Mid-Life Career Changes

Mid-life Career Changes

Most individuals have a good understanding of what career path he or she wants to follow after graduating high school. During late adolescence, individuals are exposed to various career options by attending school seminars that focus on various interests and career choices. This leads the individual to make choices regarding educational and other needs that will lead the individual into his or her chosen career. Choosing a career requires an individual to place emphasis on what is important. Income is a basic requirement of employment because it provides for personal needs like housing, and food, but this is not the complete analysis of the right job (Saisan, & Smith, 2012). Other factors to consider when choosing a career path include the tolls of mental and physical stress, personal satisfaction of the job, and job security (Saisan, & Smith, 2012).

      For individuals who have followed a successful career path it is harder to think of these aspects because the individual has invested a great deal of time in his or her current career path. Unfortunately, many individuals have a difficult time getting past issues of salary, security, and current economic trends (Saisan, & Smith, 2012). Although these are valid concerns, especially in current economic trends, an individual who has had a successful career must consider his or her primary interests, and passions (Saisan, & Smith, 2012). If the individual finds that the current career path does not provide personal satisfaction, or is the cause of unnecessary physical or mental stress, it may be time to consider a career change (Saisan, & Smith, 2012). 

      An example would be an individual with close to 20 years experience in executive management who has discovered that his career path no longer provides personal satisfaction. Although the individual’s current career has provided years of financial security, he finds that it does not provide personal satisfaction, and is resulting in elevated levels of physical and mental stress. The individual believes that he cannot continue his current path, and decides to follow a lifelong passion to become an infectious disease psychologist. In order for the individual to make this career change, he needs to return to school to obtain a degree in psychology. He decides to take early retirement from his current career, and enrolls in college to obtain the required degrees needed to pursue the new career path.

Job Analysis

       One of the best methods to determine if a job matches the needs of the individual is to perform a job analysis. Although there is no single method used to perform a job analysis, there are different methods that provide information about the job, and the human attributes required for the job (Spector, 2012). One of the methods used in job analysis is the job-oriented analysis. According to Spector (2012) “the job-oriented analysis provides information about the nature of the tasks done on the job” (p. 6). Some methods used in the job-oriented analysis provide information directly related to the tasks, and other methods provide information related to characteristics of the tasks (Spector, 2012).

         In the case of infectious disease psychology, the job-oriented analysis provides the individual with details regarding the job-related tasks, and general characteristics of the tasks. The characteristics of the job-related tasks indicate that the individual is responsible for coordinating and facilitating therapeutic group and individual counseling sessions for HIV-infected clients. Although this is appears to be an actual task, it is a general description, or characteristic of specific tasks related to the job. Further analysis indicates that the individual would be responsible for specific tasks. These specific tasks include providing individual therapy sessions for clients receiving services from the infectious disease center, and providing crisis intervention to clients receiving HIV positive test results.

         Another method used to determine if the individual meets the needs and requirements of the job is the person-oriented job analysis. According to Spector (2012) “a person-oriented job analysis provides a description of the characteristics or KSAOs necessary for a person to successfully perform a particular job” (p. 8). The first three characteristics outline requirements needed to perform the job. These three primary characteristics include knowledge, skill, and ability to perform the job. The second set of characteristics outlines personal traits or other areas of relevancy of the job not covered by the first three (Spector, 2012).

            In the case of infectious disease psychology, the first three characteristics outline the requirements needed to perform the job. A Master’s degree or higher would be required for the position because education and internship will provide the applicant with the basic knowledge required to perform the job. Continued education courses focused on infectious disease treatments, and previous experience or volunteer work related to HIV and other infectious diseases would provide the applicant with skills required to perform the job. The third would be the applicant’s ability, or aptitude to perform the job, or continue development needed to improve and progress along the job path. Other characteristics would be considered personal characteristics related to the job. This would include the applicant’s willingness to work with people infected with life-threatening diseases, and the desire to help people with infectious diseases overcome the mental aspects of the illness.

Reliability and Validity

            Job analysis methods are not only used to determine the tasks and characteristics of a job, or to determine if an applicant meets requirements needed to perform the job. The data collected from job analysis techniques can provide a foundation on which an organization determines other activities and functions related to a position (Spector, 2012). These additional activities or functions include issues like career development, legal issues connected with employment, employee recruitment and selection, and performance appraisals (Spector, 2012). Additional information like job classification, description, training, and salary grades are also influenced by the job analysis process (Spector, 2012).           

            For an organization looking to fill an infectious disease psychologist position, these additional aspects enable the organization to develop or provide access to continued education programs focused on infectious disease treatments or advancements. They also allow the organization to set proper policies to ensure legal issues like patient confidentiality are being followed. Other advantages provided by job analysis reviews include development of proper job performance metrics that allow the organization to monitor the performance of the individual in the position, and provide the organization with a proper career advancement policy for an individual performing the job.

Appraisal Methods

            An organization can use a variety of methods to perform a job appraisal. However, each method has benefits and limitations associated with the individual method (Spector, 2012). Some methods to consider using to evaluate an infectious disease psychologist position may include a process of actually performing the job. This method will provide extensive detail about the job, and the context in which the job is performed (Spector, 2012).  Although this method provides a clear examination of the position, it requires that the analyst receive extensive job training, which is time-consuming and expensive. This method also fails to display any differences among jobs that share the same title (Spector, 2012).

            Another method commonly used is to interview employees currently performing the job. This provides the advantage of gaining multiple perspectives of the job, and can show differences among employees performing the same job (Spector, 2012). The disadvantages of this process are the amount of time the process takes in comparison to alternate methods, and it fails to provide a contextual aspect of how the job tasks are performed (Spector, 2012). Observation of employees performing the job provides the organization with a relatively objective perspective of the job, but is also time consuming, and may result on employees changing behavior because he or she is aware of the observation (Spector, 2012).

Conclusion

            In conclusion, deciding what type of job an individual wants to pursue, or deciding to change an existing career path is a major decision in life. A career path of an infectious disease psychologist requires years of college study, and practical hands-on experience. An organization looking to create or evaluate an infectious disease psychologist position will obtain a complete overview of all the factors required for the position. Job analysis techniques are a valuable measure for any organization to determine various aspects of a specific job, and the requirements needed to ensure the job is performed to specific standards. An infectious disease psychologist position is a very important role within an organization that treats infectious disease patients because it helps the patients overcome various mental aspects of the illness. This position enhances services provided by an organization that treats infectious disease patients, and enhances the quality of life for the patients by providing valuable therapy sessions, advice, and information related to the patient’s illness.

References

Saisan, J., & Smith, M. (2012). Finding the Right Career. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/life/finding_career.htm

Spector, P. E. (2012). Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.