tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/career-path-20017/articlesCareer path – The Conversation2024-03-20T12:21:54Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246012024-03-20T12:21:54Z2024-03-20T12:21:54ZWhat are microcredentials? And are they worth having?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582668/original/file-20240318-30-8cn088.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C41%2C6955%2C4616&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The payoff for microcredentials varies by profession. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/black-woman-working-from-home-office-royalty-free-image/1444291518?phrase=adult+laptop+at+home&adppopup=true">Drs Producoes via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/the-states-suffering-most-from-the-labor-shortage">private firms</a> and <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/state-and-local-government-jobs-still-havent-recovered-pandemic">governments</a> struggle to fill jobs – and with the cost of college <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/college-prices-arent-skyrocketing-but-theyre-still-too-high-for-some/">too high</a> for many students – <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/02/23/employers-are-all-microcredentials-survey-shows">employers</a> and <a href="https://www.nga.org/projects/skills-driven-state-community-of-practice/">elected officials</a> are searching for alternative ways for people to get good jobs without having to earn a traditional college degree.</p>
<p>Microcredentials are one such alternative. But just what are microcredentials? And do they lead to better jobs and higher earnings?</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholars.org/scholar/daniel-douglas">sociologist</a> who has examined the <a href="https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Centers/EERC/Review%20of%20Noncredit%20Outcomes_EERC_1.4.24.pdf">research on microcredentials</a>, the best available answer right now is: It depends on what a person is studying.</p>
<h2>Defining the term</h2>
<p>While there is no official definition of a microcredential, there are some broadly accepted components. Like traditional degrees, microcredentials certify peoples’ skills and knowledge, ranging in scope from software skills like Microsoft Excel to broad abilities like project management.</p>
<p>Microcredentials typically indicate “<a href="https://www.utah.gov/pmn/files/745519.pdf">competencies</a>” – that is, things people can do. They are represented by <a href="https://cte.idaho.gov/programs-2/skillstack/">digital badges</a>, which are emblems that can be shared online. Just as a diploma verifies a degree-holder’s achievement, badges verify microcredentials. An employer can click on the digital badge to see who awarded it, when it was awarded and what it represents. </p>
<p>Microcredentials also allow people to verify what they already know, such as a person who is an experienced Python coder, or what they acquire through short-term learning and assessments. An experienced coder in the Python programming language could take an assessment and earn a microcredential, as could a novice after completing a programming course. Either way, microcredentials “<a href="https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/professional-learning/micro-credentials">allow an individual to show mastery in a certain area</a>.”</p>
<p>What usually distinguishes microcredentials from other short-term learning, like <a href="https://online.wvu.edu/blog/education/online-learning/what-is-the-difference-between-a-certificate-and-a-micro-credential">nondegree certificates</a>, is duration. Certificates typically take longer. The other difference is location: Microcredentials are typically completed online.</p>
<p>Data from <a href="https://credentialengine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Final-CountingCredentials_2022.pdf">Credential Engine</a>, a nonprofit organization that catalogs education and training credentials, and <a href="https://www.classcentral.com/microcredentials">Class Central</a>, a searchable index of online courses, indicate that business, IT and programming, and health care are popular focus areas for microcredentials.</p>
<h2>A growing trend</h2>
<p>Many colleges and universities, such as <a href="https://www.suny.edu/microcredentials/">SUNY</a>, <a href="https://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online-degrees/microcredentials/">Oregon State</a> and <a href="https://extension.harvard.edu/academics/microcertificates/">Harvard</a>,
offer microcredentials. But they are also offered through social media companies like <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/">LinkedIn Learning</a> and private providers like <a href="https://campus.edx.org/">EdX</a> and <a href="https://www.coursera.org/">Coursera</a>. Professional organizations like the <a href="https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/professional-learning/micro-credentials">National Education Association</a> also award microcredentials.</p>
<p>Some microcredentials directly prepare learners to become industry certified – like SkillStorm’s CompTIA A+ certification, <a href="https://stormsurge-catalog.skillstorm.com/courses/comptia-a">an eight-week online course</a> that prepares learners to work in IT support and help desk roles. Others focus on general employability skills – like Binghamton University’s <a href="https://www.credly.com/org/binghamton-university/badge/watson-career-development-essentials">course in career readiness</a>, which helps learners develop their resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile. It also provides a mock interview opportunity. Some microcredentials are <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/beyond-transfer/2023/10/05/how-build-stackable-credentials">“stackable”</a> – meaning that they indicate related skills. Someone pursuing a health care career, for example, might earn stackable microcredentials in clinical medical assisting, phlebotomy and as a electrocardiogram – or EKG – technician. </p>
<p>Some microcredential programs are <a href="https://registrar.oregonstate.edu/microcredentials">credit-bearing</a> and may serve as entry points to degree or certificate programs. </p>
<p>Because of the short duration of microcredential programs, most are not regulated by Title IV of the <a href="https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/functional-area/Overview%20of%20Title%20IV">U.S. Higher Education Act</a> and are not typically eligible for federal financial aid, which only covers programs lasting 15 weeks or longer.</p>
<p>If Congress passes the <a href="https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/h.r._6585.pdf">Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act</a>, some microcredentials – those that last eight weeks or more – could become eligible for financial aid. But until there is a final bill, it is unclear whether and how legislation would impact learners pursuing microcredentials. The bill was set to be considered on Feb. 28, 2024, but that <a href="https://www.aamc.org/advocacy-policy/washington-highlights/house-postpones-vote-bipartisan-workforce-pell-act#">vote has been postponed</a>.</p>
<h2>Who seeks microcredentials?</h2>
<p>In 2021 and 2022, my colleagues and I surveyed <a href="https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Centers/EERC/Noncredit%20Students%20at%20Two%20Community%20Colleges%20Final%20-%20EERC%20-%20August%202023.pdf">more than 300 students pursuing noncredit programs</a> at two community colleges. The students are similar to microcredential seekers in that they’re doing short-term programs that are often hybrid or fully online.</p>
<p>Our survey showed that the vast majority – over 90% – were over 25 years old and that most – over 65% – had prior college experience, including many who had earned degrees or certificates.</p>
<p>The majority of surveyed students indicated that their programs were either free or employer-sponsored. About a fourth said they wanted to get out of low-wage jobs or advance in their current jobs. Between 35% and 50% said they wanted to explore a career change.</p>
<p>Many noncredit programs at community colleges are offered partially or fully in-person, while microcredentials are more typically earned online. While online programs may be convenient, they are also known for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244015621777">high withdrawal rates</a>. Nondegree programs of study also have very <a href="https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Centers/EERC/Review%20of%20Noncredit%20Outcomes_EERC_1.4.24.pdf">low completion rates</a>.</p>
<h2>Which microcredentials pay off?</h2>
<p>Credentials in traditionally male-dominated fields, such as IT and construction specialties, yielded substantial benefits – lower unemployment rates and far higher wages. Credentials in female-dominated fields, such as education and administrative support, yielded little to no benefit in terms of either employment rates or earnings. These findings come from a 2019 <a href="https://go.stradaeducation.org/certified-value">survey of adults without degrees</a>.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that salaries can <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/paying-more-and-getting-less/">vary widely</a>. For instance, people in fields such as IT cloud computing may see a pay boost of US$20,000, whereas people in office administration and certain education-related jobs may not see any salary increase. Credentials in these fields are less likely to be employer-sponsored. </p>
<p>Should you get a microcredential? The answer certainly depends on your current employment situation – including your employer’s willingness to sponsor training – and your career goals. While <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/02/23/employers-are-all-microcredentials-survey-shows">95% of employers see benefits</a> in their employees earning a microcredential, 46% are “unsure of the quality of education” represented by microcredentials, and 33% are unsure of their alignment with industry standards.</p>
<p>Given the lack of systematic evidence at this point, I believe their concerns are warranted. Federal and state regulation could lead to better data collection and more quality control for microcredentials.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Douglas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The credentials can be earned online in a matter of weeks and may lead to higher salaries, but not always.Daniel Douglas, Lecturer in Sociology, Trinity CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201922024-03-07T13:32:14Z2024-03-07T13:32:14ZA Barbie dollhouse and a field trip led me to become an architect − now I lead a program that teaches architecture to mostly young women in South Central Los Angeles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578670/original/file-20240228-7861-7ydzy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C10%2C6669%2C4426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do dollhouses possess the potential to inspire young girls to design and build?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/curious-playful-girl-arranging-her-doll-house-while-royalty-free-image/1267317545?phrase=girl+dollhouse+purple&adppopup=true">Kosamtu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a kid growing up in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, in the ’80s, my sister and I spent a lot of time playing with Barbie in the basement of our single-family home. I loved dressing her and imagining her life. But the best part about Barbie was her house.</p>
<p>I learned recently that the Barbie house I had was the Dreamhouse A-frame <a href="https://creations.mattel.com/products/barbie-dreamhouse-an-architectural-survey-limited-run-edition-hvy37">designed in 1979</a>. The house takes its name from the fact that the front view of the steep roof looks like the capital letter “A.”</p>
<p>I clearly remember the distinctive yellow, orange and white color scheme and the sloping roof. But the best part was that the house could be configured in different ways. The house opened and closed, and walls and rooms could switch places. I could change Barbie’s whole world by changing her space. That was a powerful discovery. </p>
<p>Perhaps for many girls who grew up playing with a Barbie doll, it was doing her hair that might be the most memorable. But for me looking back – and as Barbie enthusiasts celebrate <a href="https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-barbie-day-march-9#:%7E:text=On%20March%209th%2C%20National%20Barbie,Toy%20Fair%20in%20New%20York.">National Barbie Day</a> on March 9, 2024, the iconic doll’s 65th year – it was playing with Barbie’s house that stands out. It was probably the first time I realized that the places where we live, work and play all serve to shape who we are.</p>
<p>Today, I am an <a href="https://arch.usc.edu/error">architect and professor</a>. I lead a program for high school students in South Central Los Angeles at the University of Southern California School of Architecture. The program, called the <a href="https://arch.usc.edu/a-lab">A-LAB Architecture Development Program</a>, provides a pathway for young people – and especially for young women – into architecture as a field.</p>
<p>Only 25% of people working as architects in the U.S. are women. For comparison, 36% of lawyers are women and 41% of physicians and surgeons are women. This figure, and other facts about women in architecture, can be found in “<a href="https://www.acsa-arch.org/resource/where-are-the-women-measuring-progress-on-gender-in-architecture-2/">Where are the Women? Measuring Progress on Gender in Architecture</a>,” written by <a href="https://www.acsa-arch.org/leadership/staff/">Kendall A. Nicholson</a>, director of research, equity and education at Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. </p>
<h2>Having fun at work</h2>
<p>A few years after my Barbie house experience, I took a school field trip to visit an architecture office in St. Louis. There I saw people who seemed like they were having fun at work. </p>
<p>Everywhere I looked, I saw pencils, markers, scissors, glue, cardboard and plenty of other tools I had never seen before. The office was full of creative people making drawings and models of new buildings and landscapes. The energy I felt there was exciting and palpable. These people had purpose. I decided that day that I would become an architect.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women look at a miniature model of a building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578674/original/file-20240228-24-172pg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578674/original/file-20240228-24-172pg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578674/original/file-20240228-24-172pg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578674/original/file-20240228-24-172pg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578674/original/file-20240228-24-172pg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578674/original/file-20240228-24-172pg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578674/original/file-20240228-24-172pg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Only 25% of architects are women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/shoreditch-office-royalty-free-image/549776575?phrase=architectural+firm&adppopup=true">Kelvin Murray via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I didn’t realize it then, but looking back, I can connect the fun I had with Barbie’s Dreamhouse to the work people were doing in the architecture firm. We were both using architecture and design to shape the world around us. </p>
<h2>Providing practical experience</h2>
<p>In the A-LAB program that I run, students spend time learning how to see, draw and design. They use those skills to develop conceptual design projects in their own neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Students are asked to think about and research the needs of their communities and to propose a new project that fulfills a need that has not yet been met. One student proposed an outdoor community pool with a shade structure. The shade structure is for fresh air, exercise and a place for people of all ages to hang out. Another student proposed a small theater with a stage and snack bar, where students in bands could practice in the evening when the high school is closed. Yet another proposed a homework and day care hub, so that students and younger siblings could have a safe place to go after school. Overall, each of these design projects aim to emphasize architecture’s role in positively shaping culture and community. </p>
<p>So far, over 80 local students have participated in A-LAB. They also earned four units of college credit in the process. </p>
<p>The majority of students tell us that A-LAB has changed the way they see the buildings and places we use to live our lives. The program attracts both young men and women, yet with each new A-LAB cohort, we see an increase in the percentage of young women participating. Over the past three years, 65% of A-LAB students have been young women. And this semester alone, a whopping 85% of A-LAB students are young women.</p>
<p>This trend could be part of the <a href="https://www.acsa-arch.org/resource/where-are-the-women-measuring-progress-on-gender-in-architecture-2/">steady increase</a> in women entering architecture schools. Or it could be that successful female students are sharing their experiences with younger female students and encouraging them to apply. </p>
<p>I also think it doesn’t hurt that I show up to the schools and talk about the program and invite students to consider joining it. I think there is really something about a female representing the outward face of A-LAB that makes it seem more welcoming to young women. And to think it all started with a little girl playing with a Barbie dollhouse in her basement some 40 years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220192/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Matchison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women are underrepresented in architecture, occupying just 25% of jobs in the field. An architecture professor shares insights from her childhood on how those numbers can be turned around.Lauren Matchison, Associate Professor of Practice, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2212302024-01-17T15:41:01Z2024-01-17T15:41:01ZShould Kenya abolish all school exams? Expert sets out five reasons why they’re still useful<p>The role of <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/education/article/2001488553/highlights-of-the-2023-kcse-results">examinations</a> in Kenyan schools is under scrutiny. This is because there is a lot that is wrong with the country’s examinations, a situation that threatens to derail <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-new-education-curriculum-is-a-triumph-for-kenyas-children-75090">education gains made over the decades</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, for two consecutive years – <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2023-10-12-report-how-cheating-was-orchestrated-in-2022-kcse-exam/">last year and the year before</a> – the periods during the country’s national examination period were marred by <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2024-01-08-kcse-results-for-4109-candidates-suspected-of-cheating-withheld/">allegations of leaked tests</a>. These allegations are linked to <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001302037/exam-cheating-cartel-exposed">cartels</a> which make money from parents and learners.</p>
<p>There were also reports this year of high school students receiving <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2024-01-10-kcse-2023-candidates-schools-and-parents-in-shock-over-changing-grades/">contradicting results</a> from the examinations results portal. </p>
<p>These issues cast doubt on the trustworthiness of the examining body and the ministry of education in general. </p>
<p>In 2017 the government set out to replace summative examinations – national tests done at the end of eight years of primary school and four years of high school – with continuous assessments. Most students have moved over to the new system, which revolves around a <a href="https://theconversation.com/6-priorities-to-get-kenyas-curriculum-back-on-track-or-risk-excluding-many-children-from-education-195235">competency-based curriculum</a>. But four more cohorts of students still have to sit the annual national high school examinations under Kenya’s old education curriculum. There is still a lot that is unclear about how the new curriculum will assess students in secondary school.</p>
<p>As someone who has been <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=12A_S6QAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">involved in education for over 20 years</a>, I believe that exams are crucial. There are five main reasons for this, including highlighting inequalities in the education system and providing learners with guidance on their career path.</p>
<p>But they need to be done right to be effective. For any system to work efficiently – which Kenya’s doesn’t – this includes changing a situation in which so much relies on the exam outcome. Other career pathways need to be opened up so that children aren’t under such huge pressure. Also, schools need adequate staffing and facilities to promote learning. </p>
<h2>Why examinations matter</h2>
<p>There are compelling reasons not to do away with examinations. </p>
<p>First, examinations help identify, understand and address inequalities in access to education. As a <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/right-education">basic human right</a>, every child should be able to get a quality education. A persistently low performance in examinations can be an indicator of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/school/50293148.pdf#page=11">personal or social obstacles</a> like gender, geographical position, social class, race or ethnicity in a learner’s life. </p>
<p>Second, examinations help improve teaching and learning by strengthening teaching methods. A learner-centred approach has <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1143881.pdf#page=3">better outcomes</a> than a teacher-centred one, which tends to silence learners’ voices. Tests help indicate which students need additional help to support their learning. </p>
<p>Third, they are used as a <a href="https://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/blog/four-reasons-why-we-need-credible-examinations-in-sub-saharan-africa">tool</a> for knowing what learners are learning and its relevance to the country’s development goals. Education is <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/school/50293148.pdf#page=5">closely linked</a> to the political, social and economic development of a country. Examinations test the skills, knowledge and values that students pick up in the course of an education cycle, and how well the country can harness these skills and knowledge to industrialise and for general development. </p>
<p>Fourth, examinations provide guidance for learners’ personal and career development in the post-secondary world. This gives tertiary institutions the opportunity to select suitable students for various career pathways in their institutions. However, high school examination results are not necessarily a <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.200100198">predictor of student success</a> in tertiary education.</p>
<p>Fifth, examinations offer <a href="https://bestaccreditedcolleges.org/articles/careers-and-education/what-is-an-educational-certificate.html">qualifying certification</a> that accounts for a student’s time in a learning institution. This certification shows that one has successfully completed an education period. </p>
<h2>What needs to change</h2>
<p>But this system needs to be improved.</p>
<p>Firstly, the pressure needs to be taken off children sitting final examinations at school. Many candidates write examinations under immense pressure and anxiety as failing a national examination has major implications on the direction their life takes. For this to change, Kenya’s education system needs to be geared to <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/exams-must-never-be-allowed-to-define-our-children-s-worth-4456844">preparing students</a> to seize other opportunities of earning a livelihood beyond going to university. </p>
<p>Secondly, examinations have been given <a href="https://www.tuko.co.ke/kenya/counties/534280-kakamega-video-parents-chasing-school-principal-poor-kcse-results-angers-kenyans/">outsized importance as an accountability measure</a> in the education system, despite other factors being at play. These include adequate staffing, having trained and motivated teachers, and providing a good work environment and facilities. </p>
<p>Thirdly, the ranking of top schools and learners based on exam results needs to be abolished entirely. The government officially <a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2014/11/kcse-student-school-exam-ranking-abolished/">stopped such rankings in 2014</a>, but the practice persists in other forms, like in <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/education/kabarak-basks-in-national-glory-as-school-tops-exam--4486054">informal media rankings</a>.</p>
<p>Rankings promote elitism and corruption. Schools that are ranked “the best” are often those near urban centres, and have better teaching facilities than those in rural or marginalised areas. Parents who can afford it can <a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2024/01/eacc-urges-parents-to-report-headteachers-soliciting-bribes-for-form-1-admission/">pay bribes</a> to get their children admitted into such schools, even if these students don’t meet the grades officially required. This crowds out poor and deserving learners.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/798140/pdf">dangers of ranking schools</a> include the exclusion of non-performing learners, forced repetition of classes and the transfer or dropping out of students perceived to be poor academically. Rankings narrow curriculum coverage, lead to the neglect of other aspects of education and encourage examination malpractices. </p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>Examinations are viewed negatively for a number of reasons. These include increased stress levels among learners, and human interference in the management and administration processes. But they still play a relevant role in providing a quantitative measure of a learner’s academic ability. This helps with identifying their strengths and weaknesses, which provides an idea of where to place them in tertiary institutions or in jobs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beatrice M’mboga Akala does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Examinations help a country measure if its system of education is teaching the skills and knowledge needed to meet development goals.Beatrice M’mboga Akala, Lecturer, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092992023-09-12T12:27:32Z2023-09-12T12:27:32ZLooking for your ‘calling’? What people get wrong when chasing meaningful work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547020/original/file-20230907-17-3r28po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2114%2C1409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Searching for your 'calling' can be a source of joy -- but also stress and distraction.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-latin-start-up-person-working-on-an-royalty-free-image/656316264?phrase=instrument+craft&adppopup=true">Tom Werner/Stone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a professor, I’m fortunate to teach a course called World Religions for Healthcare Professionals that prepares students for the spiritual and ethical issues they may encounter in their careers. But the class often boils down to life’s big questions: What makes <a href="https://www.lifeworthlivingbook.com/">life worth living</a>, and <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624476/the-good-life-method-by-meghan-sullivan-and-paul-blaschko/">how should we live</a>? How do you find your “calling”?</p>
