Professional values refer to the most important thing that a person will never give up in his career when facing career choices. It shows what a person wants to pursue through work. Professional values are the internal yardstick for people to measure the advantages, significance and importance of various occupations, and also people's beliefs and attitudes towards occupations. Because people's needs, motives, interests, outlook on life, values, abilities, temperament and personality are different, even under the same social conditions, there are significant individual differences in their professional values. Any particular professional values are formed under certain social and historical conditions, so they must have distinct characteristics of the times and will inevitably change with the development of society.
At present, China is in a period of social transformation, and this historic transformation has caused great changes in social occupations and people's professional values. The change of young people's professional values first appeared in college, which can have a far-reaching impact on personal lifelong professional values. Therefore, it is of great significance to study college students' professional values and psychological characteristics of job hunting.
First, the formation and structure of personal professional values
The development of professional values and the maturity of personality are basically synchronous. College students are a special group, and their psychological characteristics are developing in all aspects, especially their professional values. Therefore, studying and discussing the formation process of individual professional values will help us better understand the professional values of college students.
(A) the formation process of personal professional values
Ginzberg, a famous American career guidance expert and psychologist, divides the development of personal career choice psychology into three periods: fantasy period (4 or 5 years old to 10 years old), exploration period (10/9 years old to 19 years old) and realization period (19 years old to 20 years old) Four-and five-year-old children began to observe the adult world, and the intuitive impression gained from the observation was simply displayed through games. In the game, children imitate professional roles such as soldiers, doctors and salesmen with their own impressions and imaginations. With the recognition of partners and adults, professional consciousness begins to sprout. As individuals enter adolescence, their independence is gradually enhanced, and they begin to actively look forward to their future and explore their career at a deeper level. /kloc-after the age of 0/9 and 20, individuals begin to gradually realize employment and realize and stabilize their interests, abilities and values in specific occupations.
Super, a master of American career development theory, believes that career choice and development is a dynamic process. In this process, individuals explore and assume certain professional roles, so the professional self-concept can be formed and developed, and it has become a key factor in teenagers' career choice. To this end, he divided the formation of professional values into five periods: the first period is the formation period, about 14 ~ 18 years old, and individuals began to have a preliminary idea of their own work, which is consistent with their self-concept. The second stage is the Qingming period, which is about 18 ~ 20 years old. Individuals will narrow down their career choices according to their own career hobbies, thus taking the first step in career choice. The third stage is the growth period, which is about 2 1 ~ 24 years old. Individuals complete training and find jobs according to their own professional hobbies. The fourth period is the stable period. From the age of 25 to 35, individuals will gradually adapt to their career choices. The last period is the consolidation period. After the age of 35, individuals will succeed and their social and professional status will gradually improve.
(B) the structure of professional values
Researchers in China have discussed a lot about the structure of professional values. Generally, foreign scales are measured and counted after being revised in China, and then conclusions are drawn. There are two views that are more representative.
Ning Weiwen's revised Super Professional Values Scale (WVI, 1970). Through measurement and statistical analysis, the 15 professional values scale proposed by Super can be divided into three major factors, which can be regarded as the internal structure of professional values. The first factor is named "intrinsic professional value" factor, which includes intellectual stimulation, altruism, variability, independence, aesthetic feeling, achievement and creativity in WVI. The second factor is the "external professional value" factor, including WVI's colleague relationship, supervision relationship, management and working environment. The third factor is the "external reward" factor, including economic reward, lifestyle, safety and reputation in WVI.
Ling Wenquan and others extracted three principal components: prestige, health care and development through the principal component analysis of college students' professional values. The factors of "prestige status" include easy to become famous and become a family, high popularity of the unit, high social status, high economic status, many opportunities for promotion, many opportunities to go abroad, large scale of the unit and the unit in a big city. The factors of "health care" include labor insurance, stable occupation, good welfare, housing, solving the separation between the two places, elegant occupational environment and high income; The factors of "development" include conforming to hobbies, applying what they have learned, giving full play to their talents, equal opportunities, fair competition, convenient transportation, great autonomy and providing educational opportunities.
