One of the requirements for Reading Writing 1 (RW1) in CELCIS is to learn the process of writing a research report. At the Advanced and PreAdvanced levels these papers are evaluated by a committee that does not include the instructor of that class. Their assessment will either raise or lower the student’s class grade.
The following is a paper submitted by an intermediate RW1 student who was in my Sprint 2015 class. He was not the highest student, but worked very hard to find his own words and to edit the drafts for this paper describing the self-analysis and writing steps he took to choose his career. The paper was in the CELCIS APA format which replaces the abstract with an outline.
This paper demonstrated that Sagid was ready for the CELCIS PreAdvanced level.
My Ideal Career: Civil Engineer
Sagid Omaran
WIN: 589092401
CELCIS, WMU
Intermediate Reading & Writing 1
Section C: J. Buchanan, Instructor
Spring 2015
Outline
- Title
- What is my ideal career?
- How can I discover what career is best for me?
- Kleppinger’s opinion
- Bolles book
- My Knowledge, Skills and Areas of Interest (Bolles petals 1, 3)
- My favorite areas of interest (Bolles Petal 1)
- What I can do and love to do. My favorite transferable skills (Bolles Petal 3)
- My Preferred Setting (Bolles Petals 2, 4, 6)
- My preferred kinds of people to work with
- I am a person who likes to work with people who are… (Bolles Petal 2)
- I have a Holland Code of EAS (Holland, 1997)
- My favorite working conditions (Bolles Petal 4)
- My preferred places to live (Bolles Petal 6)
- My preferred kinds of people to work with
- My Preferred Rewards: salary, responsibility, other rewards (Bolles Petal 5)
- What My Career requires and has to offer (ONET*OnLine)
- What someone in this career reported to me (Interview at WMU Career Fair)
- Conclusions
- My Goal, Purpose or Mission in Life (Petal 7)
- How well do I match my ideal career? What will I do about it?
- References
- Appendix: My Bolles ‘Flower’
My Ideal Career: Civil Engineering
What was my favorite job when I was a child? It is the same job that I have now. This job is related to the construction of buildings. Today I am a civil engineer and lecturer in the University of Technology in Iraq, and I teach construction management. This career is a very ideal job for me for these reasons. First, the construction management deals with time, cost and quality management to achieve the construction on schedule, within the budget and with high quality. This subject is very important for me. Second, this job gives me a high salary. Third, the place of this job is most comfortable.
The article of Kleppinger, “Finding the Ideal Job,” (2014) talks about the best way to find a job. Kleppinger says there are two ways to get ideal job. The first, the wrong way, most people looking for posting on the internet or sent lots of resumes to companies or improve their LinkedIn page. The second one is the right way, the exercises in the book, What Color is Your Parachute, and follow the steps in the book to get the ideal job.
Richard Bolles, in his book What Color is Your Parachute (2015) says there are several steps to know who you are so you can get your ideal job. First, to know your skills you should ask yourself what skills you have, are you good at talking to groups, and you should think about what you like to do and can do well. The next one to know is setting; you should choose your situation. Do you want to work alone or with others? Next think about the rewords, select your fiscal budget, a job that makes you feel good. Bolles says to use networking to find the jobs because networking gives information about companies. Finally, in an interview the wrong question according to Bolles is “How do I get the company hire me”. The right question is to ask yourself, “Do I want to work here or not?”
My Knowledge, Skills and Areas of Interest
The knowledge, skills or interests are very important for my career. My favorite areas of knowledge are management, organization, accounting and design of buildings because these subjects are important for my job. For example, I designed a factory’s building for the Ministry of Electricity in Iraq. I am improving my skills in the same direction including consulting, designing, planning, teaching and organization. These skills are important because I need them to do my job. For example, I planned many projects in my country.