<p>In particular, one thought-provoking paradox captures students’ attention. They live in a society where the idea of a professional “calling” is frequently talked about as a quest for personal fulfillment and achievement or satisfaction with one’s work. The problem is that the more you aim for success, “the more you are going to miss it,” as psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote in his influential book “<a href="http://www.beacon.org/Mans-Search-for-Meaning-P602.aspx">Man’s Search for Meaning</a>.” </p>
<p>In Frankl’s view, success and happiness come only from dedicating oneself to a greater cause, or to another person. But his perspective – echoed by my students – contrasts with the prevailing way many Americans talk about a “calling” today. As <a href="https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/departments/religious-studies/people/faculty/garrett-potts.aspx">a professor of religious studies</a>, I study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05067-4">how society portrays callings and meaningful work</a> and how that has shifted over the past few decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546093/original/file-20230904-215919-g9n9fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A yellow sign with an arrow says 'find your place,' with five plastic human figurines posed above it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546093/original/file-20230904-215919-g9n9fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546093/original/file-20230904-215919-g9n9fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546093/original/file-20230904-215919-g9n9fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546093/original/file-20230904-215919-g9n9fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546093/original/file-20230904-215919-g9n9fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546093/original/file-20230904-215919-g9n9fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546093/original/file-20230904-215919-g9n9fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">College students’ final-semester fear: What am I supposed to do with my life?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/find-your-place-yellow-directional-sign-and-royalty-free-image/1481376496?phrase=meaningful+work&adppopup=true">tumsasedgars/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Redeeming work</h2>
<p>Understanding work as a calling traces back to the German theologian Martin Luther, who famously <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lasting-impact-of-luthers-reformation-4-essential-reads-105953">ushered in the Protestant Reformation</a>. Luther challenged the prevailing notion that nonreligious or nonpolitical work was drudgery and a punishment from the gods – a view that came from Greco-Roman times. The story of Pandora’s box, for example, tells of a woman cursed by the gods who accidentally unleashes all forms of evil, <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Pandora/">including the toils of labor</a>, on humanity.</p>
<p>Luther saw this bias against most forms of work as a reflection of a glaringly unequal society. Every task – even dirty work – held <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/307223/every-good-endeavor-by-timothy-keller-with-katherine-leary-alsdorf/">sacred significance</a>, Luther believed. After all, he maintained, God was not above laboring in the dirt <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+1&version=KJV">to create the universe</a> and human beings in his likeness. God created work not as a punishment but instead as an invitation to participate in his creation. </p>
<p>Therefore, in the same way that one might be called to religious or political life, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/418/418-h/418-h.htm">Luther believed</a> one might be called to glorify God, grow as an individual and benefit others through the work of their hands.</p>
<h2>Jobs, careers and callings</h2>
<p>Religious understandings of being “called” to a vocation have continued ever since, often recast in secular terms. A particularly influential book about modern ideas of work is “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520254190/habits-of-the-heart-with-a-new-preface">Habits of the Heart</a>,” written by Robert Bellah and other sociologists in 1985.</p>
<p>These authors described <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Work-as-a-Calling-From-Meaningful-Work-to-Good-Work/Potts/p/book/9780367724399">three different orientations toward work</a>: work as a job, work as a career and work as a calling. The “job” orientation is focused on financial or material gains, while someone who thinks of their work as a “career” aims for social advancement. Someone who senses a “calling,” meanwhile, is inspired to produce excellent products or services while growing as an individual and contributing to the common good. In this view, meaningful work ensues through commitments to other people and causes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546092/original/file-20230904-250257-hoxpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women in short-sleeve shirts smile, seated, while shaking hands with a man across a desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546092/original/file-20230904-250257-hoxpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546092/original/file-20230904-250257-hoxpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546092/original/file-20230904-250257-hoxpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546092/original/file-20230904-250257-hoxpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546092/original/file-20230904-250257-hoxpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546092/original/file-20230904-250257-hoxpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546092/original/file-20230904-250257-hoxpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s not just the type of work that can make for a meaningful ‘calling’ – the way employees think about their work matters, too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/energize-your-team-by-giving-meaningful-compliments-royalty-free-image/648803868?phrase=meaningful+work&adppopup=true">mapodile/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>However, the authors argued that American society <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520254190/habits-of-the-heart-with-a-new-preface">was emphasizing individualism more and more</a>, making this conception of calling “harder and harder to understand.” For many Americans, it was “difficult to see work as a contribution to the whole and easier to view it as a segmental, self-interested activity.” </p>
<h2>The search for significance</h2>
<p>Today, employee engagement numbers are startlingly low. <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace-2022-report.aspx">Recent research from Gallup</a> indicates that only 1 in 4 employees around the globe feel engaged at work, and workers’ stress is at a record high.</p>
<p>Perhaps that’s why many fields, like management and psychology, are highlighting the existential need <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01234.x">to find meaning at work</a>. Because participation in religious congregations, clubs and other civic organizations that once provided meaningful connection have <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bowling-Alone-Revised-and-Updated/Robert-D-Putnam/9780743219037">been in decline</a> in recent decades, work has now become the dominant way that many Americans participate in public life and hope to feel significant. Approaching work as a calling will <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/melodywilding/2018/04/23/do-you-have-a-job-career-or-calling-the-difference-matters/?sh=1c181dbc632a">leave you happier</a> and more satisfied, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/career-transitions/201206/job-career-calling-key-happiness-and-meaning-work#:%7E:text=Research%20conducted%20by%20Wrzesniewski%20and%20colleagues%20finds%20that,in%20general%20with%20their%20work%20and%20their%20lives.">columnists advise</a>.</p>
<p>In recent decades, researchers studying the notion of callings have focused on work that helps people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.11.002">learn about themselves</a> and experience fulfillment, especially in terms of ego needs like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/job.301">individual success</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195335446.013.0011">and achievement</a>. Today, the archetype for meaningful work seems to center on how it makes the employee feel.</p>
<h2>Rethinking success</h2>
<p>What I and some other scholars have argued, however, is that <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Work-as-a-Calling-From-Meaningful-Work-to-Good-Work/Potts/p/book/9780367724399">finding meaning at work</a> is more contingent on what motivates you than on the feeling of personal fulfillment.</p>
<p>For example, in a 2011 analysis of 407 undergraduates, those “whose sense of calling seems to be primarily driven in … self-centered” ways were found to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.11.002">much more susceptible to “negative views about themselves</a>.” Those who focused on the “intrinsic” or “prosocial” purpose of work possessed lower rates of insecurity and higher overall rates of personal satisfaction. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546091/original/file-20230904-19-cht2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with curly black hair sits looking thoughtful as she reads something on a laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546091/original/file-20230904-19-cht2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546091/original/file-20230904-19-cht2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546091/original/file-20230904-19-cht2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546091/original/file-20230904-19-cht2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546091/original/file-20230904-19-cht2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546091/original/file-20230904-19-cht2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546091/original/file-20230904-19-cht2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are we looking for meaning in the wrong places?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/it-takes-deep-concentration-to-make-meaningful-royalty-free-image/1307720748?phrase=meaningful+work&adppopup=true">LaylaBird/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>More recently, <a href="https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-makes-work-meaningful-or-meaningless/">an analysis of 135 workers</a> from 10 occupations revealed that “individuals tended to experience their work as meaningful when [they realized how] it mattered to others more than just to themselves.” In one case, “an academic described how she found her work meaningful when she saw her students graduate at the commencement ceremony, a tangible sign of how her own hard work had helped others succeed.” </p>
<p>As it turns out, the way that people think about the meaning of work matters. Pursuing meaning in terms of individual success and achievement makes the goal post of happiness become elusive. Just ask Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight in the hit NBC comedy series, “<a href="https://www.nbc.com/the-office/about">The Office</a>.” </p>
<p>“When I was in ‘The Office,’ I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough. ‘Why am I not a movie star?’ ‘Why am I not the next Jack Black or the next Will Ferrell?’” <a href="https://people.com/rainn-wilson-was-mostly-unhappy-during-the-office-run-7558618">he told Bill Maher in a podcast interview</a>. </p>
<p>However, his latest project, “<a href="https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-tv/rainn-wilson-and-the-geography-of-bliss">The Geography of Bliss</a>,” left <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/apple-news-in-conversation/id1577591053?i=1000619600260">Wilson believing that</a> happiness finds us “when we turn from being self-centered to other-centered, when we’re of service to others.” Meaning finds us, in other words, when we’re not so focused on looking for it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am connected to the authors of the Life Worth Living book. They have generously supported my pedagogical efforts in the classroom. I am not directly funded by them, however they did fund a post-doc in our department to aide me in teaching courses that would build upon the class I mention in this article. </span></em></p>The idea of a ‘calling’ has stretched far beyond its religious roots. But the way US society talks about meaningful work isn’t always helpful.Garrett Potts, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2112912023-08-30T13:38:58Z2023-08-30T13:38:58ZKofi Ansah left Ghana to become a world famous fashion designer - how his return home boosted the industry<p>In the 1950s and 1960s, young Africans were assisted financially by their governments to study in western countries in the hope they would return to contribute to nation <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315623399">building</a>. Individuals who qualified abroad and returned home formed the educated elites of immediate post-independent <a href="https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1374329">Africa</a>. </p>
<p>Over the years, the demography of such migrants has changed to include professionals who after graduation at home move abroad in search of employment and remain there <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136%2Fbmj.331.7519.780-b">permanently</a>. This loss of human talent and skills – the “brain drain” – is arguably one of Africa’s key developmental <a href="https://suraadiq.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Skills-for-science-systems-in-Africa.pdf">challenges</a>. </p>
<p>The migration of highly skilled professionals such as doctors, nurses, engineers and academics from Africa has serious economic, political and social implications for <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/cef9a0e6f56bf9de0d6683c52c60c2c7/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&c%20bl=2026366&diss=y.">development</a>.</p>
<p>But there is another side to the migration of skilled people. That is “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12198">brain gain</a>” – the return migration of professionals – and “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/brain-circulation-how-high-skill-immigration-makes-everyone-better-off/">brain circulation</a>” – temporary migration of professionals between countries. This is not well documented, especially in the case of African countries. </p>
<p>This is the gap we sought to fill, using a case study of the late Ghanaian fashion designer, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2023.2236563">Kofi Ansah</a>. </p>
<p>Ansah’s impact on Ghanaian fashion was immense because of the timing and context of his return in 1992. He had built a successful career for 20 years in the UK and the future looked <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2023.2236563">promising</a>. On the other hand, the country he returned to was undergoing profound political and economic transformation. Ghana was transitioning from military rule to a civilian <a href="https://doi.org/10.2979/aft.2010.57.1.24">government</a>. Political tension was high, linked to an economic downturn following <a href="https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1310&context=hcoltheses">structural adjustment programmes</a> adopted in the 1980s. But Ansah chose to relocate his budding career to Ghana. </p>
<p>His case demonstrates how the knowledge and expertise migrants gather through international career mobility can be converted into assets at an individual, national and international level. Returning migrants can transform traditional industries into modern, globalised ones.</p>
<h2>Transforming Ghana’s fashion industry</h2>
<p>We are researchers in sociology, African studies and geography who have been studying how internal and external migration and spatial context influence cultural and creative practice in Ghana. For the Kofi Ansah case study we interviewed 31 Ghanaian fashion designers whose career journeys had been directly and indirectly influenced by him. These interviews are supplemented by information from social media dedicated to Ansah and his works. </p>
<p>Kofi Ansah, who <a href="https://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/showbiz/fashion/201405/198235.php">died in 2014</a>, was from a creative family. His elder sister, <a href="https://face2faceafrica.com/article/felicia-abban-ghanas-first-female-photographer-in-whose-lens-was-nkrumahs-mirror">Felicia Abban</a>, was the official photographer of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president. His elder brother, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0030503/">Kwaw Ansah</a>, is an acclaimed film writer, director and producer. </p>
<p>After completing his secondary education, Kofi enrolled in the Chelsea School of Art in the United Kingdom to study fashion design. He made his first fashion headline after he designed a beaded dress for Princess Anne. Subsequently, he worked for several successful British fashion brands, including Gerald Austin and Guy Laroche, before establishing his own studio in central London in 1980. </p>
<p>Despite his early success on the UK fashion scene, Ansah returned to Ghana in 1992 to get fresh inspiration and “try to show people that we can use our fabrics for other things … We just have to work on it and make it commercial,” he explained during an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B_FXwpwJMgV/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">interview</a>. </p>
<p>The way cloth was produced locally, using <a href="https://www.adireafricantextiles.com/textiles-resources-sub-saharan-africa/an-introduction-to-sub-saharan-african-textiles/loom-types-in-sub-saharan-africa/">strip loom</a> technology, limited the volume of production. And the conventional styling of clothes limited their patronage. These were some of the features Ansah sought to change.</p>
<p>Ansah transformed Ghana’s fashion industry in four areas: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Fabrics and design</strong>: His modern designs used African traditional cloth, such as kente and <a href="https://craftatlas.co/crafts/bogolan">bogolanfini</a>. Linked to these style changes was his collaboration with Woodin and the Ghana Textiles Production, two textile producing companies, to introduce the sale of fabric in single yards instead of the standard six yards. This made the cloth more accessible and functional. It led to the production of casual clothes, such as skirts, blouses, shirts, shorts and trousers, for men and women. He then introduced ready-to-wear clothing at Woodin.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Accessories</strong>: Ansah was also passionate about promoting fashion accessories made with local materials. These included wood, raffia and his personal favourite, calabash. His runway designs always included stunning accessories. The use of prominent accessories has now become an integral element of African fashion shows.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Production</strong>: Ansah was instrumental in the introduction of the <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/National-Friday-Wear-Programme-launched-69720">Friday African wear policy</a> in Ghana. This was aimed at promoting the wearing of local bespoke garments in workplaces on Fridays. Ansah used his friendship with then minister for trade and industry, Alan Kyeremanten, to push his idea to democratise and regularise the use of wax print. Ansah also influenced fashion production by employing international marketing strategies like fashion shows and exhibitions. He thus opened Ghanaian fashion to international audiences by using globally accepted techniques.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Human capital</strong>: More importantly, Ansah’s vision to grow a lasting and successful industry propelled him to mentor many of Ghana’s finest contemporary designers. He partnered with international agencies to launch mentorship programmes for young designers. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>One such programme was the <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/Roberto-Cavalli-and-Vogue-Italia-Editor-In-Chief-visit-Ghana-and-Nigeria-227092">Web Young Designers Hub</a>, financed by the French Embassy and coordinated by Ansah and <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/franca-sozzani">Franca Sozzani</a>, former editor of Vogue Italia. Another project spearheaded by Ansah was the <a href="https://ethicalfashioninitiative.org/">Ethical Fashion Initiative</a>, a partnership between the United Nations and the Presidential Special Initiative programme. These programmes and the exposure that came with them positioned contemporary designers to engage in “brain circulation.”</p>
<p>By participating in projects, young designers had the opportunity to travel to other countries and learn about aspects of fashion such as fabric production and event organisation. Such travel was geared towards acquiring knowledge that would have an impact on Ghana’s fashion industry. </p>
<p>These engagements helped young fashion designers build networks with designers across the globe. </p>
<h2>Ansah’s impact</h2>
<p>The Ghanaian fashion industry is making its mark <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/51163/1/9781003148340_oachapter1.pdf">globally</a>. <a href="https://instagram.com/steviefrenchie?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">Steve French</a> and other young designers are recognised for their creative works and talents. Garments made by Ghanaian designers like <a href="https://www.duabaserwastudios.com/">Duaba Serwaa</a> and <a href="https://christiebrownonline.com/en-gh">Christie Brown</a> are worn by stars such as Lupita Nyongo and Beyonce respectively. Young Ghanaians, too, proudly wear African clothes for all occasions. The current status of Ghana’s fashion industry is largely due to the efforts of Kofi Ansah.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211291/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adwoa Owusuaa Bobie received funding from the Danish Foreign Ministry (DANIDA) for this research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Akosua Keseboa Darkwah received funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark grant number 18-05-CBS, Advancing Creative Industries for Development in Ghana for this study. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine V. Gough received funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark grant number 18-05-CBS, Advancing Creative Industries for Development in Ghana, for this study.</span></em></p>International career mobility can give people valuable knowledge and expertise to be used in their home country.Adwoa Owusuaa Bobie, Research Fellow, Center for Cultural and African Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)Akosua Keseboa Darkwah, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of GhanaKatherine V. Gough, Professor of Human Geography, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092662023-07-17T16:05:31Z2023-07-17T16:05:31ZWhy it’s so difficult to figure out what to do with your life – and three steps to take<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537322/original/file-20230713-25-2wajtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=110%2C100%2C6599%2C4365&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Feeling stuck in the wrong job?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/clueless-sad-confused-mistaken-employee-business-2316580361">ViDI Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What do you want to be when you grow up? </p>
<p>Practically from the moment you start talking, you’re asked this question. As a child, you’re encouraged to make decisions about school subjects, activities and higher education, all in pursuit of a future career. </p>
<p>These decisions, which have major repercussions for how the rest of your life will unfold, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/careers/young-people-take-career-decisions-too-early">are often hastily made</a>.</p>
<p>Careers advice can be challenging to navigate and tends to focus on <a href="https://www.bi.team/blogs/moments-of-choice-how-young-people-make-career-decisions/">“moments of choice”</a>: those crucial transition points at which you need to make career decisions, such as when leaving secondary school. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/media/m31lm1qo/moments_of_choice_report.pdf">“moments of inspiration”</a> are equally important. These are the times in which you are free to reflect on what you would really like to do, free of pressure or external influence.</p>
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<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/three-mindfulness-and-meditation-techniques-that-could-help-you-manage-work-stress-208328?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Three mindfulness and meditation techniques that could help you manage work stress</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/your-linkedin-doesnt-need-to-be-perfect-four-ways-to-build-an-authentic-profile-to-boost-your-personal-brand-201837?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Your LinkedIn doesn’t need to be perfect – four ways to build an authentic profile to boost your personal brand</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/worried-about-ai-you-might-have-ai-nxiety-heres-how-to-cope-205874?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Worried about AI? You might have AI-nxiety – here’s how to cope</a></em></p>
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<p>Many young professionals in their 20s and 30s find themselves trapped in the wrong job. Some feel unfulfilled, while others feel that they are overeducated and that <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/millions-stuck-in-the-wrong-job-study-finds-10968708">their talents are underutilised</a>. </p>
<p>According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, one in three graduates are <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/news/oneinthreegraduatesovereducatedfortheircurrentrole">overeducated for their current role</a>. By 2030, things are expected to tip in the other direction: the rapidly changing work landscape might cause millions of UK workers to become <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-rethinking-skills-to-tackle-the-uks-looming-talent-shortage">underskilled</a> in digital, decision-making, communication and leadership skills.</p>
<h2>Why is it so hard to figure out what to do with your life?</h2>
<p>Career decisions are a balancing act. You have to align your interests and aptitudes with the current demands of the labour market, neither of which are static entities. </p>
<p>Your skills and interests (<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118970843.ch53">and to some extent, even your personality</a>) change over time, and the labour market is in a constant state of flux. The pandemic-related increases in vacancies in <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/how-has-the-pandemic-affected-industries-and-labour-in-the-uk/">certain sectors</a> and the potential effect of automation on the <a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/assets/international-impact-of-automation-feb-2018.pdf">displacement of jobs in others</a> are just two examples of labour market trends that you may need to consider.</p>
<p>Here are three ways to figure out what you want to do with your life.</p>
<h2>1. Set a career goal</h2>
<p>While many people conflate the terms <a href="https://napier-repository.worktribe.com/output/2747064/new-information-literacy-horizons-making-the-case-for-career-information-literacy">“work” and “career”</a>, I take care in my research to distinguish between them. While work refers to employment, career is something different. It is a continuing personal development project. </p>
<p>It begins not on the first day of a new job, but by setting career goals. These goals depend on your strengths and interests and, above all, on your values. </p>
