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The three major themes Wharton articulated identify sociological interest in work. The first theme is that larger trends across countries or globe affect workers’ lives. This theme reflects a methodological concern since researchers should consider individual workers’ experience as well as environments in which workers live. The second theme is demographic diversity of workers. As the level of diversification is highest ever, changes in American workplaces have occurred with stratification of works. The third theme is work is interconnected with many different aspects of the social world. Economic terms can explain work in some part; however, there is a limit of understanding work only with economic terms.

Before applying these themes to my work experience, I need to clarify how my current position, which is a student, can qualify as work based on Hodson and Sullivan’s definition. According to them, work means any activities which create values and provide personal benefits. Work is not only paid labor, but self-employed labor and unpaid labor. Students should be included in work, too. Being students provides personal benefits which are academic achievements and social experiences from extra-curricular activities.

With regard to the wider social trends, there is a trend that more students go to colleges after high schools. Since people with higher education tend to be considered as more competitive and expect higher salaries in workplace than people with lower education, many people decide to get a college degree. Moreover, recruiters expect students to have academic achievements, social skills, as well as job-related skills and internship experiences. The range of students’ work has kept widening.

Being a college student does not seem to reflect society’s system of stratification. Stratification of works means a work is stereotyped as any specific