A Historical Analysis: Effects Of Life Value Orientation On College Students' Career Planning In China

Value orientation, by definition, refers to the value inclination that people adopt under a certain circumstance in a certain way, which is the result of the complex interplay among our virtual value demands, criterions, judgments and choices. The career panning of college students is restricted, to a large extent, by their value orientations. Thus, the diverse value orientations which come into being under the influence of different political, economic and social conditions very often lead to different career planning.Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the value orientation of Chinese college students has gone through roughly four periods, namely, period of cultivation and monism, period of extremism and breakdown, period of remolding and differentiation and that of realism and diversification.Life value orientation in the first period features in cultivation and monism (1949—1965). During this period, social practice and theory were accordance with the life goal, ideals and beliefs, which believed that the value of one's life lay in his contribution to the society. Thus, the job allocation of college students was heavily planned and highly centralized. As for their career planning, after being allocated to their work units by the state, college students mainly tried to bridge the gap between ideal and reality on the premise of obeying the interests of the nation and the society so as to achieve the goal and the value of their life.During the period of the extremism and breakdown of value orientations (1966—1976), the ideology and the concept of life value of college students changed dramatically. As political enthusiasm turned into political fever, extremism appeared when people absolutely affirmed collective and social interests and completely denied personal interest. However, the great gap between ideal and reality in the process of social practice soon broke it down. For the students from a college for workers, peasants and soldiers of this period, the state adopted the allocation policy of "returning where you are from", and most students went back to their original work place after graduation to plan their future, while some turned to be "left" under the influence of the ultra-left thoughts.Then came the remolding and dividing period of life value orientation (1977—1992). Having gone through social transformation after the ending of the Great Cultural Revolution, college students gradually formed a new value. Different from the previous two periods, in this phase they emphasized that both social and individual interests should be taken into consideration, and the only focus on contribution to the society should be changed to that of the combination of social and individual interests. Meanwhile, value choices took on a diversifying trend. During this period, the job allocation of college students also changed, from "allocation under guidance in a planned way" to "'two -way selection between employers and employees' within a certain limit". What's more, college students began to plan their career during their school days instead of after their graduation as before. And they became more actively in their life planning according to their individual conditions and national needs and started to pay more attention to the rights and interests of their own.Since 1992, life value orientation has entered a phase of realism and diversification. With the deepening of the reform and opening up, changes have taken place in the thought and action of college students. Instead of focusing on ideal, they put more emphasis on the realistic benefits and their value orientation thus tends to be diversified. The employment of college students in this period implements the policy of "two-way selection, self-dependent career choice". At the beginning of university life, they may plan their career life according to their individual conditions and social needs, and make preparations of knowledge and others for it. In a word, the planning choices are diversified, putting less and less emphasis on collectivism.Career planning of college students in each period is largely confined to the life value orientation of that period. Every successful career planning is based on reasonable combination of individual ideal and social needs, making the ideal high, practical and positive by analyzing various influential factors. This success results from active accumulation of knowledge, proper plan steps, the formulation and implementation of feasible, practical and steady measures.From a perspective of development, society and colleges should attach much importance to the effect of life value orientation and reinforce the studies on it while guiding college students to plan their career. On one hand, society and colleges should conduct students to establish a proper outlook on value in line with the development of the times and the needs of our country. Meanwhile, they should excel in analyzing students' value inclinations and formulating policies in accordance with the development of China, thus better advancing career planning of college students. On the other hand, college students should actively cultivate themselves and autonomously combine their own value orientation with social value guidance.