<p>There are many ways to approach the task of goal-setting, either on your own or with the help of others. As a starting point, you could complete a career quiz (such as this fun one called <a href="https://animalme.myworldofwork.co.uk/">Animal Me</a>) or reflect on where you see yourself in five or ten years. </p>
<p>Consider what you most enjoy doing and what you excel at. What tasks and experiences do you find most fulfilling and rewarding?</p>
<p>If you don’t know your strengths or what you might enjoy doing, talk to others who know you well. Family members, friends and coworkers may be able to help you see yourself and what you bring to the table through their eyes.</p>
<h2>2. Make a plan</h2>
<p>The next step is to gather information on how you can achieve your vision, and set milestones along the way.</p>
<p>If you’re looking to change career direction, you would first need to find out if you need training, work experience or further education. You would then need to identify specific companies or institutions in your area that match the criteria you have set out in your plan. </p>
<p>If you’re after a more minor career adjustment, you might have fewer steps to go through. You could consider different roles that you are already qualified to do, or look through the job openings at your current company. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young woman smiling and writing in a notebook while sitting at a cafe outdoors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537503/original/file-20230714-21-j763kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537503/original/file-20230714-21-j763kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537503/original/file-20230714-21-j763kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537503/original/file-20230714-21-j763kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537503/original/file-20230714-21-j763kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537503/original/file-20230714-21-j763kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537503/original/file-20230714-21-j763kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Goal-setting session.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-smile-writing-notes-student-education-2284538371">Yuri A/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>If you feel stuck, you can get in touch with your local career service for free and impartial career information, advice and guidance. In the UK, these are the <a href="https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/">National Careers Service</a> (England), <a href="https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/what-we-do/scotlands-careers-services/our-centres/">Skills Development Scotland</a> and <a href="https://careerswales.gov.wales/">Careers Wales</a>.</p>
<p>And if you’re feeling bold, you could also contact people who are in your dream job and ask them how they got there.</p>
<h2>3. Find decent and meaningful work</h2>
<p>Until you figure out that dream role, you should try to look for what careers scholars such as <a href="https://careerguidancesocialjustice.wordpress.com/2021/08/24/everyone-has-a-right-to-a-decent-and-dignified-life-that-includes-a-meaningful-career-an-interview-with-david-blustein/">David Blustein</a> and <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/sen-cap/">Amartya Sen</a> have described as decent and meaningful work.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00407/full">Decent work</a> upholds the basic principles of social justice and human rights. You will know that you are in a decent job when you are fairly compensated, your role is not precarious, and work does not make you chronically stressed or ill.</p>
<p>Meaningful work is aligned with your values and lets you achieve the kind of life that you value. Any work can be meaningful work, as long as it is compatible with what you consider to be important. </p>
<p>A meaningful job can be one that allows you to have a good work-life balance, or one that comes with high pay. It could be a job that helps others, or one that lets you express yourself creatively. It could also be a job that facilitates your personal growth or a job that contributes to the greater good. </p>
<p>Career planning takes time, but so does being stuck in the wrong job. British people spend an average of <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/british-people-work-days-lifetime-overtime-quit-job-survey-study-a8556146.html">3,507 days at work</a> over their lives. Why not spend that time doing something you love?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marina Milosheva receives funding from the ESRC. </span></em></p>If you’re stuck in the ‘wrong’ job, thinking about your skills and values can help you find the right one.Marina Milosheva, PhD Candidate, Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1863032022-07-07T19:52:22Z2022-07-07T19:52:22ZFor many NZ scholars, the old career paths are broken. Our survey shows the reality for this new ‘academic precariat’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472895/original/file-20220706-24-4ioit1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5391%2C3597&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As in many Western countries, New Zealand’s universities have become increasingly reliant on casual and temporary employees to run classes and undertake research. The situation is becoming critical, both for young academics themselves and for the country in general. </p>
<p>The problem has been recognised in <a href="https://www.oecd.org/publications/reducing-the-precarity-of-academic-research-careers-0f8bd468-en.htm">a recent OECD report</a> as affecting the well-being of individual researchers and undermining national capacity to undertake vital research “necessary to address urgent societal challenges”.</p>
<p>The New Zealand government has also recognised the issue, acknowledging recently in its <a href="https://www.mbie.govt.nz/have-your-say/future-pathways/">Te Ara Paerangi – Future Pathways</a> green paper that “early career researchers are particularly vulnerable to career uncertainty and precarity”. Submissions on this and related issues are now being reviewed.</p>
<p>But focusing only on early career researchers (ECRs) creates a false separation between teaching and research, given our Education and Training Act stipulates the former should be informed by the latter. </p>
<p>In turn, this implies the system is comfortable with students being taught by workers on precarious, short-term contracts, with little professional development or hope of career progression.</p>
<p>Our report, <a href="https://auckland.figshare.com/articles/report/Elephant_In_The_Room_Precarious_Work_In_New_Zealand_Universities/19243626">Elephant in the Room: Precarious Work in New Zealand Universities</a>, is based on a survey of 760 academics on fixed-term or casual contracts (including both postgraduate students and those with PhDs) across New Zealand’s eight universities. It shows the majority are stitching together a mix of short-term research and teaching contracts in an attempt to make ends meet. </p>
<p>Rather than being called “early career researchers”, we argue the term “academic precariat” better reflects the reality of a highly skilled workforce defined by insecure, short-term contracts, coupled with a sense of disposability and marginalisation. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1402154692055031809"}"></div></p>
<h2>A two-tier system emerges</h2>
<p>The traditional (but never formalised) ECR model is based on two years spent on a single fixed-term, postdoctoral research position, before a move to a permanent lecturer post.</p>
<p>Due to underfunding and the increasing corporatisation of university management structures, however, both postdoctoral and permanent lecturer posts are increasingly rare in New Zealand, particularly outside the “STEM” subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). </p>
<p>The introduction of the Performance-Based Research Fund (<a href="https://www.tec.govt.nz/funding/funding-and-performance/funding/fund-finder/performance-based-research-fund/">PBRF</a>) in 2003, which provides 20% of funding for universities based on assessments of individual staff members research performance, has also contributed to an increase in the use of precarious contracts. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-black-hole-of-global-university-rankings-rediscovering-the-true-value-of-knowledge-and-ideas-140236">Beyond the black hole of global university rankings: rediscovering the true value of knowledge and ideas</a>
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<p>This is because casual or short-term contractors reduce the teaching burden on PBRF-assessed staff, so the latter can focus on their research outputs. This has seen the emergence of a two-tier system where permanent academic staff effectively have their careers sustained by an army of casualised academic workers.</p>
<p>Rather than this being a short-term hardship, the two-tiered system has translated into academics spending years – sometimes entire careers – cycling through contracts that leave them with no security and little autonomy or professional development. </p>
<p>At the same time, they are highly vulnerable to changes in student demand or funding from research grants.</p>
<h2>Lack of professional development</h2>
<p>Our survey results show a majority of participants (62%) had been employed on precarious contracts (casual or fixed-term) for more than two years, with nearly a third (28.9%) for more than five years. </p>
<p>A total of 60% also reported their contracts were the most precarious types: either casual, with no guarantee of ongoing work (25%), or a fixed-term of less than six months (35%). Less than a quarter (22%) had contracts lasting 12 months or more. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/where-has-the-joy-of-working-in-australian-universities-gone-184251">Where has the joy of working in Australian universities gone?</a>
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<p>This means they must take on multiple contracts to get by, with nearly half (47.8%) taking on three or more employment agreements in the past 12 months.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, with multiple short-term contracts being the norm, nearly half (44.9%) of all survey participants said they had no access to any form of professional development in their roles. </p>
<p>Only 26.3% of participants had access to performance reviews, 21.4% to peer reviews or mentoring, and just 12.5% to formal role-specific upskilling.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472896/original/file-20220706-22-f2ekye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many early career academics work multiple jobs with few professional development opportunities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>Precarious and insecure</h2>
<p>We also found some evidence this system reinforces structural racism, echoing <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339802428_The_Pakaru_'Pipeline'_Maori_and_Pasifika_Pathways_within_the_Academy">other research</a> arguing that academic pathways for Māori and Pasifika aren’t working. </p>
<p>In our survey, over three-quarters of both Māori (77.4%) and Pasifika (76.9%) participants were currently enrolled students (compared to 51.9% of the overall sample), taking teaching or research contracts to supplement their studies. </p>
<p>The majority of those students (47.6% of Māori and 57.7% of Pasifika) were enrolled in non-PhD courses (compared with just 25.8% of Pākehā). PhD study is the recognised path into academia, and the need to take on multiple precarious contracts while studying is impeding that path for Māori and Pasifika students.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/maori-and-pasifika-scholars-remain-severely-under-represented-in-new-zealand-universities-122330">Māori and Pasifika scholars remain severely under-represented in New Zealand universities</a>
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<p>Even greater numbers of international students reported being employed on casual or fixed-term contracts of less than six months than the general survey participants (67% compared to 60%). </p>
<p>At the same time, over half (56.7%) of international students expressed a lack of confidence they would have sufficient ongoing academic work in the next 12 months, and relied on personal savings (63.8%) and accepting extra work even when it risked jeopardising the completion of their degrees (60.9%).</p>
<p>At the same time, one third of survey participants (33.7%) had personally experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment, or otherwise felt unsafe in their workplace. Women (36.3%), people aged over 50 (46.5%), Māori (42.9%), Pasifika (50%), “other” ethnicities (47.6%), and people who were deaf or disabled (47.3%) were over-represented in this cohort.</p>
<h2>A broken path</h2>
<p>The survey also enquired into health and well-being in the context of a pandemic and the additional workloads involved in the move to online learning, combined with universities signalling cutbacks and redundancies due to the loss of international student revenue. </p>
<p>Participants were asked to rate their current stress levels out of ten, with the mean being 6.94. Some 43% of participants reported high to very high stress levels (8-10). Most troublingly, 30% disclosed a mental illness. These participants reported one of the highest mean stress levels (7.39) of any subgroup. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">Here's what the government and universities can do about the crisis of insecure academic work</a>
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<p>Feelings of isolation and lack of support from managers were widespread, as over a quarter (27.6%) of staff with a mental illness suggested they had no understanding at all of who to approach for support.</p>
<p>Overall, our report provides compelling evidence that the traditional career path of early career researchers is now largely broken. This is causing significant harm to those who attempt to take it, while reinforcing existing inequities. </p>
<p>Ultimately, if allowed to continue, this reality will severely compromise the country’s future capacity to keep and grow the best researchers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leon Salter is Spokesperson for Tertiary Education Action Group Aotearoa (TEAGA) and Academic Delegate for the Massey University branch of the Tertiary Education Union (TEU).</span></em></p>Casual or short-term contracts, a lack of professional development, little hope of career progression: a survey of academic working conditions sounds a warning.Leon Salter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1837082022-06-29T12:06:07Z2022-06-29T12:06:07Z5 drawbacks to following your passion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471188/original/file-20220627-12-niphao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C22%2C7315%2C4858&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Employees are more likely to put in long hours when they're passionate about their work.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/job-interview-first-impressions-royalty-free-image/498941586?adppopup=true">sturti / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After earning bachelor’s degrees in engineering and sociology, I was determined to do what I love. I headed straight to graduate school to investigate the social problems that frightened and fascinated me. </p>
<p>For almost a decade, I told everyone I encountered – students, cousins, baristas at the coffee shop I frequented – that they should do the same. “Follow your passion,” I counseled. “You can figure out the employment stuff later.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t until I began to research this <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303232/the-trouble-with-passion">widely accepted career advice</a> that I understood how problematic – and rooted in privilege – it really was. </p>
<h2>The passion principle</h2>
<p>As a sociologist who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=UnCxN24AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">examines workforce culture and inequalities</a>, I interviewed college students and professional workers to learn what it really meant to pursue their dreams, which I will refer to here as the passion principle. I was stunned by what I found out about this principle in the research for my book “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303232/the-trouble-with-passion">The Trouble with Passion</a>.”</p>
<p>I examined surveys that show the American public has held the passion principle in high regard as a <a href="https://www.erinacech.com/the-trouble-with-passion">career decision-making priority</a> since the 1980s. And its popularity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231211068660">is even stronger</a> among those facing pandemic-related job instability.</p>
<p>My interviews revealed that proponents of the passion principle found it compelling because they believed that following one’s passion can provide workers with both the motivation necessary to work hard and a place to find fulfillment. </p>
<p>Yet, what I found is that following one’s passion does not necessarily lead to fulfillment, but is one of the most powerful cultural forces perpetuating overwork. I also found that promoting the pursuit of one’s passion helps perpetuate social inequalities due to the fact that not everyone has the same economic resources to allow them to pursue their passion with ease. What follows are five major pitfalls of the passion principle that I discovered through my research. </p>
<h2>1. Reinforces social inequality</h2>
<p>While the passion principle is broadly popular, not everyone has the necessary resources to turn their passion into a stable, good-paying job.</p>
<p>Passion-seekers from wealthy families are better able to wait until a job in their passion comes along without worrying about <a href="https://educationdata.org/student-loan-default-rate">student loans</a> in the meantime. They are also better situated to take <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-shows-why-its-time-to-finally-end-unpaid-college-internships-152797">unpaid internships</a> to get their foot in the door while their parents pay their rent or let them live at home.</p>
<p>And they often have access to parents’ social networks to help them find jobs. Surveys revealed that working-class and first-generation college graduates, regardless of their career field, are more likely than their wealthier peers to end up in low-paying unskilled jobs when they pursue their passion.</p>
<p>Colleges and universities, workplaces and career counselors who promote the “follow your passion” path for everyone, without leveling the playing field, help <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303232/the-trouble-with-passion">perpetuate socioeconomic inequalities</a> among career aspirants.</p>
<p>Thus, those who promote the “follow your passion” path for everyone might be ignoring the fact that not everyone is equally able to find success while following that advice.</p>
<h2>2. A threat to well-being</h2>
<p>My research revealed that passion proponents see the pursuit of one’s passion as a good way to decide on a career, not only because having work in one’s passion might lead to a good job, but because it is believed to lead to a good life. To achieve this, passion-seekers invest much of their own sense of identity in their work.</p>
<p>Yet, the labor force is not structured around the goal of nurturing our authentic sense of self. Indeed, studies of laid-off workers have illustrated that those who were passionate about their work felt as though they <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo16668097.html">lost a part of their identity</a> when they lost their jobs, along with their source of income.</p>
<p>When we rely on our jobs to give us a sense of purpose, we place our identities at the mercy of the global economy.</p>
<h2>3. Promotes exploitation</h2>
<p>It’s not just well-off passion-seekers who benefit from the passion principle. Employers of passionate workers do, too. I conducted an experiment to see <a href="https://www.erinacech.com/the-trouble-with-passion">how potential employers would respond</a> to job applicants who expressed different reasons for being interested in a job.</p>
<p>Not only do potential employers prefer passionate applicants over applicants who wanted the job for other reasons, but employers knowingly exploited this passion: Potential employers showed greater interest in passionate applicants in part because employers believed the applicants would work hard at their jobs without expecting an increase in pay.</p>
<h2>4. Reinforces the culture of overwork</h2>
<p>In conversations with college students and college-educated workers, I found that a substantial number were willing to sacrifice a good salary, job stability and leisure time to work in a job they love. Nearly half – or 46% – of college-educated workers I surveyed ranked interest or passion for the work as their first priority in a future job. This compared to only 21% who prioritized salary and 15% who prioritized work-family balance. Among those I interviewed, there were those who said they would willingly “eat ramen noodles every night” and “work 90 hours a week” if it meant they could follow their passion.</p>
<p>Although many professionals seek work in their area of passion precisely because they want to avoid the drudgery of working long hours doing tasks they aren’t personally committed to, passion-seeking ironically perpetuates the cultural expectations of overwork. Most passion-seekers I spoke to were willing to work long hours as long as it was work about which they were passionate. </p>
<h2>5. Dismisses labor market inequality</h2>
<p>I find that the passion principle isn’t just a guide that its followers use to make decisions about their own lives. For many, it also serves as an explanation for workforce inequality. For example, compared to those who don’t adhere to the passion principle, proponents were more likely to say women aren’t represented well in engineering because they followed their passion elsewhere, rather than acknowledging the deep <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0003122411420815">structural and cultural roots</a> of this underrepresentation. In other words, passion principle proponents tend to explain away patterns of labor market inequality as the benign result of individual passion-seeking.</p>
<h2>Avoiding pitfalls</h2>
<p>To avoid these pitfalls, people may want to base their career decisions on more than whether those decisions represent their passion. What do you need from your work in addition to a paycheck? Predictable hours? Enjoyable colleagues? Benefits? A respectful boss?</p>
<p>For those who are already employed in jobs you are passionate about, I encourage you to <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303232/the-trouble-with-passion">diversify your portfolio of the ways in which you make meaning</a> – to nurture hobbies, activities, community service and identities that exist wholly outside of work. How can you make time to invest in these other ways to find purpose and satisfaction?</p>
<p>Another factor to consider is whether you are being fairly compensated for the extra passion-fueled efforts you contribute to your job. If you work for a company, does your manager know that you spent weekends reading books on team leadership or mentoring the newest member of your team after hours? We contribute to our own exploitation if we do uncompensated work for our job out of our passion for it.</p>
<p>My research for “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303232/the-trouble-with-passion">The Trouble with Passion</a>” raises sobering questions about standard approaches to mentoring and career advising. Every year, millions of high school and college graduates gear up to enter the labor force full time, and millions more reevaluate their jobs. It is vital that the friends, parents, teachers and career coaches who counsel them begin to question if advising them to pursue their passion is something that could end up doing more harm than good.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183708/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin A. Cech receives funding from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and the National Science Foundation</span></em></p>A sociologist took a critical look at the cherished career advice to ‘follow your passion.’ What she found is that this advice often brings unintended consequences.Erin A. Cech, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1739702022-02-03T13:11:04Z2022-02-03T13:11:04ZHow to reduce investing’s gender gap: try talking about ethics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440557/original/file-20220112-13-1pf5lau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C9%2C2114%2C1400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why have women lagged behind in finance, while their numbers grow in other professions?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/women-meeting-in-business-office-royalty-free-image/1144541711?adppopup=true">MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Women’s perception of unethical behavior among finance professionals may contribute to how underrepresented they are in the industry, according to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacfin.2021.101669">recently published article I co-authored</a> with colleagues at Zhejiang University and Creighton University.</p>
<p>We administered surveys to nearly 3,000 college students in the U.S. and China, describing 10 scenarios in which a character makes an ethically questionable decision. Students were asked to rate how ethical the action was and what percentage of investment managers they believe would act in the same way. </p>
<p>By a statistically significant margin, women in the U.S. ranked the characters’ actions as more unethical than men did. However, they also proved more pessimistic about financial professionals’ ethics, presuming that a significantly higher percentage of investment managers would take the same action. In other words, female respondents in the U.S. perceived a larger discrepancy between their own ethical views and what they believe about investment managers. </p>
<p>For example, in one scenario, a financial adviser suggests a risky fund to an elderly client. It will potentially provide a better return for the client, but also a substantial commission for the adviser. Of the men in our sample, 38.8% felt that a relatively low number of financial professionals – less than 40% – would take this questionable action. By comparison, only 26.7% of women felt that a low number of financial professionals would take this action. Just 29.5% of men felt that a high percentage of financial professionals – more than 60% – would recommend the risky portfolio, compared with 38.3% of women. </p>
<p>Based on our surveys, however, women in China appear to have more favorable perceptions of investment manager ethics than men do, by a statistically significant margin.</p>
<p>These differences seem to mirror some differences in gender representation in the industry in the U.S. and China. In 2018, for current or future investment professionals taking the <a href="https://www.cfainstitute.org/en/programs/cfa#:%7E:text=The%20CFA%20Program%20is%20a,accounting%2C%20economics%2C%20or%20business.">CFA exam</a> in the U.S., only 29% were women, while in China, 52% of test-takers <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-25/face-of-finance-may-soon-be-more-female-at-least-in-china">were women</a>.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Many reasons have been proposed to explain why women in the U.S. have been less likely to pursue careers in finance, particularly in investment management, such as a <a href="https://www.cfainstitute.org/en/research/financial-analysts-journal/2018/ip-v3-n1-6-can-role-models-encourage-more-women-in-finance">lack of role models</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726720942826">industrywide cultural norms</a>.</p>
