Career Paths Young People Could Follow
By Mike Montz

{This presentation is based on the career guidance talks Mike gave to high school students)

Potential Career Paths (as offered by students)

          If qualified, can go to College or University
          Enter a trade or skill program
          Go into the military
          Get a job
          Live off parents and loaf
          Be a criminal, go to jail, let the State take care of you.
          Go in business for yourself
          Be a bum and roam the streets

Personal considerations to be taken into account when considering career

          Introvert, extrovert
          Work indoors, outdoors
          Work with mind, hands
          Be the boss or the employee
          What are the strongest skills, capabilities, interests
          What is the temperament, the patience, the tolerable limits
          Other

The Bottom-Line Basic Consideration

     Am I a "GIVER" or a "TAKER"?

     Can go into a chosen career path as shown above. However, if unhappy, unfulfilled, angry at career chosen, what to do ?
     Sit back; analyze the above personal traits, especially the GIVER-TAKER phenomena.
     Typically, the religious life consists of people who are "GIVERS" rather than "TAKERS". They wish to serve others, help others, and administer to others' needs, give up of one's self, etc.
     If the career path chosen features a more "TAKER" pattern, and one considers one's self as a "GIVER" — you have conflict!
     We've all known young people who changed majors several times, changed careers and jobs several times, never being happy, going from place to place.
     We can insert the relationship between the "GIVER and TAKER" syndrome and try to see which they really are personality wise.

Example

     I had a student who was in my class for all four years taking drafting. He wanted to be a mechanical engineer and spoke of it all the time. He graduated from high school in 1987 and went onto Texas A & M studying mechanical engineering.
     He eventually graduated from the program in 1992 and took a very good job with a company. He worked for this company for two years and one day came into my class to visit. He said he was very unhappy in his job as he felt his job was nothing like he thought it would be. He stated that he felt isolated in his work and really yearned to be more with people doing more service. He said the money was not a big factor in keeping his job, nor the large company "perks" he said he had.
      I suggested he look into education as he had the traits of a potential science or math teacher. He thought it over and within a few weeks he told me he was returning to university work to get his secondary teaching credentials to be a science and math teacher. He sounded very happy and I wished him luck.
     About 1997 I again received a visit from this young man and this time he was all exhilerated ! He was now a teacher of mathematics for a school district South of Dallas. He had been there about 1 year and thoroughly loved it. He told me he always thought he could be a good teacher and evidently became one. He indicated he loved the job so much that he would probably never go back to engineering, no matter what it paid. He felt that his rendering of service to young people was the best choice he ever made, and that he felt fulfilled in his job finally!
      By using the above example, I think we could stretch out our hands as Serra Club members to try and counsel our grandchildren, our relatives, our neighbor friends, to show them what the relationship between a "GIVER" and a "TAKER" career could mean to them.
     And, by extending ourselves a bit more, we could possibly introduce the realm of the religious life to them. Maybe they would just need someone to talk to. Maybe they just need a program, a conference, or an older person to open some doors for them and show them the possibilities of the various directions to venture.
     Have any of us known any of our relatives, neighbors, friends, or even grandchildren, who have a very giving nature? Do they like helping others rather than doing something personal for themselves? Do they ask others about themselves rather than talk about what they do? Do you think they might be impressed with us if we stepped forward to make reference to their lives and give an alternate direction than what they were considering?
      It would be an interesting case study if we all took a look at the priests, nuns, brothers, deacons, and other religious, that we've known in the past. We can probably say that most if not all had the gift of giving. Probably the best religious we've ever known really went out of their way for us or others — something we admired at the time.

     Let us stretch out our hands, make the Serra initiative spur interest in others to reach out and lend our experiences and wisdom to give people a hand in their career choices and their future.

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