RSS Feeds
Facebook
Twitter
Finding Your Life Work: Vocational Lessons from 1940 Print
Saturday, 19th May 2007 (by J.D.)This article is about Career, Choices, Funny Money
You folks seemed to enjoy “Your Thrift Habits”, the educational film I posted last week. I liked it too. I’ve found a few more of these to share, and will post them on Saturday mornings. Today’s film is “Finding Your Life Work”, which was produced in 1940 by Vocational Guidance Films, Inc. This movie is twenty minutes long.
“Did you ever go fishing without any bait?” asks the narrator. “Of course you didn’t!” You couldn’t catch anything without some sort of lure. The same holds true when searching for work. “Your personality, training, and experience are your bait.”
The film notes that in choosing your life work, there are many things to be considered:
What do you expect to get out of your life work? Many would answer money. Money is important for the things that it will buy, and a certain amount of it is therefor necessary. As important as money, however, as a return for your work is the satisfaction of doing a interesting job as well as — or better — than others are doing it.
To find suitable work, you must study the occupations available. Make a broad survey of occupations to discover those that might appeal to you. (The film suggests that you research them in the library. I grant you permission to use the internet.) Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of each. This will help you narrow your list. Once you have a list of interesting occupations, ask yourself some questions:
- What does the worker do?
- Is the occupation overcrowded?
- What are the starting points and the lines of promotion?
- What are the future prospects for earnings and advancement?
- What general and special education is required?
- Where can it be secured?
- What will this education cost?
- What will it cost to get established in this occupation?
- What are the physical requirements?
- Is it apt to be detrimental to my health?
- Would I be happy in this work?
“Finding Your Life Work” emphasizes the importance of taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded you in school. For example, “The home making department, through its courses in cooking, childcare, and home management, trains girls to be good housewives.” (Yikes!)
The film culminates with a list of ten key attributes required to find a successful career. Unfortunately, the writing for this section is l-a-z-y.
Just as a building must be built on a carefully planned foundation, so must your life be built on careful plans.
- As the first block of your foundation, you must have health. Without health, no-one can be entirely successful.
- The second block is character. Develop your character.
- Your general education is the third block of your foundation. Keep your educational record clear.
- The fourth block is citizenship. Are you a good citizen?
- Next come your special interests and ability. Are you finding and developing [garbled]?
- Ambition is the spark plug of the human engine. The force that makes things happen.
- You may have special abilities and ambition, but are you willing to work hard to succeed? There is no shortcut to success.
- You should know yourself better than anyone else knows you. Get acquainted with yourself.
- The bigger the job, the more training required. Are you planning to get that training?
- On top of this base you can place the stone of success, confident that your foundation is well-laid.
Examine your foundations and never for one moment believe anyone who may try to tell you that you can’t achieve success in this country today.
Some of the advice here is good. But some of it seems, well, outdated. It’s geared toward a slower-moving society, a less fluid society.
May 19th, 2007 at 9:06 am
As always, I love the content on this blog. Here’s my two cents on today’s.
I couldn’t get my speakers to work this morning but I read the blog and I actually like the simplicity of the “list of ten key attributes”. I don’t think that the writer was lazy at all. I think that most of the people in our country back then didn’t need long explanations of character and citizenship. A lot of the attributes mentioned were being modeled all around them.
Those were simpler times of course. It reminds me of watching I Love Lucy re-runs. The humor, while still funny, is not as sophisticated as the humor now is. Lucille Ball was one of the pioneers of her type of humor and other who came after her expanded on what she did.
The money and career writers of today are expanding (if indirectly) on decades, perhaps centuries of similar, timeless advice.
I also don’t have a feeling of “yikes” when home management and the like are said to trains girls to be good housewives. Although the man bringing home the bacon and the woman keeping the home fires burning is not for everyone, it is a model that has been very successful for many families. I seem to recall reading in “The Millionaire Next Door” that a large percentage of successful millionaires in this country are men who have supportive wives at home that keep the home running smoothly, take excellent care of the children and mind the financial shop. This is a priceless service and can be beneficial to everyone. I know it’s not for everyone, but I think it can and does work for a lot of successful couples.
May 19th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Wow! That was pretty swell!
Seriously, with just a little spit and polish we should be showing this exact little film to high school students across our (stronger when stuff like this was the norm) land.
I especially liked the closing thought which was all about each individual having full responsibility to utilize everything available to them to go out and excel in life.
db
May 19th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
While going through schooling as a child, I never remember hearing anything about character, citizenship, or knowing yourself. It was always about learning how to get the best standardized test scores, so the teachers wouldn’t be fired and the school would have more money.
As a previous commenter stated… polish these videos up a bit and kids can be inspired. All kids want to grow up to be heroes and with a little integrity and good teaching, they can be.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I totally agree w/ what Rita says about the money/career writers of today simply expanding on similar, timeless advice. In fact, often times they are not even really expanding — they’re just simply speaking to us in more modern, accessible language … or sometimes more stylish language; I’m thinking of David Bach and his whole “Latte Factor.” For example, I have a couple of ancient “life skills” books here at the house that were written to the young people of the 1970’s, and they recommend stuff like starting an emergency fund, living debt-free, establishing a retirement account as early as possible, etc. People like David Bach, Ben Stein, and Dave Ramsey have simply taken these concepts and made them more lively, which just goes to show it’s not just what you write that matters — it’s HOW you write it. Some writers just make these timeless concepts “stick” to the brain better.
May 19th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
The thing about home ec that I think we tend to overlook nowadays, is that regardless of whether you are a stay-at-home housewife (a great thing!!!) or a career woman (also a great thing!!!) — that you STILL have a home to manage.
So home ec is NOT passe — it’s still relevant today, and perhaps even more so — and goes hand-in-hand with finance education. So it’s really throwing out the baby with the bathwater if we don’t teach our girls (and boys
) sound home economics because we somehow think we’re ‘liberated’ from managing the home.
Case in point: I know several young adult women whose mothers never taught them how to cook, and so they don’t know the first thing about making a good meal. So they end up eating out or getting expensive take-out because they have no kitchen skills.
DB
May 20th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Good point DB-not to mention the future expense of poor physical health that comes from eating to much convenience food. Most of it is loaded with sugar/salt and or bad fat.