<p>Universities and professional organizations have been trying to <a href="https://www.cfp.net/initiatives/diversity-and-inclusion/womens-initiatives">boost the number of women</a> in finance careers for many years. However, recent evidence suggests that the percentage of female fund managers has not <a href="https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1029482/the-percentage-of-us-female-fund-managers-is-exactly-where-it-was-in-2000">improved</a> over the past two decades. Only 18% of investment professionals who have earned the CFA designation in the U.S. are women.</p>
<p>This participation rate significantly trails other professions, as women represent <a href="https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/physicians-by-gender/?dataView=1&currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D">37% of active doctors</a>, <a href="https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/female-lawyers-still-underrepresented-especially-in-partnership-ranks-which-law-firms-do-best#:%7E:text=Over%20the%20last%20six%20years,female%20lawyers%20are%20also%20underrepresented.">38% of attorneys at law firms</a> and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm">62% of accountants and auditors</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers and women’s advocates have outlined a slew of factors contributing to women’s slow advancement in many traditionally male-dominated fields, from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547012472684">bias</a> and discrimination to difficulty <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2827952">balancing work and child care</a> to a preference for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.122.3.1067">less competitive</a> environments. Given women’s faster progress in other fields, however, we hope to isolate factors specifically associated with investment management to better understand the lack of progress.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Our research suggests that the many institutions interested in <a href="https://100women.org/">recruiting more women</a> into finance careers should devote effort to addressing concerns about ethics and modifying poor perceptions of the field.</p>
<p>However, it is unclear where these ethical perceptions are formed and how well they reflect reality. For instance, do women overestimate the occurrence of ethical misbehavior or do men underestimate it? Can these perceptions be altered by <a href="https://theconversation.com/study-finds-ethics-can-be-taught-in-finance-at-least-129877">ethics training</a> or highlighting the rigorous ethical standards employed by professional organizations such as the <a href="https://www.cfainstitute.org/en/ethics-standards/ethics/code-of-ethics-standards-of-conduct-guidance">CFA Institute Code of Ethics</a> – or are these views already ingrained by the time students arrive on college campuses? </p>
<p>Although devising the most effective reforms is a difficult path, we hope that understanding differences in ethical perceptions will lead to more successful efforts in recruiting diverse pools of financial professionals going forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyler Jensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many factors influence women’s underrepresentation in investment careers. One that isn’t often discussed: their concerns about ethics.Tyler Jensen, Assistant Professor of Finance, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1641622021-08-05T02:08:01Z2021-08-05T02:08:01ZHow AI can help choose your next career and stay ahead of automation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414705/original/file-20210805-27-hp2yh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C20%2C1994%2C1556&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rawpixel / Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The typical Australian will change careers <a href="https://www.acap.edu.au/blog/update-your-qualifications-or-switch-careers/">five to seven times</a> during their professional lifetime, by some estimates. And this is likely to increase as new technologies automate labour, production is moved abroad, and economic crises unfold. </p>
<p>Jobs disappearing is not a new phenomenon – have you seen an elevator operator recently? – but the pace of change is picking up, threatening to leave large numbers of workers unemployed and unemployable.</p>
<p>New technologies also create new jobs, but the skills they require do not always match the old jobs. Successfully moving between jobs requires making the most of your current skills and acquiring new ones, but these transitions can falter if the gap between old and new skills is too large. </p>
<p>We have built a system to recommend career transitions, using machine learning to analyse more than 8 million online job ads to see what moves are likely to be successful. The details are <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254722">published</a> in PLOS ONE.</p>
<p>Our system starts by measuring similarities between the skills required by each occupation. For example, an accountant could become a financial analyst because the required skills are similar, but a speech therapist might find it harder to become a financial analyst as the skill sets are quite different. </p>
<p>Next, we looked at a large set of real-world career transitions to see which way around these transitions usually go: accountants are more likely to become financial analysts than vice versa. </p>
<p>Finally, our system can recommend a career change that’s likely to succeed – and tell you what skills you may need to make it work.</p>
<h2>Measure the similarity of occupations</h2>
<p>Our system uses a measure economists call “revealed comparative advantage” (RCA) to identify how important an individual skill is to a job, using online job ads from 2018. The map below visualises the similarity of the top 500 skills. Each marker represents an individual skill, coloured according to one of 13 clusters of highly similar skills. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411743/original/file-20210718-13-12t72bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411743/original/file-20210718-13-12t72bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411743/original/file-20210718-13-12t72bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411743/original/file-20210718-13-12t72bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411743/original/file-20210718-13-12t72bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411743/original/file-20210718-13-12t72bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411743/original/file-20210718-13-12t72bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411743/original/file-20210718-13-12t72bz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The similarity between the top 500 skills in Australian job ads in 2018. Highly similar skills cluster together.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once we know how similar different skills are, we can estimate how similar different professions are based on the skills required. The figure below visualises the similarity between Australian occupations in 2018. </p>
<p>Each marker shows an individual occupation, and the colours depict the risk each occupation faces from automation over the next two decades (blue shows low risk and red shows high risk). Visibly similar occupations are grouped closely together, with medical and highly skilled occupations facing the lowest automation risk.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411745/original/file-20210718-23-14e8pl7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411745/original/file-20210718-23-14e8pl7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411745/original/file-20210718-23-14e8pl7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411745/original/file-20210718-23-14e8pl7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411745/original/file-20210718-23-14e8pl7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411745/original/file-20210718-23-14e8pl7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411745/original/file-20210718-23-14e8pl7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411745/original/file-20210718-23-14e8pl7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The similarity between occupations, coloured by technological automation risk.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mapping transitions</h2>
<p>We then took our measure of similarity between occupations and combined it with a range of other labour market variables, such as employment levels and education requirements, to build our job transition recommender system. </p>
<p>Our system uses machine learning techniques to “learn” from real job transitions in the past and predict job movements in the future. Not only does it achieve high levels of accuracy (76%), but it also accounts for asymmetries between job transitions. Performance is measured by how accurately the system predicts whether a transition occurred, when applied to historic job transitions.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-be-alarmed-ai-wont-leave-half-the-world-unemployed-54958">Don’t be alarmed: AI won’t leave half the world unemployed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The full transitions map is big and complicated, but you can see how it works below in a small version that only includes transitions between 20 occupations. In the map, the “source” occupation is shown on the horizontal axis and the “target” occupation on the vertical axis.</p>
<p>If you look at a given occupation at the bottom of the map, the column of squares shows the probability of moving from that occupation to the one listed at the right-hand side. The darker the square, the higher the probability of making the transition. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414714/original/file-20210805-13-lm02k8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414714/original/file-20210805-13-lm02k8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414714/original/file-20210805-13-lm02k8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414714/original/file-20210805-13-lm02k8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414714/original/file-20210805-13-lm02k8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414714/original/file-20210805-13-lm02k8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414714/original/file-20210805-13-lm02k8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414714/original/file-20210805-13-lm02k8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A small piece of the transitions map, with 20 occupations. Transitions occur from columns to rows, and darker blue shades depict high transition probabilities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Artificial intelligence-powered job recommendations</h2>
<p>Sometimes a new career requires developing new skills, but which skills? Our system can help identify those. Let’s take a look at how it works for “domestic cleaners”, an occupation where employment has shrunk severely during COVID-19 in Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411747/original/file-20210718-15775-1lodn02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411747/original/file-20210718-15775-1lodn02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411747/original/file-20210718-15775-1lodn02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411747/original/file-20210718-15775-1lodn02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411747/original/file-20210718-15775-1lodn02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411747/original/file-20210718-15775-1lodn02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411747/original/file-20210718-15775-1lodn02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New occupations and skills recommendations made by the Job Transitions Recommender System for ‘Domestic Cleaners’ – a ‘non-essential’ occupation that has experienced significant declines during the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, we use the transitions map to see which occupations it is easiest for a domestic cleaner to transition to. The colours split occupations by their status during the COVID-19 crisis – blue occupations are “essential” jobs that can continue to operate during lockdown, and red are “non-essential”. </p>
<p>We identify top recommended occupations, as seen on the right side of the flow diagram (bottom half of the image), sorted in descending order by transition probability. The width of each band in the diagram shows the number of openings available for each occupation. The segment colours represent whether the demand has increased or decreased compared with the same period of 2019 (pre-COVID).</p>
<p>The first six transition recommendations for are all “non-essential” services, which have unsurprisingly experienced decreased demand. However, the seventh is “aged and disabled carers”, which is classified as “essential” and grew significantly in demand during the beginning of the COVID-19 period. </p>
<p>Since your prospects of finding work are better if you transition to an occupation
in high demand, we select “aged and disabled carers” as the target occupation for this example.</p>
<h2>What skills to develop for new occupations</h2>
<p>Our system can also recommend skills that workers need to develop to increase their chances of a successful transition. We argue that a worker should invest in developing the skills most important to their new profession and which are most different from the skills they currently have. </p>
<p>For a “domestic cleaner”, the top-recommended skills needed to transition to “aged and disabled carer” are specialised patient care skills, such as “patient hygiene assistance”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-benefits-of-job-automation-are-not-likely-to-be-shared-equally-90859">The benefits of job automation are not likely to be shared equally</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On the other hand, there’s less need to develop unimportant skills or ones that are highly similar to skills from your current occupation. Skills such as “business analysis” and “finance” are of low importance for an “aged and disabled carer”, so they should not be prioritised. Similarly, skills such as “ironing” and “laundry” are required for the new job but it is likely that a “domestic cleaner” already possesses these skills (or can easily acquire them).</p>
<h2>The benefit of smoother job transitions</h2>
<p>While the future of work remains unclear, change is inevitable. New technologies, economic crises and other factors will continue to shift labour demands, causing workers to move between jobs. </p>
<p>If labour transitions occur efficiently, there are significant productivity and equity benefits for everyone. If transitions are slow, or fail, it will have significant costs for both individuals and the state and the individual. The methods and systems we put forward here could significantly improve the achievement of these goals.</p>
<p><em>We thank Bledi Taska and Davor Miskulin from Burning Glass Technologies for generously providing the job advertisements data for this research and for their valuable feedback. We also thank Stijn Broecke and other colleagues from the OECD for their ongoing input and guidance in the development of this work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nik Dawson works as a Senior Data Scientist for FutureFit AI. Nik received funding from the OECD as a Future of Work Fellow to support this research. Burning Glass Technologies generously provided the job advertisements data that enabled this research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from Facebook Research under the Content Policy Research Initiative grants and by the Commonwealth of Australia (represented by the Defence Science and Technology Group). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary-Anne Williams receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Automation is set to put a lot of people out of work - but machine learning could help them find their next career.Nik Dawson, Honorary Scholar, University of Technology SydneyMarian-Andrei Rizoiu, Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Technology SydneyMary-Anne Williams, Michael J Crouch Chair in Innovation, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1609552021-05-19T13:10:46Z2021-05-19T13:10:46ZHow Phil Collins became cool (no, really)<p>In August 2020, a YouTube video featuring Tim and Fred Williams, 21-year old twins from Gary, Indiana, went viral. In it, the two young men were listening to Phil Collins’ 1981 hit song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkADj0TPrJA&ab_channel=PhilCollins">In The Air Tonight</a> for the first time, commenting as they went along. They listen intently for the first few minutes, their heads bobbing along. Then Collins’ drum fill with the famous gated-reverb starts and they are astonished. “I ain’t never seen anyone drop a beat three minutes into a song,” Fred explains. When the song concludes, Fred cries: “You killed it Phil!”</p>
<p>The video was viewed millions of times and shared widely on social media. In the Air Tonight immediately <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/the-twins-who-broke-the-internet-with-phil-collins-video-here-s-their-verdict-on-u2-and-hozier-1.4344126">went to number one</a> on US college radio stations. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/30/hes-staring-into-my-soul-how-phil-collins-made-teenagers-youtube-stars">The Guardian</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/style/twins-tim-fred-williams-phil-collins.html">The New York Times</a> covered the video, praising not only Collins’ iconic song but celebrating his solo career as a whole. This was a marked departure from only a few years earlier, when his solo work was dismissed by critics as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/music-princes-and-peasants-of-medieval-pop-1157977.html">cultural junk left over from an unloved earlier era</a>.</p>
<p>So what has changed to make Collins cool and relevant again?</p>
<p>To answer this question, we <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3836529">examined the trajectory of Collins’ solo career from 1981-2020</a>, identifying changes in the tone and critical appraisal of Collins. There was <a href="https://thegenesisarchive.co.uk/nme-21st-march-1981-nick-kent-phil-collins-interview/">admiration</a> at first (1981-1991), which turned into <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/mar/30/artsfeatures">derision</a> (1992-2009), followed by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jan/20/phil-collins-review-life-affirming-mor-ballads-delivered-against-all-odds">rediscovery</a> and an unironic sense of cool (2010-present). We analysed each phase by drawing on work in the field of cultural studies that examines how cultural producers or products become considered truly great. </p>
<h2>The highs and lows</h2>
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<p>Following the ups and downs of Collins’ long career in music enabled us to identify a N-shaped curve of artistic trajectory, which we labelled the “Phil Collins Effect”.</p>
<p>The effect describes how changes in the way fans, critics and peers view an artist and interact with their work can affect the artist’s critical and commercial status. The Phil Collins Effect suggests popular artists go through a period of critical and commercial success and peer recognition, which we label “consecration”. This can be followed by a period of commercial and critical decline and rejection by new groups of peers seeking to define themselves apart from commercial success stories of the previous era such as Collins, which we label “deconsecration”. Revival, or “reconsecration” involves reappraisal and rediscovery, both by critics and often a new generation of fans and artistic peers.</p>
<p>In the case of Collins, the period of 1981 to 1991 was his critical and commercial golden age. Hard as it may be for some to believe, Collins’ arrival as a solo artist in 1981 with the album Face Value was celebrated by critics who not only credited him as a brilliant writer of pop songs, but lauded his material as more innovative than his band Genesis, who were by this stage viewed as prog-rock dinosaurs out of sync with the new decade. </p>
<p>His status was recognised with numerous awards, including six Brit Awards and seven Grammys. At this time, collaborations with Collins were highly sought after as they were sure to achieve commercial success, such as Easy Lover with Earth Wind and Fire’s Philip Bailey. However, it would be the reasons for Collins’ success in the 1980s, which caused critics, fans and peers to turn against him in the 1990s and 2000s.</p>
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<p>Along with tabloid-led schadenfreude over his <a href="https://people.com/archive/dropping-the-ax-via-fax-vol-42-no-6/">failing marriage</a>, Collins was chosen by Bret Easton Ellis as representative of the worst excesses and blandness of commercial rock in the 1980s in his controversial novel American Psycho (where the titular character Patrick Bateman begins a killing spree with a <a href="https://youtu.be/g1mSJpOBXFU?t=84">long monologue</a> about the merits of Collins as an artist). </p>
<p>In 2003, Collins’ status was subject to further ridicule when the animated series <a href="https://www.southparkstudios.co.uk/video-clips/lybocm/south-park-riddle-out">Southpark</a> featured him as a bitter, washed up star, whose music required taking large quantities of the ADHD drug Ritalin to appreciate. </p>
<h2>Take a look at Phil now</h2>
<p>While this was all going on, however, a critical appraisal also started to occur. A new generation of fans discovered his music in the 2000s, without the 1980s baggage. A new cohort of artists, ranging from indie darlings such as <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-1975s-matt-healy-talks-taylor-swift-american-weed-shirtlessness-122448/">The 1975</a> to <a href="https://www.xxlmag.com/rappers-show-love-to-phil-collins/">rap artists such as Kanye West</a> openly expressed their appreciation for Collins’ genius. </p>
<p>As critics began to reevaluate the period between 1978 and 1982, the dark, moody hit In the Air Tonight was compared to the likes of Ultravox’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJeWySiuq1I">Vienna</a> and Japan’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK8DBICAWFs">Ghosts</a> as a risky, inventive example of experimental pop. Midway through the second decade of the 21st century, Collins’ reconsecration was complete, with him being labelled by one critic as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/02/phil-collins-godfather-popular-culture">the godfather of popular culture</a>”. </p>
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<p>Other figures have experienced their own Phil Collins Effect. The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs certainly experienced a similar N-shaped trajectory in his commercial career, being feted as a Silicon Valley pioneer before being viewed as a deluded dreamer after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-apple-fired-returned-2017-7?r=US&IR=T">being ousted as Apple’s CEO</a>. His return, coupled as it was by a series of hit products (such as the iMac, iPod and iPhone), led to a re-evaluation of his beliefs about innovation and technology, in which every historic misstep was regarded as a critical experiment by a visionary always ahead of his time. </p>
<p>Likewise, the Trump presidency seems to have led to a shift in fortunes for the former US president <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/biden-inauguration-bush-obama-trump-b1789152.html">George “Dubya” Bush</a>, suggesting that reconsecration may not be far away.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fans and critics loved him then hated him and now they love him again.Andre Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School, City, University of LondonMichael Beverland, Professor of Brand Management, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexPinar Cankurtaran, Assistant professor, Delft University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1587492021-05-11T13:21:37Z2021-05-11T13:21:37ZWhen your dream job is a nightmare<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399825/original/file-20210510-5525-1gjo8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1348%2C50%2C5291%2C4406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Employees are often shocked to find their dream job involves menial tasks and drudgery. While they need to manage their expecations, employers should also be more honest about the true nature of the jobs they're hiring for.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What happens when you land your dream job but it turns out to be anything but?</p>
<p>Friends, career consultants and the media inundate us with a constant barrage of advice telling us to follow our dreams, find our bliss or pursue our passions in our professional lives. Yet this kind of advice is <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/10/3-reasons-its-so-hard-to-follow-your-passion">not always easily followed</a>. </p>
<p>Even when it’s heeded, the advice can come <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/perils-following-your-career-passion-adam-grant/">with downsides</a>, especially when it turns out that those aforementioned passions involve jobs with routine, day-to-day tasks that people are less than passionate about. In short, work is often hard work.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man intently looks at his laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399820/original/file-20210510-18-i3v0zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=455%2C441%2C2292%2C1601&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399820/original/file-20210510-18-i3v0zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399820/original/file-20210510-18-i3v0zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399820/original/file-20210510-18-i3v0zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399820/original/file-20210510-18-i3v0zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399820/original/file-20210510-18-i3v0zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399820/original/file-20210510-18-i3v0zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We’re told to follow our passions in our careers. But what happens when the job you’ve clamoured for is mired in drudgery?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People land jobs in data science and artificial intelligence, for example, expecting to create brilliant algorithms that will solve big problems. But they often end up performing menial data collection and cleaning tasks. The excitement of working for a startup loses its lustre with difficult and boring work often outside an employee’s primary areas of interest. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-the-dreaded-task-of-data-entry-less-despised-130754">How to make the dreaded task of data entry less despised</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>And not everyone promoted to the <a href="https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/orsc.2020.1361?casa_token=rFOnD_1WnQ0AAAAA:lTPqI9rZDYbfx6qfJ9L0UOIUCJvq2S2J3sEHThw_echvRECpKDtBiplObL85hMDHyV3huwBTVns">lauded ranks of management</a> is thrilled to be there performing management tasks, or even see the job as a step up. </p>
<p>People romanticize working in the media, fashion, film, fine and performing arts and other cultural industries, but the work often ends up being more drudgery than glamour. Any job, especially an entry-level position, has elements of drudgery.</p>
<h2>‘Glossy work’ is lacklustre</h2>
<p>This gap between expectations and the day-to-day reality of jobs is a phenomenon we’ve labelled as “glossy work” in a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3243098">recently published study</a>.</p>
<p>For the study, we interviewed magazine fact-checkers who worked for high-status organizations in a glamorous industry while performing menial tasks every day. They experienced a kind of dissonance between their work and its setting.</p>
<p>As one fact-checker described it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Because you’re affiliated with the magazine, people think you’re a strange type of royalty no matter how you’re affiliated.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>We examined how this phenomenon affects them.</p>
