Reading: Looking for Work in the 21st century
A. Not very long ago, when people needed to find a job, there were several possible steps. They might begin with a look through the classified ads in the newspaper. They could go to the personnel office at various companies and fill out an application, or they could go to an employment agency. They could even find out about a job opening 5 through word-of-mouth-from another person who had heard about it
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* Classified Ads
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B. These days, job hunting is more complicated. The first step is to determine what kind of job you want (which sounds easier than it is) and make sure that you have the right education for it. Rapid changes in technology and science are creating many professions that never existed until recently. It is important to learn about them because one might be the perfect profession for you. The fastest-growing areas for nexw jobs are in computer technology and health services. Jobs in these fields usually require specific skills, but you need to fmd out exactly which skills and which degrees are necessary. For example, it may be surprising to learn that in the sciences, an M.S. is more markable than a Ph.D.! In other words, there are more jobs available for people with a Master of Science degree than for people with a doctorate. (However, people who want to do research still need a Ph.D.)
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C. How do people learn about "hot" new professions? How do they discover their "dream job"? Many people these days go to a career 20 counselor. In some countries, job hopping has become so common that career counseling is now "big business." People sometimes spend large amounts of money for this advice. In Canada and the United States, high school and college students often have access to free vocational counseling services on campus. There is even a career organization, the Five O'Clock Club, which helps members to set goals. Members focus on this question: what sort of person do you want to be years from now? The members then plan their careers around that goal. All career counselors-private or public-agree on one basic point: it is important for people to find a career that they love. Everyone should be able to think, "I'm having such a good 30 time. I can't believe they're paying me to do this."
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D. After people have determined what their dream job is, they need to find it, The biggest change in job hunting these days is the use of the Internet. More and more employers are advertising job openings on their computer websites. More and more job hunters are applying for jobs online. There are also several thousand job boards, among them HotJobs.com, Jobsjobsjobs.com, and Monster.com. Some people think that online job hunting is only for people in technology fields, but this isn't true. Over 65 percent of online job seekers are from nontechnical fields. Even truck drivers now find jobs on the Internet!
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E. So how does this work? A job seeker can reply to a "Help Wanted" notice on a company's website. This person can also post his or her resume (page with information about education and work experience) on one- or many- of the online job boards. If a company is interested, the person still has to take the next step the old-fashioned way-actually go to the job interview and perhaps take a skills test. However, even this might soon change. In the near future, companies will be able to give the person a skills test and check his or her background (Job history and education) online. But what about the interview? Companies will soon be able to interview the person by videolink, so people can interview for jobs in other cities- or even other countries- without leaving home. Clearly, job hunting is not what it used to be.
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