Perhaps the most interesting
realization from the reading is Brown’s statement regarding the failure of
communism in the Soviet Union as being one of the largest contributors to the
flattening of the earth. This really puts things into perspective considering
the collapse of the Soviet Union took place in 1989; a mere twenty four years
ago (Brown 2012). The failure of communism meant the victory for capitalism in
the West which in essence is our free market system; the cornerstone of the
American workforce. In order to make money in our society it is customary to
get a job where you will be monetarily compensated for your work. The process
of obtaining employment in a capitalist society is crucial to this course which
is appropriately titled “Career Development.”
After
examining some historical events that contributed to our current state of
affairs, Brown mentions the research of several futurists including Toffler
(1980) and Johnston and Parker (1987) who attempted to predict what the future
of the career development field would look like. Not surprisingly these
futurists from the 1980’s had some accurate predictions about how computers
would change the shape of the workforce (Brown 2012). It is amazing to think
about how much has changed technologically in the twenty four years since the
collapse of the Soviet Union. The Internet is still relatively young and is
already making drastic changes in field of career development. Two concepts that
were not explicitly mentioned in regards to the Internet were companies who post
job openings on their websites and the creation of job search websites such as
Indeed.com or Monster.com. It seems commonplace for most job searches to at
least begin with some form of Internet research whether it is searching for
particular companies or looking for openings in certain geographic locations.
Nowadays people can literally apply for hundreds of jobs in the span of a few
hours without even leaving their house. I think there is a lot to discuss in
regards to this concept and would be interested to see how the Internet continues
to change how people gain employment.
It
seems throughout history, especially in America, that things never stay
stagnant for too long. I imagine that trend will continue so it is important
for us as graduate students, who will be seeking employment after completing
our programs, to have a solid understanding of this field so that we are as
prepared as possible to obtain meaningful and sustainable employment. Brown
mentions that changes in Social Security could result in a raise of the average
age of retirement (Brown 2012). Not only should we be prepared to work well
into our seventies, but we need to be prepared to counsel those who might have
anticipated retiring at sixty five, or counseling someone in their sixties who
suddenly after many years of working for one company needs to find a new job.
The more we can learn now the better off we will be in our future careers.
References
Brown, D.
(2012). Career information, career
counseling, and career development (10th ed.). New
York
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