Asian Career Choices

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Pages: 9

There is a stereotype that Asian students tended to choose college majors from among a few areas, such as engineering, technology, and physical sciences. Generally, they were more likely to have considered Investigative occupations and less likely to have considered Enterprising and Conventional occupations than the American students. What are the cultural and social factor contribution to the type of careers that are typically pursued by Asian Students? It seems that Asian students were not as open to the range of career choices available in the world of work as compared with the general population. They are often encouraged to consider occupational alternatives that could give them the greatest survival value in the U.S. social structure …show more content…
Each of these elements was thought to affect a child's self-concept at four different stages of cognitive development. Gottfredson proposed that at each stage, children began to restrict their career choices as they grew in understanding of who they were. The first of the four stages was called "orientation to size and power," which occurred between ages three and five (Gottfredson, 1981, p. 558). At this stage, children were able to grasp the concept of adulthood for the first time. The second stage occurred between age six and eight and was called "orientation to sex roles," followed by the third stage, "orientation to social valuation," between ages nine and thirteen (Gottfredson, 1981, p. 559). At the third stage, children developed more abstract concepts of self and thought about social class as well as their own abilities when considering a career. The fourth stage began at age fourteen and was called "an orientation to the internal, unique self" (Gottfredson, 1981, p. 566). At this stage, Gottfredson (1981) believed that children began to rule out certain careers that were not consistent with their self-concept including their personal interests, capacities, and …show more content…
They may be more likely to use a dependent decision-making style and exhibit lower levels of career maturity. This may result in Asian student career clients expecting and soliciting a more directive and structured approach to career counseling.Social scientists have long wrestled with why Asians, notably East Asians, tend to study in STEM fields. Writing in the journal Race and Social Problems, sociology professors Jennifer Lee of UC Irvine and Min Zhou of UCLA say the root of this trend is a “narrow success frame” by Chinese and other Asian immigrant parents. “Most Chinese immigrant parents ... define success as getting straight A’s ... and becoming a doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, or engineer,” Lee wrote in the Guardian.the salary and stability attributed to STEM careers is a top priority for Asian parents. One Asian graduate wrote, “I find that parents do put a lot of pressure on their children to obtain a job that makes more money.” This opinion was shared by a majority of respondents, many of whom are children of immigrants, and is supported by research by University of Pennsylvania sociologist Grace Kao in the journal Sociology of Education, which found that “foreign-born parents of all ethnic groups had significantly higher educational aspirations for their children than did native-born parents.” The prestige factor also can