For this assignment, I chose to interview an individual whom I’ve named “Stan Polansky” to protect the anonymity of my interviewee. Stan is a 25 year old Polish man who officially moved to the U.S. roughly 3 years ago after moving back and forth from Poland and the US. Stan was faced with the difficult economic decision of deciding whether or not to pursue a career as a musician or in the jewelry business. Stan chose to attend a trade school and pursued a career as a jewelry repairman/ custom jewelry designer instead, making him now a third generation jeweler. Stan is currently employed at his family’s jewelry business. However, this decision did not come easy. Stan’s Polish culture and family played a large role in his decision. In addition, …show more content…
At one point Stan’s parents were sick of financially supporting him and did not believe a career in music was “realistic”. Stan choosing to become a jeweler was not seen as a choice to his parents, rather it was assumed due to his culture. These factors influencing Stan’s decision are perfectly illustrated by Wilk and Cliggett’s three models of decision making, as discussed in the book “Economies and Cultures”. According to Wilk and Cliggett these three models are the “Self-Interested Model”, the “Moral Model”, and the “Social Model”, all of which combined form the basis of explaining “human behavior and decision making”(42). The pressure of Stan’s family as previously described is an example of both the “Moral” and “Social” Models. Stan saw his musician friends “in bands and doing drugs”, which made him realize that that was not the life he wanted for himself. Stan also came to the realization that it was in his best interest to choose a career that provided a more reliable and steady income, which is an example of acting out of self-interest (Wilk and Cligget’s Self- Interested Model). However, with making this career choice came many initial
Alexander Stowe is a twin, his brother is Aaron Stowe. Alex is an Unwanted, Aaron is a Wanted, and their parents are Necessaries. Alex is creative in a world where you can’t even see the entire sky, and military is the dream job for everyone and anyone. He should have been eliminated, just like all the unwanteds should have been. He instead comes upon Artimè, where he trains as a magical warrior- after a while. When he was still in basic training, and his friends were not, he got upset, he wants to be the leader, the one everyone looks up to.
The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth is a book by Alexandra Robbins which summarizes the story of seven different teenagers that have many different problems, which many of todays teenagers also have. I found myself having many similarities to the teenagers in the story, for example, when with her group Whitney, the popular bitch, thinks “You didn't day that when we were alone, but now that you're in front of a group you do” (Robbins 21). I can relate to this because I feel as though many people are pressured to say or do things they normally wouldn't whenever they are with their group or ‘clique’. Robbins has this idea that the freaks and geeks, or “cafeteria fringe” will someday grow up and use what they are criticized for to become more successful than the other peopler people. She calls this the ‘Quirk Theory’ (Robbins page 11). This helped me to learn that right now, in high school, not being ‘popular’ may seem like the end of the world, but the reality of it is that after these four years, it wont even matter, but what will be important is how you learned to grow as a person and the true friendships that were made. This makes me want to focus more on my education and learning to grow as a person instead of focusing on how many friends I have or who I sit with at lunch, because truthfully it wont matter once high school is over.
In Alex Horton’s essay, “Ides of March,” which he posted on his personal blog, “Army of Dude”, on March 20, 2011, he tells us a little about his platoon, Battle Company, Second Platoon. In this reflective essay he tells us how they have disbanded – and he tells us about the platoon’s losing one of its own, Brian Chevalier, who was a “driver for first squad.” Chevy was blown “out of the Stryker” he was driving, apparently being killed instantly. He talked about how it happened so suddenly, like an announcement when a family member passed away. In this essay Horton remembers Chevy, sharing stories and memories from other men in their platoon. The reason on why Horton wrote this essay because on an emotional state about what he felt about when
I enjoyed reading Disciplined Hearts by Theresa O'Nell because i find that many people today do not know a lot about the Native American culture and what they have been through. Their cultures history is not talked about as much the African American or Hispanic's are. Most Americans know about the hardships that the African American and Hispanics had to overcome to assimilate to the level that they are today. I think O'Nell is trying to talk about the history of the Native American culture because, she believes that the reason that their culture is not well-known because of the fact that they have chosen to keep living like their ancestors and not assimilate to the American culture.
