Jobs and Professions
Jobs
Employment is a contract between
two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. The employer is a person who hires
employees. It can also be an institution. The employees receive wages for the work.
Choosing one’s
career is an important step in everybody’s life. Boys dream about professions such as pilots, astronauts, firemen or
policemen. Girls on the other hand dream of becoming actresses, models, singers, teachers and so on. But as they get older and mature their criteria
for choosing their profession become more and more realistic, because they have to coordinate their own interests, hopes and desires.
Most children are influenced by their parents, teachers, relatives and friends and they
often want to go in their footsteps. Others prefer to go their own way. Each occupation should bring people joy and satisfaction from a job well
done. It can not be said, which occupation is the most important of all.
The first important step of man
is in the final year of elementary school when many schoolmates face a problem – they have to decide for the best and to
choose from various options of secondary schools – Grammar school, industrial, medical, economic school,
apprentice centre, art schools… After a successful accomplishment (dokončenie) of the secondary school students decide whether they continue
their education at the university or they enter the world of work. But those who do not attend a university and
have no diploma many times face problems finding a suitable job because of lack of qualifications and experience.
For the majority of people job means the source of earning money, for the others
it can be a hobby. If they are talented then their work is their hobby, for example singers.
There are two main parts of
jobs - This difference is also in education and in the salary. The salary usually depends on personal education and on the work
experiences.
1. Physical: these people need physical power, energy and stamina (výdrž). They are
specialized, education is at low level, for example builder, carpenter, farmer, fireman, butcher, miner. Some need special skills, for example
waiters, cookers, watch-makers, shoemakers, hairdressers, car mechanics – they work in services, industry and agriculture.
2.
Mental: they need high education, they are also better paid. And they don’t need physical skills, for example
manager, officer (úradník), accountant, teacher, health care, judge, lawyer, politician.
From the point of sex there are typical jobs for men
like truck driver, car mechanic, soldier, miner…and typical jobs for women like nurse, tailor, teacher – they have to be patient and reliable.
Some women are in traditional jobs for men (police, army) and also men are in traditional women’s job (chef (kuchár), designer).
There are professions in which you need to have a special talent and determination. People like artists, photographers,
designers and journalists cannot succeed if they are not talented. To do this type of work, you need to be independent and prepared to work
irregular hours. You also need a good imagination and lots of creativity.
To do some of jobs you need to have certain qualities and
character traits. For example a policeman needs to be bold, physical efficient and strong. Teacher should be friendly, good at
explaining things and have a strong sense of fairness.
The choice of job can be influenced by 4 factors:
1.
Your skills, abilities, education, experience and hobby.
2. By society: parents, relatives and also traditional jobs in family.
3.
Money: everybody wants well-paid job, but also your future can be influenced by that parents don’t have enough money to pay for school and
university.
4. School results.
Who is volunteer?
A person that actively takes on
a task, responsibility, or project on his or her own accord without needing to be assigned, ordered, or told to do so. Often a
volunteer is not paid for the work that they provide.
- How do people
search for jobs?
When you are looking for a job you can get information about jobs from: advertisement, internet, job
agency/job centre, radio, TV, local cable TV, leaflets or from other people. When you want to apply for a job at first you have to write an
application and you have to enclose your curriculum vitae. Then you are invited for an interview and you can be either accepted or refused. When you
go for the interview it is important to be elegantly dressed, to have control of how you sit and what you do with your hands and also the eye
contact is important. You should have prepared some questions for interviewer about the company. Curriculum vitae should contain your name, date of
birth, place of birth, permanent address, nationality, marital status, telephone number, e-mail, education, work experience, other information,
references, date and sign.
- Working time and free time…
Working
hours: when you have full-time job you usually work 8 hours a day. There are also part-time
jobs when you work 3 hours a day or only during weekends or 2 days a week. Like that usually work: students, because they have to
study, retired people, mothers with small children or handicapped people. There are fixed hours when day start and finish every day at the same time
(teacher, in factories), flexible hours- it is up to you when you want to work (journalist, writer, actor, singer), and people work in shifts (in
hospital, police, taxi driver).
The salary assessed according to your qualifications, length of experience and
work of course. In our country is usual that a woman in the same function as a man, gets lower salary. It may be taken as a discrimination but it is
still normal for majority. In our country we receive salaries in a month. Pay in a week is called wage and it is common for countries like Britain
and the USA.
Nowadays work isn’t as hard as it was in the past because we have new technologies, computers and robots which make our
work instead of us. Work is more precise because of computers and new programs, work is easier in agriculture because they don’t have to work with
animals but they have harvesters, tractors and other machines.
- Unemployment
When
people are unemployed they get dole from state. When your income is lower than the minimum
wage,the state will pay you family credit or income benefit. Also people get family allowances for children until age of 18 or until they
finish their study (26). Companies employ more men then women because they can be pregnant and then company will have to pay maternity
allowances. Women will have to work till 60 and men till 62. When they get retired they get pension-the higher income, the higher pension.
Unemployment in Slovakia a is serious question of society. Rate of unemployment in Slovakia is high. It has got negative
effects on life style, living standard of person and their family.
Many people leave their homeland to start to work
abroad. Reasons why people want to work abroad can be various but the most frequent one is that they can earn much more
money there than at home. Usually the girls travel abroad to take care of children as au-pairs or
look after old people which is popular among Slovak girls. In the time of pregnancy and
even after giving a birth to babies mothers needn’t to be afraid of getting fired from their occupation because of the laws which protect them
against employers. These laws also modify the height of their monthly financial support during maternity leave (materská dovolenka). The time when
people are old enough to work and after large number of worked-off years is called
retirement. Old people – pensioners receive pension each month.
What jobs did you dream of doing when you were little?
When I was little I wanted to be an actres. It was an
interesting job for me too. Actresses are popular, they wear nice clothes and they have interesting lives. They travel a lot, they have lot of fans.
And it was very interesting for me.
Dangerous jobs...
I think that among the dangerous jobs we
can count for example miners. It is a dangerous job because miners can easily get injured or even killed in a mine.
I think that firemen, policemen and rescue teams in the mountains have dangerous jobs too
because they often have to risk their lives to save other people.
After I finish school I would like to
work as zoologist or environmentalist because I would like to do job which will fulfill me. And these jobs will. I will have a qualification.
Also I would like to get some new experiences. I want to work abroad because I think that in Slovakia are not enough job opportunities.
I wanna be a enviromental volunteer or volunteer in developing countries. I would like to help poor people and children and
also protect nature and animals, cause they cannot help themself.
Zones.sk – Zóny pre každého študenta