Now what's cooler than being cool?

One construct which I'm thinking a bit about at the moment is the idea of being 'cool' and what impact, if any, this has on career thinking and career choices. To me it seems that being cool (whatever exactly this may mean) seems to have an impact on so many of the decisions of young people, I can't believe that it has no impact on career decisions. But I haven't come across much literature which explores this. 

The term cool originated in black culture in the 1920s in the US. It was a word used to define the resistance to conformity which jazz musicians enacted through drugs, alcohol and language (Shapiro, 1999). It meant pro-drug, anti-caring and anti-authority, and represented detachment, hedonism and narcissism (Pountain and Robins, 2000).

It has been adopted by youth culture and now refers to things which are up to date and desirable (Keller & Kalmus, 2009). It's a widely used term and is almost always positive, particularly for teenagers, and it seems that Generation Y set particular store by coolness (Goodman & Dretzin, 2001). Cool can be symbolised by actions, goods and attitudes, although which things symbolise cool will differ from one group to another and from one time to another.

Runyan, Moh and Mosier (2012) explored the concept of cool and worked out that it was made up of two dimensions: hedonic (does it please?) and utilitarian (is it useful?). Hedonic cool is broken down into singular cool (something unusual which highlights independence and individuality), reference cool (something which is clearly linked to a desirable reference group), personal cool (something which really well represents your own self-concept), aesthetic cool (something which is well-designed and attractive). Utilitarian cool is broken into functional cool (does it work?) and quality cool (is it well made?).

So how does this all fit with jobs? Neff, Wissinger and Zukin (2005) wrote an interesting paper which looked at hot industries and cool jobs and described the glamorous pull towards fashion modelling as a career with its beautiful people, high salaries and rock 'n' roll lifestyles. Elstad (2015)  suggests that artistic jobs are cool because they are unique and don't conform to standard rules or logic. This fits with the early definitions of 'cool' as anti-authority, They also suggest that cool jobs have high levels of job satisfaction, through high levels of intrinsic motivation and autonomy. These link to Runyan et al.'s (2012) ideas of singular cool (independence and individuality) and personal cool (something which represents your own self-concept) and I guess aesthetic cool because it's art.

It seems then that there are some jobs which are cool and some which aren't and that this is possibly linked to Runyan et al's five kinds of cool. 

There is also some evidence out there that 'a cool image' does seem to be important to young people making career choices (Young 2003) and Torraco (2004) showed that levels of cool influence the career-related choices that women make - specifically, that girls don't join chess clubs (which can develop the skills which help you to get into STEM careers) because they aren't cool.

So, the literature tells us what cool means; we know that coolness is of enormous importance to young people; and there is a little bit of a empirical evidence that the coolness of an occupation's image has an impact on career choice. But I think this is an area which needs more research!



References


Elstad, B. (2015). Freelancing: Cool jobs or bad jobs?. Nordisk kulturpolitisk tidsskrift, 18(01), 101-124.
Goodman, B., & Dretzin, R. (2001). Frontline: merchants of cool. Public Broadcasting Service, 27.
Keller, M., & Kalmus, V. (2009). What makes me cool? Estonian tweens' interpretative repertoires. Young Consumers, 10(4), 329-341.
Neff, G., Wissinger, E., & Zukin, S. (2005). Entrepreneurial labor among cultural producers:“Cool” jobs in “hot” industries. Social semiotics, 15(3), 307-334.
Pountain, D., & Robins, D. (2001). L'esprit cool: éthique, esthétique, phénomène culturel. Éd. Autrement.
Runyan, R. C., Noh, M., & Mosier, J. (2013). What is cool? Operationalizing the Construct in an Apparel Context. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 17(3), 322-340.
Torraco, L. A. (2004). Chess Club Is Not Cool: An Essay on the Choices Women Make that Preclude Them from Higher Professional Levels. Cardozo Women's LJ, 11, 589.
Shapiro, H. (1999) Waiting for the man
Young, J. (2003). The extent to which information communication technology careers fulfil the career ideals of girls. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 10(2).