Just as an artist sketches the subject to be painted, you too have sketched a portrait of yourself by contemplating the past, present, and future. An artist also needs to consider perspective when attempting to create a portrait. Perspective in a painting is the ability to paint a portrait or a scene to look like it has depth. It takes into account light and shadow and line and angle.

On a more personal level, perspective can also mean "point of view." Your perspective on what is important in life may vary greatly from that of your parents or grandparents.

In this lesson, you're going to gain some perspective on your values. What do we mean by values? Roughly translated, values are the principles and priorities that are important to you. Your values are what drive you to make the choices that you make in life. For example, if order and structure are important to you, a career as a free-lance artist or writer may be uncomfortable due to the lack of structured work hours and steady salary. If making a lot of money is important to you, choosing a career in social work or teaching would probably not make you a wealthy person, because traditionally, social workers and teachers are not highly paid.

Every day you are forced to make choices about how to live your life. In an ideal world, you would always make decisions based on your values. However, in the real world, decisions are often based in large part on expectations that family or other outward influences have for you. What makes decision making even more difficult is that you may not be clear about your values. Even if you do know what is important to you, you may not always be clear about how to translate those values into your day-to-day life. Gaining perspective about your values is something you'll explore in this section.

CREATING A SELF-PORTRAIT

Many people, who have not researched their career options, think that the best way to choose a career is by looking outward. Identifying careers based on "employment statistics" and income as well as prestige or family preference are examples of how outward-looking people make career choices. This unit is designed to help you learn to look inward first when making career decisions. Your career decisions must be consistent with your values, skills, and interests in order for you to be satisfied with your career.

In 1997, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, during the years 1994-2005, "Employment of computer engineers and systems analysts is expected to grow rapidly…"

An outward-looking person may read this and decide to pursue a career in computer engineering, for example. After all, computer engineering pays well, is a well-regarded profession, and is in high demand. However, basing a career decision on these outward-looking criteria alone may result in this person being miserable in his or her chosen field. By looking inward first, this person might have discovered preferences and skills in artistic and social areas that a career in computer engineering may not fully utilize.