On The Threshold Of Professional Career: Social Problems And Personal Strategies Of Choice

Abstract

Professional self-determination is traditionally considered as a stage, which approximately coincides with leaving secondary school. In this article self-determination is analyzed as a task, which is still not completely solved and which is vital for female graduates. Many students find themselves in the situation of delayed choice when they enter the university only for getting a diploma. Behind the problems of delayed choice, vagueness of criteria of self-determination there is a problem of transformation of the whole social institute of higher education. Transition from Soviet paternalist system, when all the responsibility for the job placement of a graduate was taken by the state, to the new system took place some time ago, however both students and their parents still expect the university and the state to take the responsibility. At the same time not only in Russia but in the whole world students (holders of master’s degree, post-graduate students) begin to act as «clients», «buyers» on the market of educational services, proposed by university. As a result, young people, who are faced with real difficulties of choice and building up their professional careers, quite often balance between nonrealistic claims and inactivity, complete unwillingness to find something, lack of faith in themselves. Our primary concern was in-depth, psychological scheme of the analysis of motivation and strategic planning of the professional career by female graduates of universities, and most of all by those graduates, who are focused on work in the sphere of education and science. One of unsolved problems in the analysis of long-term motivation is the revelation of scope and character of the gap between opportunities of an individual, and available conditions for their realization, and of typical methods of overcoming this gap. Life strategies as methods of self-fulfillment of a person in different spheres of his life are, in our opinion, an integral characteristic of self-determination of an individual. The object of our research was psychological features and motivational expectations of female graduates of universities, who are planning either to enter post-graduate school or to find a job within specialty, obtained at the university; the subject of the research was strategies of professional self-determination. Methodological shift from the analysis of social reality as hierarchically organized to heterarchical organization expands the opportunities of the analysis of mutual influences of the conditions of life, self-consciousness of subjects and their self-determination. It means first of all the refusal to search for the «reference» life strategy of a young woman, optimal either as regards adaptation to the life situation or as regards opportunities of self-actualization. The research was conducted in April—May 2004 in various universities of Moscow and Taganrog. The comparison of personal qualities of female graduates of pedagogical and technical universities showed that students of pedagogical university have a higher level of notional life orientations as a whole, and higher level of internality of locus control in the explanation of personal behavior, in combination with a higher level of optimism. We revealed significant differences between female students of technical and pedagogical specialties as regards the following groups of aspirations: aspiration for achievements, interpersonality (orientation towards the others) and level of self-actualization - composite indicator of the groups of aspirations «Personal growth and health», «Productivity», «Immateriality». Female students of pedagogical universities are more inclined to include in their ideas about the future the interests of other people outgoing by a relatively larger quantity of interpersonal aspirations), however female students of technical universities are more inclined to personal growth and creative self-actualization, and also to achievements in all spheres of their life. We did not find any significant difference between aspirations and persona characteristics of female graduates of Moscow and provincial universities — residence and education in megapolis (Moscow) or in a city with the population of three hundred thousand people (Taganrog) does not have systemic influence on the aspirations and personal characteristics of female graduates. After that indicators of respondents with different ideas about the prospects of future professional activity were compared with the help of Mann-Witni criterion-those, aspiring to enter a post-graduate course, those, aspiring to work according specialty and correspondingly those who have or don»t have definite ideas about the character of their future professional activity. We found out that with the growth of subjective definiteness regarding future professional prospects there is an increase of general internality (idea of life as a process which can be controlled by an individual) and a greater formation of notional life orientation; and optimism in the estimation of life events also increases. These differences were most obviously revealed when we compared the groups of female students, aspiring to enter a post-graduate course and female students with only approximately developed ideas about the character of the future professional activity. Both the results of the correlation analysis and the revealed intergroup (in groups singled out according to different reasons - by the type of acquired education and by the clearness of professional prospects) differences demonstrate the increase of optimism with more developed notional life orientations and the rise of internality. It can be easily explained: the ideas of oneself as a master (or rather a mistress) of one»s own destiny in view of any, even rather moderate achievements form more positive prospects. We singled out four different strategies of self-determination. The self-determination strategy of the first group may be called a «temporizing» strategy. A person is internally ready for changes but he/she does not initiate them himself/herself. Positive relations with other people have more significance than they have among other groups. In the next group, which is characterized by achievement strategy, professional self-actualization is considered as one of many spheres of «expansion» and serves rather as an instrument than as a goal per se. We called the strategy of the third group escapist (hedonistically oriented) strategy. The interests of the representatives of this group predominantly lie not in the professional but in other areas, any opportunity is both accessible and attractive, but behind this kaleidoscope of aspirations, they obviously have few real achievements and even hopes (this group has the highest level of hopelessness). Studying in universities is only an episode in the life of female graduates of this group, which is developing simultaneously with other episodes of the same importance: parallel work, private life, filled with pleasures of consumer society and so on. We called the strategy of the fourth group — «cumulative» strategy (which provides the accumulation of resources for the future self-actualization). Aspirations do not «conserve» the achieved level, they are aimed at strengthening and support of personal resources. If we regard complication and enlargement of the sphere of possible as a criterion of productivity, then this strategy should be considered constructive. The article also deals with the results of the research of implicit conception of professionalism among the students of creative and technical universities. The students of creative specialties have more organized ideas about the sense of personal life, they have more creativity and a higher level of claims, corresponding to their ideas of professionalism. The students of creative specialties also have a higher estimation of the significance of qualities and abilities, connected with creativity (creative method of working, non-standard thinking, talent), and aspiration toward professional self-perfection (love of their profession, permanent renewal of knowledge, purposefulness, ability to learn from more experienced colleagues). The characteristic of the students of technical specialties is high level of significance of cognitive components of professionalism. What can the analysis of implicit conceptions of professionalism in this or that profession give us? On the basis of this research one can (if necessary) correct the ideas about the following: which qualities will help the professional future and which will more likely complicate it, what is professionalism and what is its peculiarity as applied to the selected specialty. In our opinion psychological support of female graduates should be aimed not so much at raising competence and creating «role models» but rather at raising the level of reflection concerning personal opportunities and inclinations. Thus, the problem of professional self-determination at the stage of the graduation from university is not the «final» choice, but the situation, when one has to «continue choosing» again and again, to redefine criteria and weigh chances, to analyze new opportunities.