<p>For employees, the glossy work dissonance can spur attempts to change the actual job, frustration and a quick exit from the position. Glossy work also creates a dilemma about how to present the work and themselves to the world. How do they balance their simultaneous needs for self-enhancement and to be fully understood and authentic?</p>
<h2>Glossing over mundane work</h2>
<p>We find they do so by differentiating their descriptions of their jobs across different audiences. When talking to complete outsiders — people at social gatherings, for example — they focus on the more glamorous aspects: working in journalism and for glossy magazines. </p>
<p>For the high-status writers they collaborate with, they focus on their own expertise and other status markers. And to insiders, they present a more complete view of their work.</p>
<p>Presenting themselves differently depending on who they’re talking to can mean that anyone who is not a true insider at the company ends up with a partial or biased view of the work. The full nature of the work is often glossed over, and that’s a problem for those considering taking one of these jobs. </p>
<p>When they only hear about the gloss, prospective employees end up with false expectations that tend to fuel the cycle of disappointment.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man runs his hand through his hair and looks agitated while in front of his laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399821/original/file-20210510-23-1mtyhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C125%2C1296%2C1241&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399821/original/file-20210510-23-1mtyhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399821/original/file-20210510-23-1mtyhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399821/original/file-20210510-23-1mtyhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399821/original/file-20210510-23-1mtyhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399821/original/file-20210510-23-1mtyhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399821/original/file-20210510-23-1mtyhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If you’re only hearing about the glossy elements of a potential job opportunity, you’ll end up feeling disappointed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Gouw/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Potential employees can get around this by doing more careful research on the true nature of the jobs they’re considering taking. They should ask questions about the position’s day-to-day requirements and consult a range of people who currently have the job or who have previously held it.</p>
<h2>What employers can do</h2>
<p>“Glossy work” also comes at a cost to employers as they try to manage worker frustration and staff turnover. They can stop this vicious cycle by providing realistic job previews. This doesn’t mean they should only show the negative side of work, but they should provide an honest balance of the glamorous and less glamorous aspects of the job.</p>
<p>Employers may also want to consider alternative ways of <a href="https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/orsc.1110.0737?casa_token=5ERq-YaxCNEAAAAA:CjdUvUEscrReYnFEtDzUOIh0A8t_BUGIhl1eexc2PszP6FomEXgITCQ7ZKjiJ2McD4XM6dGl_6o">assembling tasks</a> so that the less pleasant tasks are spread across employees and jobs. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A woman smiles at her laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399841/original/file-20210510-5469-1g3ul69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399841/original/file-20210510-5469-1g3ul69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399841/original/file-20210510-5469-1g3ul69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399841/original/file-20210510-5469-1g3ul69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399841/original/file-20210510-5469-1g3ul69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399841/original/file-20210510-5469-1g3ul69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399841/original/file-20210510-5469-1g3ul69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Allowing employees to help craft their job descriptions and create new opportunities can be helpful.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They may also want to be open to employee efforts to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/259118.pdf?casa_token=a_IqF6V5AEYAAAAA:XVVLpcHX6P5VFG3sLkl8yPW6P74nusFnraA1HXixtE1iJz6HBBJPsoFmo8SCpJC3TlaAyQ7QIomvJ3BSEJyGMd-4Mt-87914zD-z2vnfGh9NrhkxM84">craft and tweak their jobs</a> and create new opportunities within their organizations. </p>
<p>Ultimately, however, performing many mundane tasks remains a reality in all jobs despite the promise that AI will eliminate more and more rote chores.</p>
<p>What’s more, hiring managers should exercise caution when listing “passion” as a job requirement. In an analysis of more than 200 interviews for a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/project/Beyond-Warm-Bodies-The-Unintended-Consequences-of-Hiring">project on startup hiring</a>, passion was a frequent subject of discussion. Hiring managers looked for it. Potential employees wanted to live their passion. </p>
<p>Yet none of the hiring managers who were looking for passion in their prospective employees could describe how they would assess passion in candidates, or why it was important for the specific job being filled. The risk here is that they hire people who are passionate and then provide work that either doesn’t match or douses that passion, creating a problematic situation for both employee and employer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Cohen receives funding from SHHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra E. Spataro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>So you snagged your dream job. And it quickly became the stuff of nightmares, filled with mundane tasks and drudgery. What can employees and employers do?Lisa Cohen, Associate Professor, Business Administration, McGill UniversitySandra E. Spataro, Professor, Northern Kentucky UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1315582020-02-14T13:45:01Z2020-02-14T13:45:01ZTrump’s big bet on career and technical education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315314/original/file-20200213-10980-klniqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students work in the plumbing shop at Worcester Technical High School.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-work-in-the-plumbing-shop-at-worcester-technical-news-photo/626306880?adppopup=true">Boston Globe/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/budget_fy21.pdf">proposed</a> one of the largest increases in funding for career and technical education in recent history.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=K3uUtzcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education policy researcher</a> who studies the economic and employment impact of career and technical education in high school, I believe this proposal has a lot of potential to open up new job opportunities, especially for students who might not want to go to college – or not right away. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.26300/z9y7-2222">My research </a> has found that the best investment in career and technical education is when it’s targeted toward schools that design all instruction around developing career paths, say, as an electrician or as a nurse’s assistant. Career and technical education can also <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-we-know-about-career-and-technical-education-in-high-school/">improve</a> high school graduation and employment when it is integrated with core subjects and offers work-based learning.</p>
<h2>Spending would double</h2>
<p>The White House wants to <a href="https://ctepolicywatch.acteonline.org/">nearly double</a> the total federal commitment to provide states with funds for career and technical education – from about US$1.2 billion in the current fiscal year to about $2.1 billion for fiscal 2021.</p>
<p>This proposal marks the first time in more than 20 years that the federal investment in career and technical education could change in a meaningful way after <a href="https://cte.careertech.org/sites/default/files/Federal_Appropriations_Career_Technical_Education_2017_final.pdf">declining</a> for the last two decades.</p>
<p>For instance, in 2004, total funding through the Carl D. Perkins Act – the federal law that deals with career and technical education spending – was <a href="https://cte.careertech.org/sites/default/files/Federal_Appropriations_Career_Technical_Education_2017_final.pdf">$1.7 billion</a>. By fiscal 2020 it had dropped to <a href="https://cte.careertech.org/sites/default/files/Federal_Appropriations_Career_Technical_Education_2017_final.pdf">$1.2 billion</a>. Adjusting for inflation makes the drop even larger. </p>
<p>Student <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h177.asp">participation in career and technical education</a> had also declined during the era of No Child Left Behind, the 2002 federal law that required increasing the percentage of students proficient in math and reading by 2014. Meanwhile, an emphasis on testing <a href="https://chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2017/08/04/no-child-left-behind-is-dead-but-have-states-learned-from-it/">dominated</a> education policy during the same time period, which maintained focus on tested subjects like math and reading, and less on career development.</p>
<p>The proposal also calls for allocating $83 million to competitive grants to states. Proposing competitive grants suggests that the administration will look to fund states with the most innovative proposals. This is in contrast to just giving out money based on how many students a state may serve, which is how most of the federal funds for technical education are allocated.</p>
<p>Trump also wants to <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/president-trump-proposes-transformative-student-first-budget-return-power-states-limit-federal-control-education">double</a> fees associated with H1-B <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b">visas</a> – visas that allow for the hiring temporary workers from abroad with high skills that are in short supply in the U.S. This hike could raise an additional $100 million or more. The idea here seems to be to use revenue collected from programs that use talent from abroad to invest in educating students here in the United States.</p>
<h2>Whole-school models?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.educationnext.org/depth-over-breadth-value-vocational-education-u-s-high-schools/">Research</a> shows that students who take three or more courses in one career pathway earn more money in the decade after high school than similar students who did not take a group of related career and technical education courses. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-we-know-about-career-and-technical-education-in-high-school/">research</a> cannot fully explain why these earning gains occur. However, it could be that the <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w9679">specific skills</a> that students gain in career and technical education are likely to be rewarded with higher wages if those skills are in demand.</p>
<p>By comparison, the only technical education programs that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/09/20/the-promise-of-career-and-technical-education/">research has shown</a> lead to improved graduation rates and higher wages are whole-school models.</p>
<p>Whole-school approaches to technical education are where all students participate in some form of vocational or technical education. </p>
<p>Most students have access to technical education at traditional <a href="https://www.nmtcc.org/">high schools or centers</a> that are shared across school districts and where students spend part of their school day. This is the most common way students access technical education in the U.S. and where expansion is therefore most likely to occur. But, there is no strong evidence that these models are effective in improving high school graduation or employment or earnings after school. All of the best evidence comes from specialized high schools like those in <a href="http://www.cttech.org/index.html">Connecticut</a> and <a href="https://www.valleytech.k12.ma.us/">Massachusetts</a>, or from <a href="https://www.mdrc.org/publication/career-academies-long-term-impacts-work-education-and-transitions-adulthood">career academies</a> which combine academic and technical coursework and organize it around a common theme. </p>
<p>But fewer than 5% of the nation’s students have <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h150.asp">access to a specialized career and technical education school</a>. If innovation grants were designed to induce increased access to specialized career and technical education high schools or high-quality <a href="https://caldercenter.org/sites/default/files/WP%20176.pdf">career academies</a>, it could be money well spent.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun M. Dougherty receives funding from the Institute for Education Sciences, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation. </span></em></p>Will the White House plans to boost spending on career and technical education help today’s teens land better jobs?Shaun M. Dougherty, Associate Professor of Public Policy & Education, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1261942020-01-16T19:03:00Z2020-01-16T19:03:00Z‘What subjects do I choose for my last years of school?’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310116/original/file-20200115-151829-1q4twbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=765%2C72%2C4421%2C3935&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Locking yourself into one career path too early may be risky.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>We are being asked to do work experience this year, in a field we might like to work in. We are being asked to think about choosing electives that are directing us towards our career choices.</p>
<p>I have no idea what I want to do! I haven’t yet found anything I am particularly good at. I feel like I am being left behind. That others are making choices about their lives that I am not prepared for yet. Is this normal?</p>
<p>Lachlan, year 10</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Key points</h2>
<ul>
<li>Many young people feel this way – it is normal!</li>
<li>locking yourself into one career path too early can be risky</li>
<li>it’s important to be flexible and learn transferable skills</li>
<li>ask lots of questions from people around you.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/i-need-to-know-66587"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290837/original/file-20190904-175686-polw3q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=90&fit=crop&dpr=2" width="100%"></a></p>
<p>Hi Lachlan, many young people feel undecided about their career pathway. One <a href="https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/file_uploads/EEJSC_58-04_Text_WEB_RwD0HN5C.pdf">study found</a> around one in five teenagers were uncertain about a clear career goal.</p>
<p>The questions you ask are about more than just which subjects to choose in the last years of school. They point towards the bigger decision about what sort of person you want to become. And that is a big decision to make all at once.</p>
<p>Careers advisors, teachers and parents often talk about <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/__data/assets/file/0021/9516/factors-affecting-aspirations-2711.pdf">career choice</a> as a matter of logical decision-making and planning, but it <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/__data/assets/file/0021/9516/factors-affecting-aspirations-2711.pdf">also involves</a> feelings, imagination and knowledge about yourself and the world.</p>
<p>These are constantly evolving so it isn’t surprising you feel confused.</p>
<h2>It’s important to be flexible</h2>
<p>You say some of your friends already have clear ideas about their futures. But being too rigid can be just as risky as not having a decision. If you set your career sights too narrow, or too early, on just one type of career you might not have a back-up plan. </p>
<p>What happens if it doesn’t work out? Does that mean you will feel like a failure before you even start? You might miss out on possibilities that don’t fit that narrow vision but that might suit you perfectly.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yoEezZD71sc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Watch Tim Minchin explain to students at his old university why “You don’t have to have a dream.”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some <a href="https://mccrindle.com.au/insights/blog/job-mobility-australia/">research suggests</a> today’s graduates will average five separate careers and around 17 different employers in their working life. This means an important skill these days is the ability to adapt. </p>
<p>The careers you have in the future might be quite different from each other, drawing on new skills and interests developed over time. Changes might happen because a workplace closes, or a new career becomes possible, or you want to move or develop a new interest.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/choosing-a-career-these-jobs-wont-go-out-of-style-111425">Choosing a career? These jobs won't go out of style</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So while having a good idea about you want to do will give you a goal to work towards, it is important to be flexible too. Think of plans as provisional. Be ready to adjust your thinking and recalibrate them as you get more experience. </p>
<ul>
<li>Develop short-term, medium and long-term goals. You’ll find great resources to help with this at <a href="https://headspace.org.au/young-people/how-to-make-a-career-plan-template/">Headspace</a>. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Learning your interests takes time</h2>
<p>You say you don’t know what you’re good at yet. That’s OK too. Learning to recognise your skills, interests and values takes time. Talking to other people can help including friends, family, people you know through sport or other communities you are part of. </p>
<p>School subjects don’t test some of the important skills for a successful working life, such as the ability to get along with different people or flexible thinking, so you may not know you have them yet.</p>
<p>It is helpful to think about <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/report/the-new-work-mindset-report/">clusters</a> of jobs that draw on similar sets of skills. Particular skills (such as attention to detail) or interests (such as working outdoors or caring for others) can translate from one area into another. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lack-of-workers-with-soft-skills-demands-a-shift-in-teaching-73433">Lack of workers with 'soft skills' demands a shift in teaching</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Work experience in customer service or retail sales will develop your skills in communicating with other people, being organised and understanding record-keeping. These are building blocks for success in many other careers. </p>
<p>Learning skills in one context that you can carry to a different one means you are adaptable – one of most important qualities for success. The more you can learn on the job, no matter which job it is, the better off you will be. </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/jobs-and-careers">Youth Central’s Career Profiles</a> give lots of detail about how interests turn into careers, and the pathways people took to get there.</li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kRJW-Sg4hjM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Watch Eddie Woo explaining why “the advice to follow your passion is a terrible idea…”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>There are many pathways</h2>
<p>Many young people may choose to pursue a career they already know. Perhaps a friend or family member already does this sort of work. That’s a great start but it can also be <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315736921">limiting</a>. </p>
<p>Many careers have changed in recent years. Some are disappearing while <a href="https://www.ceda.com.au/CEDA/media/ResearchCatalogueDocuments/Research%20and%20Policy/PDF/26792-Futureworkforce_June2015.pdf">new careers</a> are always on the horizon, so going with something a parent does may not be suitable anymore. Some of the fastest <a href="https://www.seek.com.au/career-advice/browse/high-growth">growing</a> career areas include the personal care (such as aged care), health and technology sectors. </p>
<p>Take every opportunity your school offers to explore the world of work. There might be industry tasters, VET immersion days, career expos or fairs, presentations, mentoring programs, workplace and university visits, or school-university partnership programs.</p>
<p>When it comes to subject selection, you might decide to combine vocational training with mainstream academic subjects that will help you work towards a university course. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-stress-your-atar-isnt-the-final-call-there-are-many-ways-to-get-into-university-125429">Don't stress, your ATAR isn't the final call. There are many ways to get into university</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There are also pathway courses and alternative entry programs into univesities if you don’t quite get into what you want. There is no decision now that will lock you in to only one possibility for your future. Do stay at school though as that will set you up well for whatever comes in the future. Keep your options open.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://myfuture.edu.au">My Future</a> has fantastic resources including quizzes that will help learn more about what might suit you. You can also match up school subjects with career pathways.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Work experience is a good way to develop skills</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/jobs-and-careers/volunteering-and-work-experience">work experience</a> you do at school need not match exactly what you will end up doing in the future, but it gives a great taste of full-time work. </p>
<p>Most young people find it is the most useful career related activity they do at school because it is <a href="https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/eejsc/Career_Advice_Activities/EEJSC_58-04_Text_WEB.pdf">hands on</a> and puts them in direct contact with employers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unpaid-work-experience-is-widespread-but-some-are-missing-out-new-study-70737">Unpaid work experience is widespread but some are missing out: new study</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Try for something that draws on some of your current interests and skills, but remember this is an opportunity to try things out. A good report from an employer about your willingness to learn might be really helpful in lots of ways, including helping you get part-time work so you can continue to increase your experiences and responsibilities.</p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susanne Gannon works for Western Sydney University. She receives funding from ARC. </span></em></p>Today’s graduates may average five separate careers and around 17 different employers in their working life. This means an important skill these days is flexibility and the ability to adapt.Susanne Gannon, Associate Professor, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1287772019-12-17T02:01:53Z2019-12-17T02:01:53ZRobot career advisor: AI may soon be able to analyse your tweets to match you to a job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306943/original/file-20191215-85417-7jqaf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C2779%2C1236&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tennis professionals like Maria Sharapova (pictured) share similar personality traits to her peers and rivals in tennis, but these traits are entirely different to those in other professions such as technology or science.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanlb/5790331774/">johanlb/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine yourself graduating from high school, with the world before you. </p>
<p>But now you must decide what career you want to pursue. You hope for a job that will pay the bills, but also one you will enjoy. After all, you will spend a large portion of your waking hours at work. </p>
<p>But how can you make a reliable choice – beyond what your parents might be pushing for, or what your final year results will get you direct entry into.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/12/10/1917942116">study published today</a> in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found different professions attract people with very different psychological characteristics.</p>
<p>When looking for a new career, you might visit a career adviser and answer a set of questions to identify your interests and strengths. These results are used to match you with a set of potential occupations. </p>
<p>However, this method relies on long surveys, and doesn’t account for the fact that many occupations are changing or disappearing as technology transforms the employment landscape. </p>
<h2>21st century job search</h2>
<p>We wondered if we could develop a data-driven approach to matching a person with a suitable profession, based on psychological traces they reveal online. </p>
<p>Studies have shown people leave traces of themselves through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1073191113514104?journalCode=asma">the language they post online</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/110/15/5802">their online behaviours</a>. </p>
<p>Could we analyse this to find out the extent to which people doing the same job shared the same personality traits?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/employment-services-arent-working-for-older-jobseekers-jobactive-staff-or-employers-98852">Employment services aren't working for older jobseekers, jobactive staff or employers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In our research, we identified more than 100,000 Twitter users, each of whom included one of 3,513 job titles in their user profile. </p>
<p>Then, using a tool available through IBM’s cloud-based artificial intelligence engine Watson, and its <a href="https://personality-insights-demo.ng.bluemix.net/">Personality Insights</a> service, we gave each profile a score across ten personality-related characteristics, based on the language in their posts. </p>
<p>We used a variety of data analytics and machine learning techniques to explore the personality of each of the occupations. </p>
<p>For example, to create the “vocation compass map” we used an unsupervised machine learning algorithm to cluster occupational personality data into twenty distinct clusters, grouping the occupations that were most similar in terms of personality.</p>
<h2>An occupational map</h2>
<p>Work has long been thought to be more fulfilling if it fits who we are as a person, in terms of our personality, values, and interests. </p>
<p>Our results confirmed this, and we found that different occupations tended to have very different personality profiles. </p>
<p>For instance, software programmers and scientists were generally more open to experiencing a variety of new activities, were intellectually curious, tended to think in symbols and abstractions, and found repetition boring. On the other hand, elite tennis players tended to be more conscientious, organised and agreeable. </p>
<p>Our findings point to the possibility of using data shared on social media to match an individual to a suitable job.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People belonging to different occupations generally have distinct personality traits. This figure shows the digital fingerprints of 1,200 individuals across nine occupations. Each dot corresponds to a user - with people grouped.