Second, the characteristics of contemporary college students' professional values
It goes without saying that the professional values of contemporary college students are generally in the process of formation. During their study, few college students can be clear about what they can and will do in the future. This phenomenon is largely due to students' lack of social experience, lack of opportunities to put theory into practice, and unclear how to apply what they have learned.
By consulting the existing literature, we found that the professional values of contemporary college students have the following typical characteristics:
(1) Pay equal attention to reality and ideals.
With the gradual advancement of China's social transformation, market competition and talent competition are becoming increasingly fierce, and the phenomenon of being laid off and unemployed is widespread, making it more and more realistic for college students to choose jobs. They hope to meet various needs such as material interests, power status and success in their professional activities. Income and career development are the two most important factors when college students choose jobs. Of course, this does not mean that college students' professional values are mercenary. In fact, one of the factors that contemporary college students consider most in their career is their own development. In career evaluation and career choice, they emphasize the realization of self-worth more and more.
This phenomenon shows that the professional values of contemporary college students have the characteristics of "paying equal attention to reality and ideals". On the one hand, they have a very strong sense of accomplishment, and expect their future work to meet their own specialties and hobbies, to display their talents in their work, to realize their ideals in life, and to have a relatively complete career; On the other hand, they don't put their ideals in castles in the air, but also pay attention to money and material factors, hoping that their future work will bring rich material life to themselves and their families.
This phenomenon just confirms the "hierarchy of needs theory" put forward by the famous psychologist Maslow. College students' demands for income, welfare and insurance are to meet their physiological needs and security needs, while their demands for achievement and self-development are higher-level social needs and self-realization needs.
In reality, it often happens that non-graduates tend to put "realizing self-worth" in the first place in career choice and career evaluation, while graduates pay more attention to the factor of "income". This is because graduates have strongly felt the pressure of going to society, and practical problems such as food, clothing, housing and transportation need to be solved urgently before them. This is actually a progressive performance of graduates facing reality and society.
Diversification of job hunting intentions
In job hunting intention, college students show a diversified trend. In the choice of workplace, fast-growing big cities are still the first choice for most college students. With regard to specific occupations, college students have the highest evaluation of scientific research personnel, entrepreneurs, university teachers and senior staff of foreign-funded enterprises, but the evaluation of employees of state-owned enterprises, military, government agencies and private enterprises is not low. This phenomenon shows that the traditional three hot spots of college students' job hunting have changed, that is, politics, business and study are no longer the main choices. Although employment hotspots are universal, their dispersion and diversity are increasingly prominent. A considerable proportion of college students are optimistic about foreign-funded enterprises and large state-owned enterprises. Compared with the past, students' sense of official standard has faded, and more and more people want to do business and dare to accept social challenges. Of course, due to the strong stability of state organs and education departments, it has attracted many people.
This phenomenon is consistent with the diversification of social development. The so-called "360 lines, each doing its own thing", college students have begun to understand the relativity and internal relationship between popular occupations and unpopular occupations, and realize that it is possible to make achievements in any occupation as long as they meet their own needs. This is a welcome trend.
(C) The process of choosing a job is full of contradictions
Contradiction between occupational safety and occupational risk awareness.
There are various contradictions in college students' professional values, the most prominent of which is the contradiction between professional risk awareness and professional security. On the one hand, college students attach importance to personal efforts, are in favor of getting more for more work, and are willing to try some industries with high risks and considerable benefits; On the other hand, they hope that they can be promoted and raised all the time like most people, without worrying about being reprimanded or financially punished because the leaders are not satisfied with their work performance. This ambivalence is very common among college students. This phenomenon has something to do with the current labor market situation of "it is difficult to find employment and choose a job", and the fear of unemployment and laid-off of college students also makes them have to pay attention to the stability of their jobs.
Contradictions about job variability.
There are some contradictions in college students' attitudes towards job variability. On the one hand, they agree to frequent contact with new things; On the other hand, they show an antagonistic and passive attitude towards the changes of work content, work place, work place or work style and work type. Generally speaking, college students' job variability is poor, and it is obviously difficult to adapt to the current employment situation. Market economy encourages competition and innovation, and requires people to learn new knowledge and skills all their lives to adapt to new changes and developments. The concepts of "one step at a time" and "changing with constant changes" are no longer suitable for social needs and are not conducive to personal development. College students should learn to "manage themselves well", which is a new requirement under the new situation. Therefore, it is imperative to change the concept of seeking stable one-time employment and let college students establish the concept of "employment first-then choosing a job-then starting a business".