In Craig Lesley’s novel The Sky Fisherman, he illustrates the full desire of direction and the constant flow of life. A boy experiences a chain of life changing series of events that cause him to mature faster than a boy should. Death is an obstacle that can break down any man, a crucial role in the circle of life. It’s something that builds up your past and no direction for your future. No matter how hard life got, Culver fought through the pain and came out as a different person. Physical pain gives experience, emotional pain makes men.
In Lee Ann Fisher Baron’s “Junk Science,” she claims that the “food industry with the help of federal regulators” sometimes use “[a science that] bypasses [the] system of peer review. Presented directly to the public by…‘experts’ or ‘activists,’ often with little or no supporting evidence, this ‘junk science’ undermines the ability…[for] everyday consumers to make rational decisions” (921). Yet Americans still have a lot of faith in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to a 2013 Pew Research study, 65% of Americans are “very favorable” or “mostly favorable” of the FDA. When it comes to what people put in their bodies, the FDA has a moral obligation to be truthful and transparent. The bottom line of the FDA’s myriad of responsibilities is to help protect the health of Americans. Deciding what to eat is a critical part of living healthily, and consumers must be able to trust that this massive government agency is informing them properly of the contents of food. While the FDA does an excellent job in many areas, it has flaws in other areas. One of its flaws is allowing the food industry to print food labels that are deceptive, unclear, or simply not true (known as misbranding). This is quite the hot topic because a Google search for “Should I trust food labels” returns well over 20 million results, many of which are blog posts from online writers begging their readers not to trust food labels. HowStuffWorks, a division of Discovery Communications, published an online article whose author claims that “[the food industry] will put what they want on labels. They know the game….” While the food industry is partially at blame for misbranding, the FDA is allowing it to happen. If a mother tells her children that it is oka...
These decisions may also include the career they plan to take in the near future. As stated by Bettina Lankard (as cited in Vargas – Benitez, 2013), teens living happily with and seeing their family thriving due to a good career path are more likely to imitate the same path taken by their parents. However, it is not the same for those teens in the opposite situation – a teen who is lonely and sees that their family is financially struggling. These teens have a high chance to choose a completely different path from their parent’s career because of their desire to change their
The participant requested that he only be referred to as Bob within the confines of this paper. I'd like now to sum up Bob's life in the way you would see in a newspaper testimonial. Bob is a forty one year old supervisor in a well-known factory. He has a wife and three children within the confines of his nuclear family. Bob identifies as agnostic, though he was raised in the Christian faith, and does not have a specific political alliance as he feels the government today is dominated by extremes on both sides and finds the system to be broken. He lives in rural Illinois and his socio-economic status is middle class. I've always felt that those type of summaries do not properly capture who a person truly is. I feel that we have to hear a person's story to understand who they are. A turning point in his life would be when he made the decision to get his degree. Not actually getting the degree, just deciding to do so. He realized his past experience meant nothing and he had to make a change to better provide for his family. It seems a point of pride that he achieved this with no one telling him that he had to do it, but it was his own drive that pushed him toward it. A positive experience from his childhood would be when his third grade teacher, Mrs. Thomas, told him he was a very good writer Bob notes that though he has never written a book he still prides himself on his writing abilities citing being able to write an English paper the night before and still receive an 'A'. A negative childhood memory that still haunts Bob is when a girl, in junior high, that he wanted to ask to be his girlfriend rejected him in a public, and humiliating manor. He looks back now and notes that it was merely "kids being kids", never the less it e...
The Rules is quite possibly one of the greatest marketing ploys to have ever been created and has developed into in its own words "a creature unlike any other." By successfully exploiting the classic notion of "happily ever after," Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider have created a mega brand that has sold millions of dollars of nonsensical teachings to unsuspecting women for more than a decade. I call these teachings nonsensical not because they aren't effective, but because of, among other things, Fein and Schneider's lack of authority, a number of glaring contradictions, inappropriate use of cause and effect, and an overall lack of evidence to support their arguments.