My Preferred Setting
Settings, according to Kleppinger (2014), includes both people you want to work with and the places where you want to work. The kinds of people you work with are very important to doing your best in your job. We must find a place that contains the kinds of people we want to work with. My preferred kinds of people to work with are kind, respectful, humble, helpful and clean people. Using John Holland’s Code (Holland, 1997), I found I was an EAS type of person. In the Holland Code the letter E represents people who are enterprising. They like to influence, lead or manage in an organization with a goal of economic gain. The letter A represents people who are Artistic. They like to work with people who have innovative or intuitional abilities and they like to work in unstructured situations. The letter S stands for Social. This letter represents people who like to work hard to inform, enlighten, help develop or cure other people. Social people are also skilled with words. So my ideal people to work with, according to Holland, would be enterprising, artistic and social.
The setting is very important to my job. It is divided into two things. First, the working conditions which are very important for me. I prefer to work in safe, no smoking, quiet and moderate-weather places. For example, when I am working with smoking place, I cannot do my work very well. I need fresh air to work well. The second setting is the place where I want to work. My wife and I prefer places that give more safety to us and our children and normal whether. Because of that I would prefer to work in an Arab country like the UAE, Qatar or the KSA. The culture is the same as mine. My next favorite place to work is in a country speaks English like Australia and the United States.
My Preferred Rewards
The rewards are important for my career and any career person. I will explain my rewards as follows. First, I need a salary from $60K to $75K annually. Second I need a vacation because I will work 8 hours a day, 5 days every week for 9 months every year. Third I require a high level of responsibility. My responsibility level is very high because my job is engineer, and when the engineer does things, he is completely responsible for his plans and actions.
What My Career Requires and Has to Offer
According to O*NET OnLine (n.d.), a civil engineer will inspect project sites to monitor progress and insure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards. He will also manage and direct the construction, operations, or maintenance activities at the project site. Some tools and technology needed for this job are distance meters (electronic distance measuring devices) rhodes arcs, computer aided design CAD software (Autodesk AutoCAD software) Bentley MicroStation,Eagle Point Site Design, and Research Engineers International STAAD.Pro. The knowledge needed for this job are engineering and technology, especially the knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services. The civil engineer also needs to be good at the English language, critical thinking, and operations analysis — analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design. A civil engineer has to be able to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
How I can find the job that is ideal for me? On February 12, 2015, I attended a Career Fair at Western Michigan University. There were many companies looking for suitable people to hire. My ideal job is civil engineering or construction engineering. I found more than twenty companies interested in this job. I went to three companies to ask them about the ideal job, the Michigan Army National Guard, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and American Buildings Company. Representing the Michigan Army National Guard, SGT William J. Long greeted me and welcomed me (William J. Long, personal communication, February 12, 2015). I told him I that am an international student and asked him some questions about civil engineer jobs. He told me he would be glad to answer my questions. This company is part of the American army. They want to hire people who have some education and then they will train them how to use a gun and give them calisthenics to make them strong. They want people with physical skills, who are leaders and have strong personalities. They usually work in teams or groups. The Michigan Army National Guard works in the US and overseas. They give a salary range from $54K to $136K annually. When the person retires they give him $2000 per month. They have excellent health insurance. Finally, this company hires people from the US or from other countries of the world. This is the freedom of this country. I love this country, the United States.
Conclusions
The goals are very important for any career person. We must achieve at least one or two goals in our lives. I will explain my goals as following. The first goal, when I come back to my country Iraq after getting a PhD. in civil engineering from WMU, is to teach new engineering students the new technology information in civil engineering. My second goal is to design many challenged buildings in Iraq. For my third goal, I will plan and schedule many projects. I will improve my skills by studying new information in technology in civil engineering. I can get these skills when I achieve my PhD from WMU. I hope to work with a group in my University in Iraq or work in an Arab country like the UAE. I would like to receive a salary of $65K annually, working 9 months a year. I plan to achieve my goals when I complete my Ph.D. in civil engineering and go back to my country, Iraq.
References
Bolles, R. N. (2015). What Color is Your Parachute? 2015. New York City, NY: Ten Speed
Press.
Holland, J.L. (1997) Making Vocational Choices: A theory of careers. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Kleppinger (2014). Finding the ideal job. NorthStar Reading & Writing 2 (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson.
O*NET OnLine (n.d.). U.S. Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration.
Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/17-2051.00
Appendix: My Bolles ‘Flower’
Judith Buchanan 