The contradiction between the desire to choose a job independently and the skills to choose a job independently.
In the past, college students were assigned by the state after graduation, and individuals had no choice. At present, the graduation distribution adopts a "two-way" selection mode. In addition to the directional enrollment and directional distribution in remote areas and individual hard industries, most students can take a "two-way" choice under the guidance of relevant national policies and guidelines, recommended by the school, and through personal meeting and consultation with the employer. This not only broadens the employment opportunities of college students, mobilizes their enthusiasm for learning, but also stimulates their sense of competition and autonomy in choosing jobs. In recent years, college students have become more and more autonomous in choosing jobs. When choosing a job, more and more college students tend to "listen to themselves" first, and then "listen to teachers or schools", while paying less and less attention to the opinions of parents and relatives.
Thirdly, the challenge of contemporary college students' professional values to traditional values.
First of all, the personal-oriented career concept challenges the social-oriented values. Under the planned economy system, college students' values are regulated and influenced by social and collective values, showing the characteristics of obeying the needs of the collective and the state. This social-oriented value emphasizes the supremacy of collective and national interests, which has obvious characteristics of the times and certain limitations. After 1990s, with the development of market economy, individual's independent status was gradually established. College graduates dare to actively pursue personal values, dignity and interests when choosing a job, and their self-awareness, desire for achievement and self-responsibility are obviously enhanced, which is undoubtedly the performance of social development and the progress of the times. However, the market economy is like a double-edged sword. It not only cultivates college students' sense of self-employment, but also weakens a considerable number of college students' sense of social responsibility in job selection, which is manifested in paying too much attention to personal interests and needs, paying attention to Western-style personal struggle and self-creation, and even breeding serious individualism by hook or by crook in order to satisfy their willingness to choose a job. This personal-oriented professional outlook has brought a strong impact on the traditional social-oriented values in colleges and universities.
Secondly, the utilitarian concept of occupation challenges the values of honesty. In the fierce job market, in order to get an ideal job, some college graduates do not hesitate to violate the principle of being a man, abandon their beliefs, use all kinds of thoughts and skills in job-seeking materials, imitate all kinds of certificates, and make job-seeking materials more and more water. Some employers found that more than two-thirds of the students' resumes they received called themselves "three good students" or "excellent student cadres", nearly half said they had obtained computer or other certificates, and more than 80% said they had work (internship) experience. This shows that quite a few college graduates tend to exaggerate their school grades, forge various certificates and fabricate work experience. After signing the employment agreement with the employer, some graduates break the contract without authorization, change jobs at will or fail to act according to the employment contract for personal gain. It is reported that an electrical appliance company in Yuyao, Zhejiang recruited more than 20 college students in and out of the province, and only 1 student remained in the post in less than one year, so the company had to go to the job fair urgently to find talents. College graduates frequently break their contracts and jump ship, which has become a heart disease for employers. In addition, the integrity of graduates is also reflected in the repayment of student loans, which directly affects the issuance of student loans to poor students by banks.
Third, the challenge of competitive professional concept to harmonious value. Harmony between people and social stability are the ideal kingdom pursued by many utopian socialist theorists at home and abroad. The traditional values of "harmony is precious" have been widely recognized by people in the era of planned economy, and have influenced people's behavior. But it is easy to lead people to lack competition consciousness and enterprising spirit. With the establishment of market economy, people's sense of competition has gradually increased. Young students who grew up in the competitive era have spent many years in their academic rankings. What they experience most is the competition between individuals, which easily makes them full of competition, forgetting the necessity of cooperation between people and the role of cooperation between people in the continuous progress of human society. Some college students take despicable means to beat their competitors in job hunting; Or in the workplace, for a person to show their abilities, unwilling to cooperate with others. After the fierce competition in campus life, a considerable number of college graduates have strong personal ability and lack of teamwork spirit, which has brought extremely adverse effects on their career and life development. In 2004, at a symposium on enterprise talent demand, HR managers of foreign-funded enterprises such as Bi System (China) Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd. said, "We don't want top students in colleges and universities, because their personal ability is too strong and their ability to cooperate with others is poor, which will make it difficult for the whole team to cooperate. Enterprises are not looking for the best people, but looking for the most suitable people. What we want is a young man with good character and practicality. " Indeed, having "team spirit, good conduct, professionalism and communication skills" is the standard for many foreign companies to hire talents.