No one should choose a career path or path of study because they think they’re going to strike gold, they should be passionate about what they do. However, Before I had a passion to help others my first love was football, I ate, slept and dreamt football, although those aspirations were short lived. Many people used what they were going through to help better themselves, but I wanted to help others and i thought that was selfish of individuals to only think of themselves while making decisions. If we lived in a world where marketability didn’t exist I think we would be living in a better place because people would do what they genuinely want and not what they are forced to do
Application of career theories to my own life allows for analyzing past and future career decisions. Holland’s Theory of Careers states that one’s vocation is an expression of self, personality, and way of life. There is an indisputable and fundamental difference in the quality of life one experiences if they choose a career one truly enjoys, versus choosing a career one detests. A true testament to the validity of Holland’s theory, my job/career choices reflect my interests, as well as the evolution of my personality (internal self). My first job as a fine jewelry specialist and second job as a make-up artist echo my love of the fashion world. As I matured and became less fascinated by presumed “glamour” careers, I became captivated by physical fitness, nutrition, and medicine; I received my national fitness trainer certificate so that I may become a personal trainer. Nevertheless, my career decisions do not fit uniformly into merely one career theory.
As I ponder whom I could possibly interview, my wife suggests, what do you think of interviewing my dad? This immediately appeals to me but there are challenges. He is living in a VA nursing home with early onset dementia. He also has a hard time hearing due to his injuries roughly forty years ago. This would make a phone interview extremely difficult. Instead, I start to formulate a similar idea, what if I interviewed my wife on her experiences as the child of a disabled veteran? I move forward with this idea with a dose of apprehension. I don’t want my wife to relive any pain. During the interview I find just the opposite to happen.
She is a twenty-two-year-old Guest services Agent who is presently working at the Sheraton Hotel in Queens, New York. During my interview with her I discovered that she and her family of four migrated from Jamaica in search of a better life here in the United States of America. She portrayed a warm and friendly personality, as such it was easy for me to talk with her about self-identity. She informed me that while she was in Jamaica she excelled in High School and went on to University where she studied Health Science. Her reason for choosing that field was because her mother was very much involved in her development and encouraged her to stick to the sciences where she could specialize in becoming a medical doctor in the future. Listening to her, I realized that her decision at the time was based on what her mother had in mind for her and not necessarily what she wanted to become. I questioned her if she had figured out what she wanted to do with her life then, she clearly had no idea therefore she just followed her parent instruction. She pointed out that her mother who played a significant role in her life, always instilled in her the importance of a good education and that becoming a doctor would be the right choice. When she arrived in the United States everything changed. I followed up with the conversation and she told me that she started rebelling and didn’t want to go back to
Some people, such as psychology professor Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore College, may argue that the narrowed list of choices is like “freedom within constraints” that may make it easier for people to be satisfied with their decision, thus increases their happiness (842). In his work titled “The Tyranny of Choice”, he suggests that the availability of too many choices will cause people to doubt themselves and have troubles deciding and feeling satisfied with their final decision since they can’t possibly examine all the possibilities and they tend to have higher expectations. Nevertheless, the constraints in the case of stereotypes are paralyzing, as they don’t allow the person to live up to their full potential while simultaneously take away the choices that may lead them to happiness. The set image forces a person to behave in a certain way, eliminating anything that goes against the image. Yuan may be interested in becoming a business manager, but is discouraged by the fact that it is difficult for him to get that job in the professional world with the stereotype in place. Fearing that he may not be able to find a job and apply what he has learned in college, Yuan may end up choosing to major in computer science to become an IT technician. He may feel unhappy with his choice later in his life
Dave Armstrong is about to graduate from Harvard Business School and is facing three career options. The decision problem that Armstrong should be considering is not which of these three jobs should he take, but rather what job will satiate his career goals. By asking this, Armstrong can gain a complete perspective of his options instead of being confined to three career options that may not be in his best interests. His objectives are not clearly outlined in the case; however, we can infer from the manner in which he is describing the jobs that he would like to have ownership in a company, enjoys thrilling non-office jobs, and wants to grow his network. Also, he has to take into consideration his wife’s objectives for him of having a job