Self-Knowledge and Career Choices: A Comprehensive Analysis

Self-Knowledge and Professional Orientation

Personal self-knowledge forms the basis of the professional orientation process. It is very important to know and understand our own characteristics, limitations, and possibilities in order to make informed choices in the decision-making process. This is crucial for academic and professional decisions because our studies should align with our future aspirations.

Values and Their Influence

Values are the principles that guide our behavior and life choices.

• Personal values: leadership skills, honesty.
• Professional values: earning money, having free time.
• Cultural values: democracy.

Behavioral Styles: Assertive, Aggressive, and Passive

Assertive behavior: This involves expressing one's opinions, needs, and feelings directly and respectfully, considering the perspectives of others.

Aggressive behavior: This is the direct expression of opinions, needs, or feelings in an insulting manner, often violating the rights of others, either verbally or nonverbally. The purpose of this behavior is to dominate others.

Passive behavior: This involves the inability to directly express one's opinions, needs, or feelings. This behavior allows others to violate our feelings, and its purpose is to avoid problems.

The Impact of Academic Performance

Academic performance significantly influences academic and vocational choices. Good performance can lead to qualifications needed for desired jobs, while poor performance may limit access to certain professions.

Exploring Professional Interests

Professional interests encompass what we enjoy studying and the types of work we find appealing. There are six types of interests:

• Technical and mechanical interests
• Artistic interests and creative activities
• Bureaucratic and administrative activities
• Social relations and welfare interests
• Executive leadership and commercial/business organization interests
• Intellectual and scientific interests

My professional interests are ... (Social and welfare) (see page 24 and 25, to see what works in each group).

Educational Pathways After ESO

If we obtain an ESO degree, we can:

• Pursue a Bachelor's degree (after high school, college admission may require an entrance exam or completing a higher-level training cycle).
• Complete a mid-level training cycle (after completing a mid-level cycle, one can pursue a top-level training through an entrance exam or enter the workforce).

Types of Bachelor's Degrees

There are three types of bachelor's degrees: arts, science and technology, and humanities and social sciences.

Differences Between Training Programs

The difference between an intermediate training cycle and initial vocational training programs (PCPI) is that a PCPI does not require an ESO degree, and completing it grants the ESO title. An intermediate training cycle requires an ESO title.

The specialized subjects are: art education, language education, and sports education.

• To take the entrance examination for middle-level vocational training, one must be at least 17 years old.
• In addition to IES training, there is training in workplaces (FCT).
• Access to a training cycle is direct with an ESO degree.
• The duration of these training courses varies between 1300 and 2000 hours.
• At the end of an intermediate training cycle, I can not pass a test without a superior level training cycle of the same professional family; if it is another family, I do an entrance test.

Match the two columns (they are related)

• Administrative management → Administration
• → Health Nursing Assistant
• Cooking Hospitality and Tourism →
• Microcomputer systems and networks → Computer
• Printing Graphic Arts → Graphic Arts
• Conduct of sport and physical activities in the natural environment and physical education →
• → Image Communication Laboratory, image and sound
• Personal aesthetic decorative → Personal Image

State whether the following statements are true or false.

• If you pass high school, you can go directly to a higher-level training cycle → True.
• The bachelor's degree can be done in four ways → False (It can be done in three ways: daytime, evening, and distance learning).
• Staying in school during the day shall not exceed 5 years → False (it is 4 years maximum).
• There are four classes of materials: common, proper form, optional, and marias → False (they are called 'marias' subjects to which no importance is given, but formerly).