Finally, pluralistic professional values challenge the dominant values of monism. Social values are the collection of ideals, beliefs and spiritual fashions of most people in society. In China, for a long time, collectivism values have dominated, and people's choice and evaluation of careers are unified on the point that "the value of life lies in dedication". At present, under the premise of recognizing personal interests, the principle of universal equivalence and safeguarding the concepts of democracy, freedom and competition, the social value orientation cannot be single, but tends to be diversified. The coexistence of multiple values is very prominent in the career view of contemporary college students. Some use money as the standard to evaluate the pros and cons of their careers and believe in money worship values; Some regard being an official as the goal of job hunting all their lives, advocating authoritarian values, while others regard fame as the support of their careers and pursue vanity; Some people think that choosing a job is to "pursue your own good life and repay your parents' kindness"; Some people insist that "serving the motherland" is the cornerstone of career success. In a word, the worship of absolute authority and the belief of absolute monism no longer exist in the professional outlook of contemporary college students, but are replaced by a diversified value image.
Fourthly, the influence of professional values on college students.
The current situation of college students' professional values has had a relatively obvious negative impact on them in the following two aspects:
(A) the impact on learning attitude
Contemporary college students are becoming more and more realistic when considering their future careers, and the pragmatic tendency in learning has a negative impact on their learning attitude and learning effect.
Contemporary college students are generally keen to learn some instrumental subjects, expecting to change their skills immediately after learning a course; However, they lack interest in theoretical subjects or more traditional basic subjects, which are the key to improve students' quality and knowledge reserve.
Take the English major and computer major investigated by the author as examples. Most English majors only pay attention to the training of language listening, speaking, reading and writing, and memorize words every day, ignoring subjects such as literature, history and philosophy that can strengthen their knowledge cultivation and way of thinking. Many students don't realize that they don't know much about common sense except speaking foreign languages until they find jobs. Narrow knowledge has become the primary dilemma for English majors in choosing jobs. Many students majoring in computer science are keen on learning all kinds of application software and taking all kinds of certificates, but they are sleepy or even skip classes in computer theory class. As a result, after graduation, many students found that some graduates from other majors are comparable to themselves in software application, but they can't start to show their professional advantages and improve themselves. In fact, if students really master the basic knowledge of professional theoretical courses, such as operating system and digital logic, which usually make them feel boring, then no matter what kind of software, even self-study can be handy. Nevertheless, no matter how teachers teach, many students don't understand this truth until they encounter practical difficulties after employment.
It can be seen that many college students' understanding of "quality education" is far from enough, and they still lack a clear understanding of the concept of "learning how to learn is more important than learning knowledge" and the requirement of "cultivating correct thinking mode and all-round development".
(B) the impact on mental health
The negative impact of professional values on college students' mental health is mainly reflected in: one-sided professional values aggravate the employment pressure they experience.
The market economy system has brought opportunities and pressures to enterprises and individuals. Faced with fierce market competition, people feel that the threat of unemployment is increasing day by day. A few years ago, when talking about employment, people might think of "4050" laid-off workers. Today, people may think more of the once "favored children"-college students. The employment situation faced by college graduates is becoming more and more severe. Under the great pressure of employment, many students are overwhelmed and have various psychological problems, and some even commit suicide.
Is there a surplus of talents in our society so that even college students can't find jobs? Actually, it is not. In recent years, there is an embarrassing fact: on the one hand, in some places, some college graduates find it difficult to find a job, and even "adventure island" "degree certificate and unemployment certificate together"; On the other hand, the grass roots, especially in the western region, hard and remote areas, hard industries and vast rural areas, are facing the situation of lack of talents and hard to find college students.
