Reflective Essay on Work: More Than a Job Document
The author’s main points are that there has been a dramatic shift, in the economy and the type of available jobs. The emerging adults have highly diversified both in the manner that they search for satisfying and satisfying jobs and in their success in finding those jobs. Work for most emerging adults focuses on identity questions. Most emerging adults in their twenties what to know what they want to do after finishing college. They want to explore what they are best at and what they enjoy most doing. Most of them look at jobs that allow them to use their abilities to the maximum and fit their interests. In trying to find all these identities in their work, young adults seek to find out the kind of person they are to develop a better sense of who they are and what works best works (Arnett and Malcolm 168). The author states that most emerging adults will be happy and best served with their four-year college education if they receive practical instructions to apply directly to their workplaces. According to the author, these emerging adults need tertiary education to adequately adapt to the modern economy. According to him, this will be expensive, even though no one will regret it. Emerging adults get out of college looking for identity-based work because they know what they want to do from an early stage of their life and stick to it, although. Others, though, find themselves falling for jobs because they lack a clear idea of their abilities and what they want to do (Arnett and Malcolm 170). The authors’ argument is concrete because unless the emerging adults are fully prepared practically and made aware of their abilities, they will end up with jobs to sustain their living while looking for greener pastures.
The considered opinion or rather response for this piece is that emerging adults’ uncertainty and instability could be the one that gives them a sense of going through a quarter-life crisis. This can be due t them bouncing from one job to another without any sense of how they wish to find their way and explore their abilities. It is merely an identity crisis they are experiencing that makes it hard to choose a direction of work until they know themselves well enough to decide what they want to do. Most emerging adults cannot have a clear identity until they reach their mid-twenties (Arnett and Malcolm 173). Deciding on a long-term direction for work is more of a systematic process of trying various jobs to help sort out what kind of work one wants. When one is in a dead-end job, they tend to find out what they do not want to do, and some decide to leave to go and look for what they want to do and enjoy doing it. Even in their late twenties, some emerging adults still look for a good job and remain hopeful that they will find a job that fits them than what they currently have. Developing a job identity and coming you with long term work choices is seen as a solitary process for many emerging adults.
There are different dreamers among the emerging adults; there are the dreamers, the pipe dreamers, and the dreamless. The dreamless are those who have lost hope in themselves and are not even aware of their own identity. The pipe dreamers are those that engage in other works with the hope that they will land what they want to do. The dreamers are those who relentlessly chase their dreams until they achieve them. I strongly agree with this piece because it points out the gaps that exist as the emerging adults grow and how these gaps can be exploited to their advantage. Incorporating practical lessons at the level of a college education can significantly enhance emerging adults’ skills and make them develop a sense of self-identity and self-direction (Arnett and Malcolm 175). They will come out of college with a transparent, concise on what they want to do or which work they want to engage entire on achieving that.
Some of the three compelling ideas from this piece are first about finding the right job. Once we graduate from college, we hope to join the working market doing the best jobs that we thoroughly enjoy. Most of the emerging adults have ideas of what they want to do, and if they are dreamers, they will chase these dreams until they fulfill them. Some can be dreamers, but they find it very difficult to find the job they are looking for, and therefore they find themselves falling for jobs (Arnett and Malcolm 180). That is where they work, but at the back of their mind, they are looking for a better work opportunity that will allow them to explore their abilities and fit their interest. This brings about the second idea of falling for jobs. Some people say that the work they are doing found them instead of them searching for it.
These are people who do the job because it is available, and that is where most of my peers fall in. We need to engage ourselves until the right job comes around to grab the opportunity and run away with it. Unfortunately, most times, that is not the case, and some people end up working in a place they do not like for the rest of their lives. The third idea is about being a dreamer and not a pipe dreamer or a dreamless individual. Most of my peers feel like they have been very rough and unfair to them, drop their dreams, and decide to pursue other avenues of making a living (Arnett and Malcolm 182). That is how some end up being involved in illegal activities like selling drugs or being thieves. Pipe dreaming and being dreamless is not the best route to take as an emerging adult, and every young adult should aspire to pursue their dreams.
The issue addressed by the piece affects most peers globally, and from personal observation and insight, the world is changing, and market trends are changing. Most youths want to work for big companies, but these big companies do not want to hire less experienced people and would instead go for the older workers with more experience even though they are not as cheap as younger workers. The main structural reason for high levels of unemployment in most countries is that the economic system has protected the older workers’ job security at the expense of the younger workers. As peers, we have been left to scramble for the little that has been left, thus leaving most of us falling for jobs we never enjoy doing just because it pays the bills. The connections that can be made from this piece are finding a job and falling for a job are entirely different things. One give s a person the satisfaction they want in life while the other pays; he bills until one finds what they enjoy doing (Arnett and Malcolm 185). The level of unemployment is increasing because most emerging adults are very frustrated with the job market conditions. Therefore, they end up dropping the pursuant of their dreams, becoming dreamless and engaging in harmful activities, or other just choosing to stay at home being jobless.
This piece has made me see things differently in the sense that, as much as we look for work to do, we should not forget our sense of self-identity and the sense of direction in life; we should always strive to look for identity-based work. It is vital to develop a long-term direction of our work and follow it until the goal is achieved instead of just falling for work to do one foot in one out. We should look at getting work we enjoy than just a wage and a decent paycheck. Work should be an expression of ourselves that fits our interests and abilities (Arnett and Malcolm 187). My point can further be illustrated by an experience I had working as a bank teller sometime back. I felt like the job chose me instead of me choosing it. I got the job through a placement service and ended up doing it not because I aspired to be a banker. I later realized that I really wanted to be a nurse and therefore enrolled in night classes to become a nurse that I wanted to be. From what the piece puts across, the decision I made was the right one since I will get to do what I love doing instead of what gives me a paycheck. Following one’s passion and dreams is all vital in leading a fulfilling life career-wise.
Works Cited
Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen, and Malcolm Hughes. Adolescence and emerging adulthood. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2014.