within their self-identified occupation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul X. McCarthy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used machine learning to cluster more than one thousand roles based on the inferred personality traits of people in those roles.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inspire-children-with-good-careers-advice-and-they-do-better-at-school-33104">Inspire children with good careers advice and they do better at school</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We found many similar jobs could be grouped together.</p>
<p>For example, one cluster included different technology jobs such as software programming, web development, and computer science. Another group included gym management, logistic coordination, and concert promotions.</p>
<p>You can <a href="http://bit.ly/vocation-map-interactive">explore more with this interactive online map</a> we made. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Vocations Map we created has clusters based on the predicted personalities of 101,152 Twitter users, across 1,227 occupations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marian-Andrei Rizoiu</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, while many of the combinations aligned with existing occupation classifiers (current formal groupings that governments and other organisations use to group jobs together), some clusters included roles not traditionally grouped together. </p>
<p>For instance, cartographers, grain farmers and geologists ended up grouped together and shared similar personality traits to many of the technology professionals. </p>
<h2>A data-driven vocation compass</h2>
<p>With our results, we explored the idea of building a data-driven vocation compass: a recommendation system that could find the best career fit for someone’s personality. </p>
<p>We built a system that could recommend an occupation aligned to people’s personality traits with over 70% accuracy. </p>
<p>Even when our system was wrong, it wasn’t far off, and pointed to professions with very similar skill sets. For instance, it might suggest a poet becomes a fictional writer. </p>
<p>Professions are quickly changing due to automation and technological breakthroughs. And in our connected, digital world, we leave behind traces of ourselves. Our work has offered one approach to using these traces in a productive way. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-may-take-your-job-so-political-leaders-need-to-start-doing-theirs-103764">Artificial intelligence may take your job, so political leaders need to start doing theirs</a>
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<p>This approach may one day be used to help people find their dream career, or at the very least, better our understanding of the hidden personality dimensions of different roles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from Facebook, the Australian National University and the University of Technology Sydney. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul X. McCarthy and Peggy Kern do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After analysing posts from 100,000 Twitter users, our research used big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence to reveal the hidden personality traits underpinning thousands of jobs.Peggy Kern, Associate professor, The University of MelbourneMarian-Andrei Rizoiu, Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Technology SydneyPaul X. McCarthy, Adjunct Professor, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1231342019-09-30T11:24:05Z2019-09-30T11:24:05ZFor male students, technical education in high school boosts earnings after graduation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294465/original/file-20190926-51405-11q406e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students in the electrical program at H.C. Wilcox Technical High School in Meriden, Connecticut practice their skills.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Connecticut Technical Education and Career System</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Job prospects for young men who only have a high school diploma are particularly <a href="https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm">bleak</a>. They are even worse for those who have <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/beyond-bls/mens-declining-labor-force-participation.htm">less education</a>. When young men experience joblessness, it not only threatens their financial well-being but their <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/02/12/why-are-out-of-work-men-so-unhappy-in-the-us/">overall well-being</a> and <a href="https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2012/12/how-does-employment--or-unemployment--affect-health-.html">physical health</a>.</p>
<p>Could a high quality and specialized technical education in high school make a difference?</p>
<p>Based on a <a href="http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai19-112">study</a> I co-authored with 60,000 students who applied to the Connecticut Technical High School System, the answer is: yes.</p>
<p>To reach this conclusion, we studied two groups of similar students: Those who barely were admitted to the Connecticut Technical High School System and those who just missed getting in. Students apply to these high schools and submit things such as test scores, attendance and discipline records from middle school. Then, applicants are ranked on their score and admitted in descending order until all seats are filled. We compared those whose score helped them get the last space in a school, to those who just missed being admitted because the school was out of space.</p>
<p>This enabled us to determine whether there was something special about Connecticut’s Technical High School System education that gave students an advantage over peers who also applied, but didn’t get into one of the system’s 16 technical schools across the state. </p>
<h2>Widespread appeal</h2>
<p>Connecticut Technical High School System is a popular choice for students - about 50% more students <a href="http://www.cttech.org/admissions.html">apply</a> than can be admitted.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294464/original/file-20190926-51463-ipmcs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294464/original/file-20190926-51463-ipmcs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294464/original/file-20190926-51463-ipmcs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294464/original/file-20190926-51463-ipmcs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294464/original/file-20190926-51463-ipmcs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294464/original/file-20190926-51463-ipmcs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294464/original/file-20190926-51463-ipmcs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294464/original/file-20190926-51463-ipmcs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students in the Precision Machining program at Vinal Technical High School in Middletown, Conn., gather around their teacher for instruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Connecticut Technical Education and Career System</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The system functions such that students can apply to attend a school in the tech system instead of their assigned public school. Statewide, the system schools – which offer specialized instruction in a variety of career fields – serve about 10% of the high school students. Most students who don’t get into the tech schools stay in their public high school.</p>
<p>What we found is that students who were admitted to the Connecticut Technical High School System went on to earn 30% more than those who didn’t get admitted. We also found that the tech school students were 10 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than applicants who didn’t get in – a statistically significant finding.</p>
<p>Our research suggests that expanding a technical high school system like the one in Connecticut would benefit more students. I make this observation as <a href="https://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/bio/shaun-dougherty">one who examines</a> outcomes associated with career and technical education.</p>
<h2>The track record</h2>
<p>Career and technical education has already been shown – at least on an individual or small scale level – to positively impact <a href="https://www.mdrc.org/publication/career-academies-long-term-impacts-work-education-and-transitions-adulthood">earnings</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775718300876">high school graduation rates</a>. </p>
<p>Career and technical education does this without taking away from <a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/10.1162/EDFP_a_00224">general learning</a> in traditional subjects like math and English. But based on my experience, it has never been clear as to whether career and technical education makes a difference on a system-wide level rather than at just one or among a few select schools.</p>
<p>Our recent study finally answers that question because we studied an entire state technical high school system. Specifically, it shows that, yes, career and technical education can give students the same benefits that it has already been shown to give on a smaller level even if it’s scaled up. This has implications for school districts and states, especially as <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/education/429661-is-career-and-technical-education-more-than-another-fad">growing interest</a> in what works in career and technical education.</p>
<h2>The appeal of technical education in Connecticut</h2>
<p>Once admitted into the Connecticut technical high school system, all students take career and technical education coursework instead of other electives, such as world languages, art or music. Typically, coursework is grouped into one of 10 to 17 programs of study, such as information technology, health services, cosmetology, heating ventilation and air conditioning, and production processes, among others. Traditional public high schools in the state, on the other hand, tend to offer at most four career and technical programs through elective courses.</p>
<p>In the Technical High School System schools in Connecticut, students explore various programs of study during their first year. Then – with help from an adviser – students select a program of study. Within these programs, students take at least three aligned courses and often more. They also have more opportunity to align academic and technical coursework materials, so that math and English content can often be integrated into technical courses. Chances for work-based learning and job exposure can also be enhanced in these settings, which may contribute to their impact.</p>
<h2>Better outcomes</h2>
<p>To figure out if these technical schools were making a difference, we looked at admissions from 2006-2007 through 2013-2014 for 60,000 students.</p>
<p>We found that – compared to students who just missed being admitted – technical high school students <a href="http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai19-112">had</a>:</p>
<p>• Better 9th grade attendance rates; absenteeism rates fell by 14%</p>
<p>• Higher 10th grade test scores (like moving from the 50th to the 57th percentile, which is a <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mkraft/files/kraft_2019_effect_sizes.pdf">significant jump</a> for high school test scores)</p>
<p>• A greater likelihood of graduating from high school, about 85% versus 75% for those who just missed being admitted</p>
<p>• Higher quarterly earnings, over 30% higher</p>
<p>• While we found a lower likelihood of attending college initially, no differences were seen by age 23</p>
<p>As educators, elected officials and parents search for more effective ways to give young men in high school a better shot at being able to earn a living, our study suggests that Connecticut might have already figured it out.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun M. Dougherty receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A180511 to Vanderbilt University. The study team and project are part of the CTE Research Network, which seeks to expand the evidence base on the impact of CTE programs on student outcomes. The network is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education with funds provided under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act through Grant R305N180005. The study was conducted in cooperation with the State of Connecticut Departments of Education and Labor through the P20Win Process.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen L Ross receives funding from receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A180511 to Vanderbilt University. The study team and project are part of the CTE Research Network, which seeks to expand the evidence base on the impact of CTE programs on student outcomes. The network is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education with funds provided under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act through Grant R305N180005. The study was conducted in cooperation with the State of Connecticut Departments of Education and Labor through the P20Win Process.</span></em></p>Students who get admitted to Connecticut’s career and technical education high schools are more likely to graduate and earn significantly more than peers who barely missed the cut.Shaun M. Dougherty, Associate Professor of Public Policy & Education, Vanderbilt UniversityStephen L Ross, ProfessorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1114252019-02-19T19:10:03Z2019-02-19T19:10:03ZChoosing a career? These jobs won’t go out of style<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259660/original/file-20190219-121732-1prjzh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Careers in health care, education and design are unlikely to be automated.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sensationalist <a href="http://www.ceda.com.au/Research-and-policy/All-CEDA-research/Research-catalogue/Australia-s-future-workforce">claims</a> that 40% of jobs in Australia won’t exist in the future are unhelpful for young Australians thinking about entering the workforce. The reality is some jobs will no longer exist, new jobs will be created and most jobs will undergo some form of transformation. The skills we need for work are changing, but young Australians can plan for these changes. </p>
<p>Fears of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) wiping out future work are well founded – new technology <em>is</em> changing the way we work. But as the current workforce grows up alongside an ageing population, <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=621512572923126;res=IELHSS">future generations</a> will have many job opportunities, if they acquire the right skills. </p>
<h2>Jobs of the future</h2>
<p>The prospect of having a single occupation for life is becoming increasingly unlikely. Today’s 15 year-olds are likely to have <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/FYA_TheNewWorkReality_sml.pdf">17 changes in employers</a> across five different careers. And for <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/FYA_TheNewWorkReality_sml.pdf">three in five</a> young Australians with a post-school qualification (such as a degree or vocational qualification), less than half are able to secure more than 35 hours of work per week. </p>
<p>When considering which career path to follow, young Australians should be mindful that the jobs at risk are those which have high levels of routine, and repeatable and predictable processes requiring precision. These include administrative and clerical jobs, such as working as a receptionist or data entry clerk. Automation or AI will replace these jobs, if it hasn’t already.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-things-high-school-graduates-should-keep-in-mind-when-they-have-their-atars-107601">Three things high school graduates should keep in mind when they have their ATARs</a>
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<p>Non-routine jobs which need human problem-solving, creativity, adaptability, flexibility, physical dexterity, and communication skills will be the jobs of the future. So will jobs requiring physical proximity and interpersonal skills. Examples include engineering, design, construction, education, health services and care work. </p>
<p>The economy is undergoing an industry restructuring in response to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Industrial_Revolution">Fourth Industrial Revolution</a>. This is the name given to a combination of technological mega-trends happening all at the same time (for example, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, digital disruption and so on). Significant economic, demographic and social shifts are happening at the same time.</p>
<p>As this change happens, the prospect of polarisation of the workforce is a <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0041/3179885/Skills-for-a-global-future.pdf">looming concern</a> for young people. “Polarisation” is the hollowing out of the labour market: a decline in the share of mid-level skilled jobs considered “entry level” for young Australians. This will mean reduced opportunities for young people to enter the workforce, and limited opportunities for upward career progression from lower-skilled jobs.</p>
<h2>Which industries show growth?</h2>
<p>The Australian economy has shifted from one which produces goods to one which services people. Almost <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6291.0.55.003Nov%202018?OpenDocument">80%</a> of the workforce is employed in the services industries. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/EmploymentProjections">Department of Jobs and Small Business</a> projects that over the five years to May 2023, employment will increase in 17 of the 19 broad industry sectors in Australia. And it will decline in two: agriculture, forestry and fishing; and wholesale trade. </p>
<p>Almost two-thirds of employment growth is projected to be in four sectors: health care and social assistance; construction; education and training; and professional, scientific and technical services. Jobs will exist for people with the skills to fill those jobs. </p>
<p>New jobs are projected to be created across a range of occupations. Aged and disabled care, registered nursing, child care, software and applications programming, and waiting are the top five areas of growth. </p>
<p>But employment in five broad occupation groups is also projected to decline: personal assistants and secretaries, office managers and program administrators, machine and stationary plant operators, farmers and farm managers, and clerical and office support workers are likely to be replaced by automation or AI. </p>
<h2>Skills young people can learn now</h2>
<p>Achieving a university degree no longer automatically means a graduate will get immediate and meaningful employment. The youth unemployment rate for graduates is increasing at a greater rate than for those without a tertiary qualification. According to the Foundation for Young Australians, it now takes on average <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/FYA_TheNewWorkSmarts_July2017.pdf">4.7 years</a> for a person to transition from full time education to full time employment. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/graduate-employment-is-up-but-finding-a-job-can-still-take-a-while-109654">Graduate employment is up, but finding a job can still take a while</a>
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<p>Research from the <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/FYA_TheNewWorkReality_sml.pdf">Foundation for Young Australians</a> found there are four key factors which can accelerate the transition from education to full time work:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>an education that builds transferable skills such as problem-solving, communication and team work </p></li>
<li><p>being able to undertake relevant <em>paid</em> work experience </p></li>
<li><p>finding employment in a sector which is growing</p></li>
<li><p>an optimistic mindset. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Employers of technical and trade workers still place the most emphasis on <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0041/3179885/Skills-for-a-global-future.pdf">job-specific skills</a>, but across all jobs employability skills are the most important. Employers look for communication skills above all other skills, followed by organisational skills, writing, planning and detail orientation, team work and problem-solving. Young people will need to make sure they also have <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/report/the-new-work-smarts/">transferable skills</a> such as digital literacy, critical thinking and creativity.</p>
<p>The NSW government challenged a group of researchers to identify what today’s kindergarteners will need to survive and thrive in the 21st century. The <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/our-priorities/innovate-for-the-future/education-for-a-changing-world/research-findings/future-frontiers-analytical-report-preparing-for-the-best-and-worst-of-times">report</a> says developing deep knowledge and specialist expertise over time is critical. </p>
<p>Employability skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking are considered generic, and are likely to also be job-specific and not necessarily transferable. For example, problem-solving skills will be very different for a mining engineer to those required by a kindergarten teacher. These “generic skills” need to be learned in context. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hints-tips-and-pitfalls-for-graduates-in-getting-their-first-job-35957">Hints, tips and pitfalls for graduates in getting their first job</a>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.aisc.net.au/sites/aisc/files/documents/Future%20Priority%20Skills%20Resource.pdf">Australian Industry Skills Committee</a> has also developed a practical resource that describes the mega-trends impacting Australia’s economy and society, scenarios for the future and the impact on work and skills. It may benefit parents, teachers, policy-makers and even forward-thinking teens to read about these trends.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111425/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Denny does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Choosing a career that is unlikely to become automated or done by artificial intelligence, and learning soft skills will give graduates better career prospects in the long run.Lisa Denny, Research Fellow - Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1032762018-10-25T10:49:03Z2018-10-25T10:49:03ZFirst-generation college students earn less than graduates whose parents went to college<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240950/original/file-20181017-165891-1ylpr14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">First-generation college students face uneven prospects well after college.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/graduates-wear-graduation-gownsceremonies-university-1007276779?src=eRQTGXFqNha6UtcR8TVrtg-1-0">Nirat.pix/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When discussions take place about first-generation college students, often the focus is on how <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/10/04/institutional-change-required-better-serve-first-generation-students-report-finds">disadvantaged</a> they are in comparison to their peers whose parents went to college.</p>
<p>Research we <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-018-9523-1">recently conducted</a> shows that first-generation college students experience another form of disadvantage that lasts long after they graduate – and that is: how much they earn.</p>
<p>We are sociologists who focus on topics of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DE8cCDAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">career progression</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iGlfsJcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">class inequality</a>.</p>
<p>Using data from the federal <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/b&b/">Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study</a> for 1992-93 graduates, we found that first-generation college students earn substantially less 10 years after graduation than college graduates whose parents went to college. This is the most recent data available that follows young people for 10 years after they graduate – a time when young adults’ incomes typically become more stable.</p>
<h2>Substantial wage gaps</h2>
<p>Our research found that first-generation men and women go on to earn, respectively, 11 percent and 9 percent less per year – or US$7,500 for men and $4,350 for women – than their peers whose parents also graduated from college.</p>
<p>Even when we compare students who have the same characteristics and experiences – such as socio-demographic background, having children or not, the type of institution they attended, major and grade-point average – first-generation men and women still earn, respectively, 6 percent and 3 percent less than men and women college graduates whose parents went to college. This second comparison rules out the possibility that differences observed in the first comparison are due to differences in the individual attributes of the two groups.</p>
<p>The wage gaps are uneven across universities and majors. Colleges and universities that are somewhat selective show the largest wage advantage for graduates whose parents went to college. More elite and less selective schools report smaller gaps.</p>
<p>When it came to majors most associated with subjective criteria, such as arts and humanities, we found a wage gap among men as high as 17 percent. In other words, men who are first-generation and study arts and humanities don’t earn as much as their peers who study the same thing and whose parents went to college. However, for men with STEM, vocational and education majors, the gap is between 3 and 4 percent and not significant.</p>
<p>So, what drives wage differences between first-generation college graduates and graduates whose parents went to college? It is mostly labor market factors. First-generation graduates more often landed in jobs in the public and not-for-profit sectors, which tend to pay less than jobs in the private and for-profit sector. They were also less likely to work in urban areas, where wages are higher.</p>
<p>It is also interesting what won’t do much to change the wage gap between first-generation college graduates and their peers whose parents went to college: getting first-generation students to attend more elite colleges. Our research shows that elite college attendance would only lower the wage gap between first-generation college graduates and their peers among men, and even then only about 8 percent, or $600 annually. </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that <a href="https://www.jkcf.org/research/opening-doors-how-selective-colleges-and-universities-are-expanding-access-for-high-achieving-low-income-students/">well-intentioned efforts</a> to push first-generation students to attend the most prestigious colleges or to pursue higher-paying majors may not do much to change the wage gap that we discovered. First-generation students are already well-represented in several high-paying majors, such as business and health, so changing what first-generation students major in would not reverse the wage gap.</p>
<p>We also do not find much evidence of post-hiring discrimination by employers. In other words, first-generation college graduates with the same traits as their peers are paid the same amount when they enter the same occupations. </p>
<h2>Taking different jobs</h2>
<p>The issue is first-generation college students are not getting the same kind of jobs as their peers whose parents went to college. </p>
<p>Compared to their peers whose parents got a college degree, first-generation men are 4 percent less likely to be in the for profit sector and 3 percent more likely to be in state and local government. First-generation men are 4 percent more likely to be in clerical jobs and 3 percent more likely be in blue-collar jobs. They are 7 percent less likely to be in STEM professions. </p>
<p>This could be because first-generation college graduates are not familiar with the same types of jobs or don’t have the same kinds of networks as their peers whose parents went to college. It could also arise from where the jobs are located – first-generation graduates may live in different areas where there are fewer or worse job opportunities. They may also have a lower ability to relocate.</p>
<p>The difference in the kinds of jobs that first-generation graduates get could also arise from how employers in each field hire. For instance, <a href="https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/class-advantage-commitment-penalty-the-gendered-effect-of-social-">prior research</a> has shown that that <a href="https://www.sociologicalscience.com/articles-v5-24-562/">elite employers value</a> elite attributes more than working class attributes. One example is putting sailing on a resume versus track and field – elite employers are <a href="http://www-2.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/RiveraTilcsik.pdf">more likely to hire someone who sails</a>.</p>
