题目:ISSUE210 - "Most people choose a career on the basis of such pragmatic considerations as the needs of the economy, the relative ease of finding a job, and the salary they can expect to make. Hardly anyone is free to choose a career based on his or her natural talents or interest in a particular kind of work."
字数:598 用时:00:40:00 日期:2007-8-18 10:16:01
The speaker points out that the majority choose their jobs out of the considerations of practicality while only few make their choices based on their natural talents or interests. I admit that this phenomenon does exist. Its root rests on world's general conditions for the time being. And my arguments are as following:
In today's world, considering the economic and material conditions, survival is still the priority for humankind, thus the decision of employment should cast more concerns on this basis. Although the development of science and technology has pushed and is pushing human society to a higher level aiming at the ultimate prosperity, we are yet, right now, on the way and far away from the desired goal. In other word, the world nowadays is not material-sufficient enough to support every social member's decision about work out of natural talents and interest. Consequently, when hunting a job, the determinants become pragmatic such as salaries, the relative ease of finding a job and so forth. Nevertheless, this pragmatism driven trend about careers has its merits, which is to boost the interest and enthusiasm towards certain fields and in turn, to promote their development. For example, about ten years ago, when the miracles of Silicon Valley occurred, people saw the promising future in the computer industry. Back then, job hunters flooded in the computer industry and wanted to grab a slice of that giant pie. In the meanwhile, the major of computer science and other related majors in colleges and universities received popularity they never imagined. The result of trends above was a 10-year prosperous progress of computer industry. Finding a job out of pragmatic considerations is somehow the outcome of economy foundation of societies. On the other hand, the pragmatic decisions improve the economy conditions in return.
Besides, in this over-populated world, finding a job out of pragmatic considerations is in need because the job market asks for it. Let us face the reality. The job market remains the buyer's market which means employees are dominant. Even though the progress of human society creates more jobs and new careers such as freelance workers who earn their lives on producing video clips for podcast on internet, than any period in history, automation and industrialization resulted from evolving science and technology eliminated much more jobs than those newly-created. The difference between jobs available and the total of labor forces is increasing and this gap is widening. Thus, the original mutual selecting process in the job market becomes one-sided since employees are more powerful to make a final decision compared to job hunters. In addition, people are forced to make re-orientation. When they are about to find a job, what is in their minds is “what job am I qualified to do" rather than “what do I like to do".
In a nutshell, choosing a career on the basis of pragmatic considerations is due to the actual material and job market conditions in real life determined by the general economic conditions in the world. However, such consideration is not surrender to one's ideals. In this stage of human society, doing what one is capable to do to make a contribution so that the society is gaining progress is the biggest ideal for humankind in a whole. In this sense, the pragmatic considerations although cannot stimulate the potentials of everyone to the largest extent, it harmonizes individual interest and talent with the needs of society. This is what we desire most in this not-so-abundant world.