Research Paper on "Wide Web When Making a Career Choice"

Research Paper 6 pages (1687 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Wide Web When Making a Career Choice

Students are forced to consider their college and career choices at an earlier and earlier age. By the eighth grade some students have already decided which school they want to attend and what their career will be. But how do they come to this decision? What information can they draw on? It used to be limited to family, friends, or their school guidance counselor, but times have changed. Now there is the World Wide Web chock full of Web Sites that claim to be helpful in making these decisions. Unfortunately, most of Web Sites offer none or little useful help. Instead they are created to lure the student into thinking he or she is getting some real guidance, when in fact their purpose is to make money. And the majority of these sites offer nothing for the counselor, instead focusing on the relationship between Site and student.

These Web Sites provide no real information and tend to focus on how lost the student would be unless he or she purchases their services. They don't discuss colleges or universities at all, but instead they offer tests and counseling for career choice, in some cases as young as the eighth grade (Independent College Counselors). They charge between $250 and $700 for the testing and/or counseling. They offer no links to other Web Sites and are of no use to counselors.

While Microsoft's Career Site pops up when one googles "student career counseling," or "student college counseling," the Site focuses on recruiting candidates for jobs at Microsoft exclusively. Nothing else is discussed, nor are links to other Sites provided. The graphics are designed for the young and the Site is definitely not geared toward counselors.

Sadly, it took some digging to find Web Sites that would be considered "good." One of these two Web Sites was authored by Laura Kapelski M.S., Career Consultant in the School of Managemant at Gerorge Mason University. She offers specific advice about programs the student can take advantage of and plan for during his or her High School years.

One program in particular that has exhibited increased participation levels is the federal government's Student Career Experience Program (SCEP). SCEP allows college students to work for a federal agency/department in an internship capacity for up to 640 hours while they complete their degree. Then, upon completion of the program and their degree, students may be offered the opportunity to be non-competitively converted into a full-time position. (Kapelski, Laura).

This is useful information for counselors. The Site even provides a specific link for counselors. There is another useful link that offers information to help the student match his or her choice of major with possible careers. Counselors could also benefit from this knowledge which would guide them in helping students to make decisions for the future.

This Site is educational and imparts useful information. It receives an eight on a scale from one to ten because it does slightly emphasize government positions and doesn't consider all careers as well as it should, but it does contain many links.

The NCDA is a founding member of the American Counseling Association and is completely free.

The second "good" Web Site is run by the California Department of Education. . It is also informational and educational. It "is intended for use with students in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades, as well as students in post-secondary schools." (California Department of Education) it contains much information that would be useful to counselors. The site states that "The National Career Development Guidelines provide a framework for building and evaluating comprehensive career development programs for youth and adults in a variety of settings." (California Department of Education)

The California Department of Education Web Site is clearly run by a government entity and does not appear to have a hidden agenda. It includes links to the California Career Development Association, the National Career Development Association, the Career Development Advisory, and the Committee of the California Community Colleges which "provides resources and information about community college faculty, staff and administrators." (Department of Education)

It also includes a link to the Armed Services Vocational Assessment Battery. "The ASVAB Career Exploration Program is intended for use with students in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades, as well as students in post-secondary schools." (Department of Education)

Another useful link the Site provides is one that connects students who think they might like to be teachers with the link to the Center for Credentialing and Education.

A more general link is to the National Career development Guidelines which "provides a framework for building and evaluating comprehensive career development programs for students and adults in a variety of settings." (Department of Education)

And to add to the diversity of the links is one to 21st Century Real Estate. In all, the Web Site provides 17 links. All of the Sites would be greatly useful to the counselor who is guiding the student in his or her decisions.

The Department of Education Web Site receives an eight on a scale from one to ten because it does stress government programs and government jobs -- the ASVAB and the education link. It also would have been made better by a longer introductory article which could have highlighted the importance of each Web Site linked. And it may have benefited from a specific link geared toward counselors.

An example of a bad Career Web Site is Life Transitions. It charges $250-$375 dollars per counseling session and claims to be targeted toward students, veterans, professionals, and executives. How can one Site cater to all of those entities? It doesn't even mention counselors.

In the student section it employs scare tactics to persuade students to purchase their sessions: "Unfortunately, too many people have pursued education, training and eventual job placement only to find they are unhappy and ill suited to perform in their chosen field." (Life Transitions) the whole "pitch" of the Site was created to try to lure the viewer into purchasing, i.e. making the Web Site money.

Nowhere are schools, the application process, or even career choices mentioned. This Site has no links, presumably to coax the viewer to remain on the current page.

The Site claims to deliver "Testing, Evaluation, and Guidance," (Life Transitions) terms that are somewhat vague. The process includes an interview, test, the delivery of a written report of results, followed by a person to person delivery of results, each step costing between $250 and $375.

The Site offers three counselors who sound like they are there more to psychoanalyze the student than to help the student with choosing a college or a career. The first is J. Patrick Lincoln Jr., PhD. While a PhD. is a high level of education, the bio does not specifically state in what subject Lincoln obtained his degree. His bio makes him sound more like a psychologist or spiritual advisor than a career counselor. "He

prefers to coach and guide his clients…in personal goals that strengthen emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being." (Life Transitions)

The second counselor listed is Mary Jane Schreiber, M.S. LPC. While she has spent some years as a psychologist, Schreiber also has 17 years of business management experience. This could be favorable in the career counseling setting or possibly not.

The third "career counselor," Sean G. Connolly, PhD., seems to be concentrating on the client's pathological psychology. "As part of the assessment service he evaluates a person's intellectual abilities…as well as for possible learning disabilities and/or neuropsychological factors interfering with performing." (Life Transitions)

While this Site offers one-to-one counseling, it offers nothing to the outside counselor. All information is imparted directly to the student during that one-on-one connection it promises.

This Web Site earns a three on a scale from one to ten because,… READ MORE

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