<p>Though the gap is small for first-generation students with the same bachelor’s degrees, labor market sectors, jobs, locations, hours worked and demographic traits as their peers whose parents went to college, we still believe that this gap deserves attention, especially for those concerned with creating a meritocracy. While meritocracy means equal rewards for individuals who have reached the same colleges or jobs, we cannot ignore the fact that inequality by social origin plays a role in who reaches those colleges and jobs in the first place.</p>
<h2>Will wage gaps continue?</h2>
<p>One of the shortcomings of our research is that we look at students who graduated over 25 years ago. Data is currently being collected for how much those who graduated in 2008 are earning 10 years after graduation, but it will be a couple of years before it becomes available.</p>
<p>This more recent data will be key to understanding how the wage gap has changed over time. If it shows that a wage gap still exists 10 years later for both groups, it means that colleges, researchers and others concerned with fairness for first-generation college students must look at more than what kind of experience those students have in college. They will need to look at changing what happens after college – that is, what kind of jobs students get and how much money they earn.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>First-generation college students earn substantially less than their peers whose parents went to college, new research shows.Anna Manzoni, Associate professor, North Carolina State UniversityJessi Streib, Assistant Professor of Socoilogy, Duke UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1042642018-10-03T11:49:13Z2018-10-03T11:49:13ZFair work must be about more than who keeps the tips<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239126/original/file-20181003-52691-1x1g5l9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Focusing on pennies and pounds isn't enough to help workers succeed.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vintage-retro-glass-jar-hemp-rope-721260262?src=jI0elhVzfN6v73dITPBxrQ-1-0">nutcd32/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45701799">new law announced</a> by UK prime minister Theresa May will see restaurants in Britain being banned from unfairly taking tips from staff. Ensuring staff keep their tips is certainly a positive move to promote fairness. However, as tips are often used by employees to supplement their low pay, shouldn’t improving quality of work be of higher importance? </p>
<p>Since at least 2008, successive UK governments have focused primarily <a href="https://www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2013/07/a_job_for_everyone_July2013_11002.pdf">on improving employment levels</a>. As a result, less focus has been placed on improving job quality. Across the UK, <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2018/05/Low-Pay-Britain-2018.pdf">an estimated 4.9m people</a> are now employed in low-paid work, earning less than two thirds of the median hourly wage. In Wales alone, <a href="https://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/business-register-employment-survey/?lang=en">around 459,000 workers</a> are employed in low-paying occupations – as defined by <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/661195/Low_Pay_Commission_2017_report.pdf">the Low Pay Commission</a>. </p>
<p>Many of these low-paid workers also find themselves without a credible route to progress into better paid and quality work. <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/employment-progression-skills-full.pdf">A substantive report</a> commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2014 showed that in low-paid sectors such as retail, catering, and care, movement into better paid and more secure work simply isn’t offered to many. This is reflected in the fact that from 2006 to 2016, 25% of low-paid workers were still undertaking low-paid work <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652973/The_Great_Escape_-_Report.pdf">a decade later</a>. And in the food service industry, though there are opportunities for service staff to move up into managerial positions, research has found that promotion decisions are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2338.2011.00656.x">often made arbitrarily</a>, without fair assessment of qualifications and skills.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Another pathway to improving workers’ prospects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-occupation-finger-people-moving-step-183125153?src=NHD9NF1DbU3lQxWpKjb8rQ-1-20">Erik Kalibayev/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rise of the gig economy and the decline of unionised workplaces has worsened this problem, and undermined many of the traditional career structures, such as <a href="https://www.niesr.ac.uk/blog/investment-adult-skills-decreasing-uk-%E2%80%93-here%E2%80%99s-why-we-should-be-worried">work-based learning</a>, that used to exist in low-paid sectors. The feeling of being trapped and deprived of credible opportunities – whether moving up with an existing employer or into better paid work elsewhere – is all too common. But things can’t change overnight, and the government needs to start pushing companies to help their staff.</p>
<h2>Skill building</h2>
<p>The most effective career progression plans give workers the training and skills they need to move up, while simultaneously developing the skilled workforce that employers need to boost growth. It is not simply about improving their ability in their current role, but about boosting their skills overall. </p>
<p>Take, for example, an <a href="http://www.whatworksgrowth.org/blog/an-exemplary-training-programme-will-it-work-here/">IT training scheme</a> in the Bronx, New York, which has boosted participants’ earnings by 27%. This programme focused on providing sector-specific occupational skills training, appropriate job placements and post-employment retention and advancement services to effectively provide participants with the new skills they needed to move up into better paid work.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.bitc.org.uk/resources-training/resources/impact-stories/good-work-all-how-pets-home-tackling-gender-pay-gap-and">a UK programme</a>, run in partnership with retailer Pets at Home, has ensured part-time staff can also progress in their careers, by simply offering training and managerial work experience on a part-time and flexible basis. This approach not only enabled progression, it also helped promote more <a href="https://timewise.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Moving_Up_In_Retail_Pilot.pdf">women in the workplace</a>. (Despite representing 65% of Pets at Home’s shop floor staff, many women struggled to balance progression with part-time working.) </p>
<p>Programmes like these rely on adult learning. But this is a sector which has <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/from-inadequate-to-outstanding_2017-making-the-UK-skills-system-world-class_tcm18-19933.pdf">long been neglected in the UK</a>, and lacked investment from both employers and government. In fact, the current policy approaches have stopped workers from being able to <a href="https://gov.wales/about/cabinet/cabinetstatements/2018/fairworkcommission/?lang=en">increase their skills</a> to help themselves progress.</p>
<p>For our soon to be published report, we have been looking specifically at the issue of promoting <a href="https://www.wcpp.org.uk/project/approaches-to-enabling-job-progression-in-key-foundational-sectors/">career progression in low-paid sectors</a>. We have found that providing career progression opportunities not only gets workers into better paid work and improves well-being, it also boosts economic productivity and growth. A clear benefit for workers, business and government. </p>
<p>Evidently, more must be done to create a persuasive, evidenced argument to get employers on board, and show them the mutual benefits that career progression initiatives can yield. Government policy to incentivise employers is crucial for this, and could complement other policies, such as the promotion and enforcement of a national living wage. New procurement clauses, for example, could force companies who wish to work with the public sector to commit to providing progression.</p>
<p>Improving the quality of work is a complex matter but it can be done. Ensuring a fair distribution of tips to service staff and promoting a fairer distribution of wages for workers more generally is no doubt part of the solution. But we need to look at workers’ careers, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Webb is a Research Officer at the Wales Centre for Public Policy, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Welsh Government and Cardiff University. </span></em></p>Tips help, but government policy should focus on progression and skills first.Jonathan Webb, Research Officer, Wales Centre for Public Policy, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/931552018-05-21T10:15:31Z2018-05-21T10:15:31ZLed a privileged working life? Then you’re likely to have a pretty good third age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215082/original/file-20180416-46652-hp5702.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home">via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new language is emerging to describe those who would have traditionally been called retired but are increasingly engaging in other forms of activity in later life. New terms for this phase of life include the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jan/19/workandcareers.changingjobs">third age</a>, the <a href="http://phillipsfinancial.org/2016/08/are-you-ready-for-an-encore-career-reasons-to-unretire/">encore stage</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/041c69e0-cf82-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6">unretirement</a>. But while some commentators predict a rosy picture of new found freedoms, others focus on problems caused by financial difficulties.</p>
<p>The truth is that our lives in older age vary as much as they do at any other time of our lives. This is in part because how your life shapes up in older age will depend a lot on the path you followed earlier in your life. This is what we found in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001879117300799">our recent research</a> that examined the links between individual life histories and later life outcomes through interviews with 50 older men and women.</p>
<p>We found that the aspects of your life that are particularly important to experiences of retirement are your employment and family caring history and your access to resources, particularly financial ones. Also important are your social networks, cultural capital such as education, and your physical and mental health in your younger and middle age.</p>
<p>Access to all these is intertwined. So if a person has access to greater financial resources throughout their lives, they’ll also be able to access more social and cultural resources – which helps to maintain <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3036711/">physical health</a>. Social networks and education also help to shape careers and enable people to amass greater financial capital. The nature of these links often lead to cumulative advantages or disadvantages, making retirement easier for those in a privileged position and harder for those who start out more disadvantaged. For example, periods of ill health, or family caring responsibilities for a relative, or for children, can change the course of people’s lives.</p>
<h2>Different trajectories</h2>
<p>Our research found that people who have had similar career histories share similar retirement expectations and experiences, but that this relationship is also influenced by other factors such as gender and class. For example, the people we interviewed who had secure professional careers – whose employment histories are illustrated in the graph below – were more likely to look forward to their retirement and experience this as a positive period of their lives. </p>
<p>In contrast, from our research, it was clear that those who had a delayed or interrupted start to their career, for example due to caring responsibilities, felt more hesitant and uncertain about retirement. They also expressed concern about losing their professional identity, and had financial worries that insufficient pension contributions would stop them from sustaining their lifestyles.</p>
<p>People who have followed more precarious or fragmented career paths with periods in and out of work, or in different types of employment, including self-employment, can also face financial instability in retirement. This is because they haven’t built up sufficient pension entitlement to enable them to have a comfortable retirement income. </p>
<p>We found that women were particularly vulnerable to this, as they had often had more fragmented career histories and historically had been discouraged from contributing to a work place pension. For example, between 1948 and 1977 the “<a href="https://www.savvywoman.co.uk/2015/03/history-of-the-state-pension-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-how-it-affects-women/">married woman’s stamp</a>” allowed married women to pay a lower rate of national insurance, but didn’t give them the same pension entitlements. This meant that some of them had to continue in paid employment, longer than they might have chosen to.</p>
<p>Some women in our sample moved into more professional roles as a result of either retraining or doing a degree after having children. But many of these women still feared that they would face financial hardship in retirement, particularly if they were divorced. That said, our study found that women who worked in administrative employment but have also been very involved in family networks were more optimistic about retirement. They felt it allowed them greater opportunities to spend time with family and friends. In contrast, men who have followed semi-skilled careers were more concerned about identity loss and inactivity in retirement.</p>
<h2>Long-term thinking</h2>
<p>Our research provides another argument in support of policies that aim to raise people’s education and skills throughout the course of their lives in order to improve their opportunities for employment and ultimately their quality of life in older age. Those policies which raise the skills base of a region or country will also have much wider benefits for society.</p>
<p>The more positive attitudes towards retirement we heard from those who maintain strong family and other social networks throughout their careers also highlight the importance of workplace practices that facilitate greater work-life balance. In other words, organisations can support individuals by not demanding so much of their time that they are unable to develop healthy relationships outside work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Birkett is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Carmichael and Joanne Duberley do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What your career history means for your retirement future.Holly Birkett, Lecturer in Organisational Studies, Department of Management, University of BirminghamFiona Carmichael, Professor of Labour Economics, University of BirminghamJoanne Duberley, Professor of Organisation Studies, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/927982018-04-09T10:33:39Z2018-04-09T10:33:39ZWhy double-majors might beat you out of a job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212348/original/file-20180328-109190-ensn31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New research shows double majors have a big competitive advantage in one critical area.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/employers-recruiters-holding-reviewing-bad-poor-653243275?src=-5VNpD-j2CiXCoVrA2TleQ-1-69">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two college majors are better than one. That is the conclusion that researchers are beginning to reach.</p>
<p>Prior research has already shown that students who double major <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-it-pay-to-get-a-double-major-in-college-74420">can earn more</a> than peers who majored in only one field.</p>
<p>Our study shows that <a href="http://commons.lib.jmu.edu/sls/1/">double majors fare better</a> in another way as well: They are more innovative. </p>
<p>We are education researchers with an interest in how the college experience develops students. What we found in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-017-9486-7">this research</a> is that students who double majored scored 17.4 percentile points higher on our overall innovation measure than the average student. The innovation advantage for double majors is almost three times higher than any other major, including business, engineering and math/statistics. </p>
<p>This finding held even after we controlled for a number of variables, including a family history of entrepreneurship, courses taken in college, race, gender and GPA. We even controlled for personality traits, such as being an extrovert and being open to new experiences. We also considered the institution students attended, the quality of teaching to which they were exposed and the nature of their interactions with faculty members.</p>
<p>So what does it mean to be more innovative and why does it matter?</p>
<h2>What makes a person innovative</h2>
<p>For our study, we sought to measure students’ innovation capacities. We did so using a relatively new survey instrument that enabled us to determine how institutions can help students develop their innovation capacities. These capacities include skills related to networking, persuasive communication, working on diverse teams, and risk taking. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eXGp1V5mrqU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Why majors don’t matter.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These innovative qualities matter in the job market. That’s because employers want more from college graduates than good grades. What employers really want – according to a <a href="http://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/candidate-selection/what-employers-seek-on-a-resume/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=post-with-img&utm_campaign=content">recent survey</a> – are graduates who can effectively work in diverse teams, are creative thinkers and have persuasive communication skills. In short, <a href="https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/it-takes-more-major-employer-priorities-college-learning-and">employers want innovators</a>. </p>
<p>Since innovators are in demand, it begs the question: Are graduates who double-majored more innovative because they double-majored? Or did they double-major because they were already more innovative? </p>
<p>Self-selection could be at play. To be sure, one aspect of the connection between innovation and double-majoring is related to the fact that certain students want more than any one discipline or major can provide. They want to choose, or perhaps <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/12/08/why-is-choosing-a-college-major-so-fraught-with-anxiety/?utm_term=.da36806866a6">not choose</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s unclear if students double major because they are innovative, or if doing so makes them more innovative.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/colorful-direction-sign-majors-184585037?src=vyRcTJCx4WNqPjrtApErsQ-1-16">Nerthuz/shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<h2>A desire for more</h2>
<p>Perhaps double majors are the kind of students who need more than many programs offer. It could be a signal of proactive and creative choice for students who don’t fit the mold in terms of how higher education is currently delivered.</p>
<p>Double-majoring might also provide students with experiences in which students see <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0002831212437854">connections between content</a> in different courses. Additionally, taking classes required for two majors might increase <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/612677">networking with peers</a> across disciplines.</p>
<p>Does this mean that all students should double-major and employers should only hire these graduates? Probably not. </p>
<p>While certainly our data demonstrate that double-majors are the most innovative, we do not conclude that this academic pathway is always the best choice for students or industries. What we do suggest, however, is that colleges and universities help students find ways to integrate material across disciplines, interact with each other across majors, and work on teams to solve real-world problems. This could be done through existing courses or perhaps new centers and spaces dedicated to innovation on college campuses.</p>
<p>That way, even if students don’t double-major, they might still become more innovative – and more attractive to employers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew J. Mayhew receives or has received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the Merrifield Family Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin S. Selznick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows double majors beat their peers in one critical way that makes them more attractive to employers. Colleges may have to adapt to that reality to help their graduates compete.Matthew J. Mayhew, William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Educational Administration, The Ohio State UniversityBenjamin S. Selznick, Assistant Professor, James Madison University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/791882017-06-19T06:45:23Z2017-06-19T06:45:23ZScience can be beautiful, but please don’t call it basic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173271/original/file-20170611-18375-1iz6f8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fishing boats docked at Hobart, Tasmania </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmonty119/17076317322/in/photolist-SbseoK-pBysTy-UvXqdE-ShpfbQ-9NiUux-7ZmkR3-aqy7u1-7Wea9c-5hzUUi-psaFmb-9d1k9v-i3ivAf-9dfoVP-BKmNYC-p3a8Uu-pk719K-9dccng-ecrhyb-7ESAA3-6mJdBc-dFzKJa-7AUXhe-MK7sw-9dfoQ4-74U3ZX-aT8x48-aWHfMT-acPKqX-MK7dj-AQftHv-BEnQsT-Riy2LJ-vfzcqQ-aWHj76-eciPkJ-obA5au-ecdcDk-eckDEB-BKmQow-BC5pPb-5hEhzf-uekHz-MKeyv-Be9J9V-49W9Kj-85qiiW-7tppws-s1YAdb-NP3HqM-6mNoqf">rmonty119/flickr </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This piece is republished with permission from <a href="https://griffithreview.com/editions/millennials-strike-back/">Millenials Strike Back</a>, the 56th edition of Griffith Review in which Generation Y writers address the issues that define and concern them.</em></p>
<p><em>The following is an extract taken from <a href="https://griffithreview.com/articles/modern-science-modern-life-beautiful-process-barriers-to-effective-research/">Modern Science, Modern Life</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Research underpinning fundamental scientific concepts or mechanisms of disease is referred to as “basic science”. </p>
<p>I detest the term. </p>
<p>It conjures up images of mundane, uninteresting, simple lab work, but this is rarely the case. No two days are the same. </p>
<p>And more importantly, basic science provides the crucial foundations for research pathways and is essential for identifying opportunities for innovation. </p>
<p>Perhaps it should be called discovery science? You can’t always see the potential applications for basic research; indeed, the applications may not even exist in our lifetime. Isaac Newton surely did not anticipate his universal law of gravitation being involved in the implementation of satellite technology.</p>
<h2>Funding scientific research</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, basic science remains one of the least attractive kinds of science to fund, especially in Australia. Our country is lagging behind as a result. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"855574811258400768"}"></div></p>
<p>Australia is ranked 19th overall on the <a href="https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/gii-2016-report#">Global Innovation Index</a> and just 73rd for “<a href="https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/analysis-indicator">innovation efficiency</a>”, which compares how much research input, across all fields, is turned into commercial output. </p>
<p>I wonder how much better we’d do if our National Health and Medical Research Council funded more than the <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants-funding/outcomes-funding-rounds">current 18%</a> of submitted research proposals. Of this funding, basic science receives proportionately <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants-funding/research-funding-statistics-and-data">little</a>. </p>
<p>While investing in science that has more obvious and direct commercial outputs appears to make more economic sense than investing in basic science, you can’t take market logic and apply it to science. Some of its greatest achievements began with an accidental discovery or an unexpected result. This is the beauty of science.</p>
<p>For example, the discovery that stomach ulcers were caused by a bacterium called <em>Helicobacter pylori</em> was, in part, a beautiful accident. Australian Nobel laureates <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2005/press.html">Barry Marshall and Robin Warren</a> stumbled across the existence of this bacteria after their lab technician forgot to discard the experiment before the Easter holiday period. </p>
<p>Marshall and Warren wanted to confirm their observations that bacteria were present in the location of the stomach ulcer, so they had been collecting samples from people with diagnosed ulcers. The lab technician had seeded those samples onto a culture plate with a nutritious jelly and left them to grow for two days (as per standard bacterium-growing protocols). Nothing grew, and they didn’t find the evidence they were hoping for. </p>
<p>As it turns out, leaving them in the incubator for five days was key. It was the necessary step they didn’t know was missing.</p>
<h2>Measuring value</h2>
<p>The pressure to perform and publish also stifles the research landscape. A scientist’s worth is apparently quantifiable. We are judged on the volume and impact of our work.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"765938749016453121"}"></div></p>
<p>The number of papers we write and the number of times those papers are cited are turned into a single number: an <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/102/46/16569.abstract">h-index</a>. Technical skills, teaching and mentoring aptitude, passion, and experimental rigor don’t feature in the metrics. Some of the most brilliant scientists I have encountered exhibit all of these qualities, but do not have glowing h-indices to show for it.</p>
<p>Scientists and funding bodies generally acknowledge that the h-index is imperfect; however, the score still carries considerable weight, and can be key in deciding funding success, fellowships, promotions and, ultimately, a person’s ability to continue being a scientist. </p>
<p>In my eyes, this definition of success is wrong. A scientist with a high h-index, but who performs poor-quality research, does not embody success. Another problem is that scientific journals have an aversion to publishing negative results or minor findings, which, in turn, impacts researchers’ h-indices. A scientist who has spent years on an experiment that fails to yield a positive result may not have the opportunity to publish their work because journals want a juicy story: a new pathway discovered, a paradigm shift, something done with flashy new technology, or a potential cure. </p>
<p>This can come at a huge cost when the perceived value of the headline usurps the quality of the data or its interpretation, and, after many failed attempts at replication, the data gets retracted. This pressure on scientists to report significant results, especially unusual or breakthrough findings, in turn exposes the research itself to bias.</p>
<h2>Public views of science</h2>
<p>The bias in scientific reporting also flows on to the public. <a href="https://theconversation.com/essays-on-health-reporting-medical-news-is-too-important-to-mess-up-68920?sr=10">Journalists</a> trawl academic journals for articles they can turn into splashy headlines and too often report half-truths, premature assumptions, and over-exaggerated extrapolations of data. </p>
<p>According to the media, there’s a new “treatment” reported for <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-causes-alzheimers-disease-what-we-know-dont-know-and-suspect-75847">Alzheimer’s Disease</a> every month. In reality, there is still no cure for Alzheimer’s Disease in humans.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if an experiment doesn’t have a positive result and therefore is not published, others are likely to waste time, money and resources repeating that work in the future. However, scientists are nothing if not problem solvers and pushed back against this tendency in recent years. For example, the journal PLOS ONE started a collection for all negative, null and inconclusive results, aptly titled <a href="http://collections.plos.org/missing-pieces">The Missing Pieces</a>. </p>
