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Under the Sun Cynthia Oi |
Career choice depends
on what market will bearA RELUCTANT show of hands displayed that only about a half dozen of the 40 or so students pressed elbow to elbow in the small classroom were considering jobs in journalism. The rest were sitting in on the Pearl City High School's "Career Resource Center" session because they had to.
"Our teacher brought us here," one girl explained, the flat exasperation in her voice suggesting not only indifference, but an unspoken "duh, why else?"
I'd forgotten that for kids, the hours of the school day are pretty much fixed by others. My lame question was to find out the level of interest in the kind of work I was about to describe. I wanted to know why young people would choose journalism and what their perceptions were about the business. But the circumstances weren't right for dialogue so I stayed with my scripted presentation.
In any case, I doubt most of them have firm plans about the kind of employment they'll eventually seek. When I was in school, vocational notions shifted constantly.
In fourth grade, I thought it would be neat to be a soda jerk. The apparent sense of order behind the counter was appealing to a budding control freak. Whipping up frothy shakes and drizzling chocolate sauce over ice cream sundaes seemed like a pleasant way to earn money, especially since customers would generally be in good moods when packing away such sweet treats. My plan, however, nettled the teacher who'd assigned us to write the "what I want to be when I grow up" composition. She suggested that I aim higher, introducing the concept that status and income should be strong elements in career selection.
In intermediate school, volunteer stints among the stacks kindled an interest in becoming a librarian. Again, there was the pull of orderliness: Is there a system of cataloguing and arranging books more precise than a library's? Access to thousands of books was a major perk.
Soon, the librarian thing got old as did the teacher, nurse, fashion designer and other ill-fitting career mantles I tried on. So I suspect that the students who listened politely -- except for the drama queen who was slathering on hand lotion to mask the "stink," as she called it, from another student -- will change their minds dozens of times before settling on careers.
One fellow seemed pretty sure of his future in anthropology, a field that likely will still be around when he gets his degree. It is a matter young people have to consider. The world of business and trade changes with breathless speed these days. Jobs plentiful today may vaporize in a few years, just as the exuberant tech spume has evaporated.
Finding steady work is now subject to the whims of a global market. Radiologists who thought their jobs were immune are stumbling as the cost of health care drives their positions to India or other far ports. Hundreds of so-called customer service centers also have migrated elsewhere along with manufacturing jobs as companies seek to lower their bottom lines and boost stockholders' returns.
I'm not criticizing the corporate masters who make these decisions. But sometimes I think that the balance of responsibility tips too far toward profits and away from employees, the people who make those profits possible and whose spending keeps the economy pumping. Every day, people who have invested their energy and their brains in their work for decades find themselves on the street with pink slips in hand because of a decision in a board room at the corporate headquarters somewhere to increase gains by .0001 percent.
So I look at these students, who are just beginning to understand the realities of the workaday world, and wonder about the environment in which they will seek jobs and the kind of employment market they will find. I don't envy them.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Cynthia Oi has been on the staff of the Star-Bulletin since 1976. She can be reached at: coi@starbulletin.com.