One-sided professional values of college students is one of the important reasons for the "difficult employment" situation. They have higher requirements on the geographical location, working environment and management system of their work units, that is, the above-mentioned "occupational external factors" or "health care factors". Especially for the geographical location of the work unit, college students are very concerned. Therefore, the idea of "I would rather have no bed in Beijing than a house elsewhere" and "Begging in a big city than going back to the countryside" is quite common among college graduates.
It is these one-sided professional values that make college students unwilling to go to the grassroots and where they are really needed. After artificially excluding such a wide range of career choices, everyone is scrambling to go to large enterprises and good units, and of course they will experience great competitive pressure. Moreover, due to the huge range of choices, large enterprises and good units often have high thresholds, which also causes some psychological imbalances among favored college students.
Five, the new task of values education in colleges and universities
Social existence determines social consciousness, and the change of college students' professional outlook is the product of the reform of market economy system and enrollment distribution system, which has both positive and negative factors and puts forward new requirements for values education in colleges and universities.
Strengthen the education of college students' life values and adhere to the unity of self-value and social value. The concept of career choice is the basic evaluation and view of college students on their careers, and it is also the reflection of their world outlook, outlook on life and values on employment. In the past, the values of the supremacy of collective interests ignored individual values when emphasizing social collective values. If we use this one-sided values to educate contemporary college students, the result can only be rejection and negation. Values education in colleges and universities should keep pace with the times and boldly admit the pursuit of personal interests and self-worth, but it should not be overcorrected. First of all, we should prevent the values of personal interests. Only the occupation with the unity of self-value and social value is a successful occupation, and it is possible to realize the sustainable development of individual occupation. The life value goal of college students should be the unity of personal development and social development, and personal goals should be subordinate to the leading goals of society. At present, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Ministry of Education are implementing the plan of voluntary service for college students in the west. Some college students with a sense of social responsibility voluntarily gave up the superior working conditions along the coast and volunteered to serve the west, realizing the unity of their own values and social values.
Strengthen the honesty education of college students and adhere to the synchronization of "being a man" and "doing things". Honesty is the traditional virtue of the Chinese nation and the basic requirement of being a man. Let college students know that under the market economy, honesty is not only the most basic moral quality for people to settle down and succeed, but also the basic moral norm for people to deal with the relationship between individuals and society and individuals. Without honesty, no one can succeed in life and career. Colleges and universities should make full use of campus cultural activities to carry out honesty education and strengthen moral self-discipline of college students. It is also necessary to combine the selection criteria of the talent market to make college students understand that society needs qualified talents with both ability and political integrity.
Cultivate college students' team spirit and insist on the coexistence of competition and cooperation. Due to the lack of opportunities to cooperate with others, college students who grow up in a highly competitive social environment usually lack cooperation consciousness and even team spirit, which is generally characterized by low cooperation ability. In recent years, the educational concept of "cultivating the spirit of cooperation" has been introduced into the educational circles in China. For example, some math and computer competitions have changed the form of individual competitions and increased the form of team competitions. This kind of competition based on teamwork is to combine the advantages of members and improve the effectiveness of teamwork. The interpersonal relationship brought about by this must be mutual cooperation and exchange of needed goods, and the mentality formed is open. Everyone can be confident in their own strengths and appreciate the strengths of others. Colleges and universities should make full use of college students' team activities, cultivate team spirit, let college students find their own advantages and disadvantages with others in specific activities, realize the importance of unity and cooperation, and constantly improve the skills of cooperation among members. Colleges and universities should introduce more successful cases of team entrepreneurship in education. World-class enterprises such as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Yahoo and Apple Computer all started from team entrepreneurship, so that college students can understand that excellent enterprises value the cooperation spirit of employees more. Beijing Lucent Technology Bell Lab pays great attention to the potential quality and cooperation ability of candidates when recruiting. If two candidates have the same research results, one is done independently and the other is done as the project leader, the laboratory prefers the latter candidate because he has withstood the test of teamwork and knows how to get along with others. It can be seen that competition needs cooperation, and cooperation supports competition. It is more important for universities to teach students cooperation than competition. Only when future talents have the qualities of modesty, prudence, respect, care and unity can they make achievements and be recognized by society.