<p>It is refreshing to see that the requirement for significant results is no longer the only path to publishing research, but there’s still a long way to go.</p>
<h2>A lonely road</h2>
<p>A year ago, I was treading a very lonely path through science. </p>
<p>There were no funds for me to research full time in Hobart and I wasn’t able to move away for similar work elsewhere for family reasons. Instead I was fortunate to be able to do another job that I love: I taught full-time at a university while caring for my parents, and spent almost two years doing neuroscience research for free. You could say that I made it hard for myself, but I was determined.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173243/original/file-20170610-4774-bqocfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173243/original/file-20170610-4774-bqocfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173243/original/file-20170610-4774-bqocfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173243/original/file-20170610-4774-bqocfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173243/original/file-20170610-4774-bqocfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173243/original/file-20170610-4774-bqocfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173243/original/file-20170610-4774-bqocfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173243/original/file-20170610-4774-bqocfi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Observing peripheral nerve cells, or neurons, under the microscope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Lila Landowski</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I received a small grant for the materials necessary to complete the work. A portion of the grant was intended as a stipend; however, with the increasing cost of materials, I forfeited this to buy what I needed to perform what I saw as essential research. </p>
<p>I was also the only scientist working on peripheral nerves – in this case, nerves in the skin – in the institute’s laboratory at the time. I couldn’t benefit from collective knowledge, nor could I share the workload. Most weeks I worked around 80 hours, and often more. I didn’t resent this because I thought it was what I needed to do to keep up in the industry, but I later discovered that my efforts had instead disadvantaged my research career: taking time off work to be a carer or to have a child would have been accounted for in my research profile as a “career break”. </p>
<p>Oblivious to this, I’d tried to do it all while the research clock kept ticking and my h-index was diluted. I could have easily dropped off the radar.</p>
<p>I had been fighting so hard for the career I love, but the seemingly endless setbacks left me heartbroken and demoralised. I lamented on social media:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If only we, as scientists, could be judged on our passion and enthusiasm, our zest for driving new lines of inquiry, on our ability to ask the challenging questions, and for our genuine scientific skills.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Science is supremely beautiful, but I know it can be brutal and unforgiving if you stray from the well-worn pathways. Many people struggle, not fortunate enough to secure a job, a grant or a mentor to keep their passion alive. The issues with research practice and publication can be infuriating, particularly when the path you want to follow hasn’t been paved yet.</p>
<p>I am one of the lucky ones. My supervisor <a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/health/david-howells">Professor Howells</a> is a true advocate for junior researchers and is both my hero and my mentor. Rather than beating my own passage through the challenges of research, we face them as a team. </p>
<p>And it made all the difference: I’ve secured considerable funds to keep my research work going for the next three years. It’s safe to say that my heart is filled with hope.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BDUt9J8I31Z","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79188/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Lila Landowski receives research funding from the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation and The Mason Foundation, and her salary is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council grant.</span></em></p>Science is supremely beautiful, but can also be brutal and unforgiving if you stray from the well-worn pathways.Lila Landowski, Neuroscientist, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/771292017-06-02T02:52:29Z2017-06-02T02:52:29ZHow math education can catch up to the 21st century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171036/original/file-20170525-23232-hokg03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A student in Cape Coast solves a math problem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/5321246556/in/photolist-97dMdh-8rMuqU-8rMtNd-7tub8y-97aGaD-8rJogv-fAuDrE-fAfmgK-eokjMs-8rJoSr-fAuC9W-fAfkp2-8rJo7R-2HGirM-fAuBG5-fAuDPW-8rJnn8-fAfjkT-8rJp4i-fAfkv4-fAfkAp-fAfmUr-fAfmPB-fAuDJY-8rJp7V-5ua7bz-fAuCwJ-fAuBM1-5dsFUh-fAuDfj-8rMufd-8cwJHq-fAfjZi-5domkt-8rJoNM-8q1J3r-fAfmzM-5dom5D-5cWBvd-5domaD-8rJoZi-8rMu6s-fAfm4t-8rMuc3-aYTnYM-aRAYUk-8rMuGq-fAfkMr-fAuCZ7-7tq9jP">World Bank/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1939, the fictional professor J. Abner Pediwell published a curious book called “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Saber-Tooth-Curriculum-Classic-Abner-Peddiwell-ebook/dp/B00G6DSY7Q">The Saber-Tooth Curriculum</a>.”</p>
<p>Through a series of satirical lectures, Pediwell (or the actual author, education professor <a href="http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1783/Benjamin-H-R-W-1893-1969.html">Harold R. W. Benjamin</a>) describes a Paleolithic curriculum that includes lessons in grabbing fish with your bare hands and scaring saber-toothed tigers with fire. Even after the invention of fishnets proves to be a far superior method of catching fish, teachers continued teaching the bare-hands method, claiming that it helps students develop “generalized agility.” </p>
<p>Pedwill showed how curricula can become entrenched and ritualistic, failing to respond to changes in the world around it. In math education, the problem is not quite so dire – but it’s time to start breaking a few of our own traditions. There’s a growing interest in emphasizing problem-solving and understanding concepts over skills and procedures. While memorized skills and procedures are useful, knowing the underlying meanings and understanding how they work builds problem-solving skills so that students may go beyond solving the standard book chapter problem. </p>
<p>As education researchers, we see two different ways that educators can build alternative mathematics courses. These updated courses work better for all students by changing what they teach and how they teach it.</p>
<h1>New paths in math</h1>
<p>In math, the usual curricular pathway – or sequence of courses – starts with algebra in eighth or ninth grade. This is followed by geometry, second-year algebra and trigonometry, all the way up to calculus and differential equations in college. </p>
<p>This pathway still serves science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors reasonably well. However, some educators are now concerned about students who may have other career goals or interests. These students are stuck on largely the same path, but many end up terminating their mathematics studies at an earlier point along the way. </p>
<p>In fact, students who struggle early with the traditional singular STEM pathway are more likely to fall out of the higher education pipeline entirely. Many institutions have identified <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/10/09/354645977/who-needs-algebra">college algebra courses</a> as a key roadblock leading to students dropping out of college altogether. </p>
<p>Another issue is that there is a <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/15/math-science-skills-add-up-to-more-job-opportunities-survey.html">growing need</a> for new quantitative skills and reasoning in a wide variety of careers – not just STEM careers. In the 21st century, workers across many fields need to know how to deal effectively with data (statistical reasoning), detect trends and patterns in huge amounts of information (“big data”), use computers to solve problems (computational thinking) and make predictions about the relationships between different components of a system (mathematical modeling). </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171035/original/file-20170525-23230-15qjovd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171035/original/file-20170525-23230-15qjovd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171035/original/file-20170525-23230-15qjovd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171035/original/file-20170525-23230-15qjovd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171035/original/file-20170525-23230-15qjovd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171035/original/file-20170525-23230-15qjovd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171035/original/file-20170525-23230-15qjovd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New technology offers unprecedented mathematical capabilities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kosheahan/4009828196/in/photolist-77kqdU-4HZ3fV-4J4cuJ-4TC8zV-21EH7M-fh2dMQ-8Ahkos-5LJbpH-QMsaX-aPr5mn-6MH67-CpmDp-aPqYNZ-aPr3AP-CiKXa-aPr1sV-Cpmvg-zQ3Q3-6HVf6B-4v6ue-QMbRz-CpmoE-4J4dCo-4PENW-CiKQr-5CmU4d-bRwBMZ-QLpSA-QLpAj-zQ3fK-bsKvA-4sobRc-zQ37h-4ssaJm-FvWeu-h5PJV-4so3kv-h5PbY-4ssfLQ-4ss6eb-h5Pjw-4so6QX-4ss4xE-4so5Ec-4sseyU-njnKGG-4sseHA-4so3sa-4ss4tJ-4ssae7">kosheahan/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, sophisticated computational tools provide us with mathematical capabilities far beyond arithmetic calculations. For example, large numerical data sets can be visually examined for patterns using computer graphing software. Other tools can derive predictive equations that would be impractical for anyone to compute with paper and pencil. What’s really needed are people who can make use of those tools productively, by posing the right questions and then interpreting the results sensibly.</p>
<p>The quest to improve student retention has led schools to consider other pathways that would provide students with the quantitative skills they need. For example, <a href="http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/mathchat/mathchat025.shtml">courses that use spreadsheets</a> extensively for mathematical modeling and powerful statistical software packages have been developed as part of <a href="http://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=ejsie">an alternative pathway</a> designed for students with interests in business and economics. </p>
<p>The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has created alternative math curricula called <a href="https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/in-action/carnegie-math-pathways/">Quantway and Statway</a> as examples of alternative pathways – used primarily in community colleges – that focus on quantitative reasoning and statistics/data analysis, respectively. </p>
<h1>Lectures aren’t enough</h1>
<p>These alternative pathways involve activities that go beyond students writing examples down in their notebooks. Students might use software, build mathematical models or exercise other skills – all of which require flexible instruction.</p>
<p>Both new and old pathways can benefit from new and more flexible methods. In 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED541511.pdf">called for a 34 percent increase</a> in the number of STEM graduates by 2020. Their report suggested current STEM teaching practices could improve through evidence-based approaches like active learning.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168417/original/file-20170508-20738-1hz978a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168417/original/file-20170508-20738-1hz978a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168417/original/file-20170508-20738-1hz978a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168417/original/file-20170508-20738-1hz978a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168417/original/file-20170508-20738-1hz978a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168417/original/file-20170508-20738-1hz978a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168417/original/file-20170508-20738-1hz978a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Calculating the best way to learn math.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/schoolgirl-glasses-solving-math-problem-on-167441195?src=msBh2Y81MF_nzOMV89qUTw-1-39">ESB Professional/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a traditional classroom, students act as passive observers, watching an expert correctly work out problems. This approach doesn’t foster an environment where mistakes can be made and answers can be questioned. Without mistakes, students lack the opportunity to more deeply explore how and why things don’t work. They then tend to view mathematics as a series of isolated problems for which the solution is merely a prescribed formula. </p>
<p>Mathematician <a href="http://launchings.blogspot.com/2011/07/the-worst-way-to-teach.html">David Bressoud</a> summarized this well:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“No matter how engaging the lecturer may be, sitting still, listening to someone talk, and attempting to transcribe what they have said into a notebook is a very poor substitute for actively engaging with the material at hand, for doing mathematics.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Conversely, classrooms that incorporate active learning allow students to ask questions and explore. Active learning is not a specifically defined teaching technique. Rather, it’s a spectrum of instructional approaches, all of which involve students actively participating in lessons. For example, teachers could pose questions during class time for students to answer with an electronic clicker. Or, the class could skip the lecture entirely, leaving students to work on problems in groups. </p>
<p>While the idea of active learning has existed for decades, there has been a greater push for widespread adoption in recent years, as more scientific research has emerged. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410.full">A 2014 analysis</a> looked at 225 studies comparing active learning with traditional lecture in STEM courses. Their findings unequivocally support using active learning and question whether or not lecture should even continue in STEM classrooms. If this were a medical study in which active learning was the experimental drug, the authors write, trials would be “stopped for benefit” – because active learning is so clearly beneficial for students. </p>
<p>The studies in this analysis varied greatly in the level of active learning that took place. In other words, active learning, no matter how minimal, leads to greater student achievement than a traditional lecture classroom. </p>
<p>Regardless of pathway, all students can benefit from active engagement in the classroom. As mathematician <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2319737?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Paul Halmos</a> put it: “The best way to learn is to do; the worst way to teach is to talk.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary E. Pilgrim receives funding from National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Dick receives funding from National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>By embracing a style beyond the typical classroom lecture, math education can serve all of our students better.Mary E. Pilgrim, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education, Colorado State UniversityThomas Dick, Professor of Mathematics, Oregon State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/735352017-03-09T12:22:53Z2017-03-09T12:22:53ZWhy women and men too easily accept the gender pay gap<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159596/original/image-20170306-20759-1oyjsv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Money matters.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gender-pay-gap-488107402?src=87F5WHCYyIwP8lZX6XUQHw-1-2">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Large employers in the UK <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35553573">will have to publish</a> from April annual data on their gender pay and bonuses gaps. While under the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-guidance">Equal Pay Act</a> it is illegal to pay men and women differently for doing the same job, <a href="http://visual.ons.gov.uk/the-gender-pay-gap-what-is-it-and-what-affects-it/">figures from</a> the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/">Office for National Statistics</a> puts the gender pay gap for full-time employees in 2016 at 9.4% in the UK. The reasons for this substantial difference in earnings are often attributed to occupational segregation by gender, driven by differences in education, accumulated experience and discrimination. </p>
<p>But <a href="http://www.fiwi.uni-jena.de/wfwmedia/Lehre/GenderEconomics/Bertrand+2011+New+Perspectives+on+Gender+In+Handbook+of+Labor+Economics+4+B-p-454.pdf">recent research</a> has instead focused on underlying gender differences in preferences and psychological attributes which may affect choice of work, and therefore help to explain the gender pay gap. </p>
<p>For instance, women may seek different career paths and value aspects of employment such as flexibility and a pleasant working environment instead of focusing directly on pay. On the whole, women tend also to be more <a href="http://www.mbs.ac.uk/news/research/study-finds-women-more-risk-averse-in-the-boardroom/">risk averse than men</a> and have lower preferences for <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.47.2.448">competitive situations</a> which can both lead to career choices with lower earnings than men. </p>
<p>So psychology seems to provide a fruitful area for explaining the gender pay gap. The focus of my <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268117300379">own research</a> into this subject is a particularly pertinent psychological trait, that of optimism. By optimism, I specifically mean systematically biased beliefs in the probability of doing well. </p>
<p>Psychologists <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.535.9244&rep=rep1&type=pdf">have documented</a> our tendency to view ourselves in implausibly positive ways and our absurd belief that our future will be better than the evidence of the present can possibly justify. However, when it comes to assessing our competence, our ability and our future prosperity, men really do overestimate themselves while <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2118063?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">women are typically more pessimistic</a>. I found that this difference between men and women can really matter in matters of employment. </p>
<p>Optimism affects the satisfaction we get from our pay. While we know that women face a substantial wage penalty compared to men, they <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537197000109">also tend</a> to be more generally satisfied with their work and income. This is a counter-intuitive situation. We would expect those who get paid the most (men) to be the most satisfied. Here is where optimism, our biased perception of the future comes into play. The satisfaction we gain from our wages is to some extent based upon our expectations. Receiving £10 when you are expecting £5 feels pleasing. But receiving £10 when you are expecting £20 feels disappointing. </p>
<p>If women are predisposed to underestimating themselves and their labour market prospects, as <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268117300379">my study</a> finds, they will continue, on the whole, to be satisfied with such pay inequality. This is a worrying state of affairs. We tend to search for new jobs when we feel that some aspect of our current occupation, such as pay, can be improved upon. But if we are satisfied, we stay in that job, we don’t negotiate and we don’t ask for that promotion. </p>
<h2>Battle of the sexes</h2>
<p>For men it’s the opposite story. They constantly overestimate themselves, widening their vulnerability to inevitable disappointment. Disappointed workers negotiate, they always ask for promotions and are happy to switch employers to improve upon aspects of their jobs which they feel can be bettered. </p>
<p>So optimism pays off in the labour market – it drives the pursuit of employment with better wages. Optimism may also be beneficial in other ways. Psychologists have <a href="http://humancond.org/_media/papers/taylor_brown_88_illusion_and_well_being.pdf">often linked</a> optimism with motivation and our ability to cope with stress. Believing in ourselves and in our abilities may also help us to convince others, especially our boss, that we are brilliant. </p>
<p>After all, to convince others of your competence, you really need to believe it yourself. If psychology is the problem – even in labour markets with no discrimination – women will continue to earn less, simply because they are too easily satisfied with lower pay. </p>
<p>It is difficult to know how laws and policy makers can solve this pessimistic female outlook, since personality traits tend to be established and fixed early on in pre-adult life. But perhaps one step in the right direction would be for employers to adjust their recruitment and promotion policies, by pulling up women with potential instead of waiting for them to come knocking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Dawson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A difference in psychology could explain the difference in rewards.Chris Dawson, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Business Economics, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/710262017-01-26T13:20:58Z2017-01-26T13:20:58ZWhy going the extra mile at work could be a backward step<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153958/original/image-20170123-8062-1rk3yps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">That exhausting extra mile.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stocks-shares-against-overworked-businessman-working-548274025?src=cnifORxJA_pbucMKeczvpg-5-41">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an increasingly competitive world, employers are always looking for ways to get more from their staff. Typically, this involves encouraging employees to knuckle down and “go the extra mile” in an effort to improve the overall performance of their organisation. In management jargon, this is referred to as improving “organisational citizenship behaviour”, or OCB. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19186900">Widely regarded</a> as being beneficial for both parties, doing more than the minimum required can have positive outcomes for employees and their organisations. The worker puts in extra time, or takes on extra responsibility, and feels more engaged with their work and positive about their career prospects. The employer gets committed staff, with improved productivity or results.</p>
<p>But we know little about the costs of going that extra mile. What are the downsides of putting in the hours and effort above and beyond the call of duty? <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrm.21815/full">Our research</a> shows that employees who regularly act in this way experience higher levels of emotional exhaustion and work-family conflict. This is especially true of those who generally carry out their responsibilities at a high level. And just as the perceived benefits affect both employees and employers, the negatives also have a two-way impact. Companies need to ensure that the gains made by encouraging employees to go the extra mile are not outweighed in the longer term. </p>
<p>We know from <a href="http://example.com/">earlier work</a> that OCB improves group and organisational performance and influences managers’ decisions on an individual’s performance ratings, promotion and pay.</p>
<p>To understand which conditions might have the most negative effect on employees’ well-being, we looked at five different types of behaviour: altruism (helping a colleague), conscientiousness (going beyond the minimum), civic virtue (involvement in the organisation), courtesy (avoiding work-related problems with others) and sportsmanship (tolerating inconveniences and impositions of work).</p>
<p>We were especially interested in the effects of the most time-consuming activities – conscientiousness and altruism – since these have the potential to exhaust employees emotionally and leave less time for family life. We also believed the greatest impact would be where employees were already doing well at work.</p>
<p>We collected our data in the telephone customer contact centre of a UK banking organisation. The employees were involved in responding to customer enquiries, opening new accounts, as well as selling investment, insurance and mortgage products. Surveying employees and their supervisors, combined with studying company records, brought two major findings.</p>
<h2>Work-life imbalance</h2>
<p>First, we discovered that going beyond the minimum required was directly linked to higher levels of emotional exhaustion and work-family conflict. This was even more likely to occur when a results-based reward system was in place for the workforce. Where individuals are held accountable for their results, going beyond the call of duty can carry negative consequences. </p>
<p>Second, employees who already performed well in their job and had a high level of conscientiousness also suffered significantly higher emotional exhaustion and work-family conflict. Those who exerted greater effort in their work and family roles, with a general sense of not wanting to let people down, found they had little left in reserve, increasing the challenges of balancing work with a healthy family life.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153955/original/image-20170123-8078-c4jnjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153955/original/image-20170123-8078-c4jnjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153955/original/image-20170123-8078-c4jnjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153955/original/image-20170123-8078-c4jnjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153955/original/image-20170123-8078-c4jnjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153955/original/image-20170123-8078-c4jnjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153955/original/image-20170123-8078-c4jnjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Or not.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/go-extra-mile-motivational-reminder-handwriting-295794515?src=cKLRFSPhDI_RnsipUIBzbw-2-82">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>There is also pressure on employees not only to be “good soldiers” who take on extra work, but also simply to demonstrate high levels of performance. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrm.21815/full">Our study</a> shows that doing well at work leads to more work. Managers are prone to delegate more tasks and responsibilities to conscientious employees who are likely to try to maintain consistently high levels of output. The consequences, however, may be job-related stress and less time for family responsibilities.</p>
<p>This does not mean we should ignore the positive aspects of going the extra mile. This kind of employee behaviour is advantageous for organisations because it enhances performance, and for individuals it can lead to better supervisory appraisals and higher reward recommendations. But OCB can carry personal costs especially when time consuming, and it can compete with other job-related activities for an individual’s time and resources and potentially lead to a loss in employee well-being. Employees may be able to sustain this level of performance in the short term, but in the longer term emotional exhaustion may take its toll. </p>
<p>The costs to employees may have repercussions far outside the workplace. Managers should therefore think twice before asking the same high performers to take on yet more additional tasks. Employees meanwhile need to consider the costs as well as the benefits of going the extra mile. Or they may not last the distance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Doing well at work can often just lead to getting more work to do.Nicholas Kinnie, Professor in Human Resource Management , University of BathBruce Rayton, Associate Professor in Business Economics & Strategy, University of BathJanet Walsh, Professor of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations, King's College LondonStephen Deery, Professor of Human Resource Management, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.