will have peace in my mind and heart and I will have prospered in ways that I could never imagine. That is true success and with God any and everything is possible.