Adult Career Counseling in a New Age Essay

The timeline in Fig 1.2 showing “events, high points and key moments in counseling history” since the beginning of the 20th century both interested and surprised me in several ways. Firstly, I was surprised to learn that, rather than evolving slowly in parallel with the medical profession in general in response to the needs of the mentally ill (perhaps more descriptive of the field of psychiatry), counseling as a profession was in fact pioneered by Frank Parsons, or at least by the vocational guidance movement that he represented (Granello, 2012, p. 14). It is interesting to me that career guidance is still an important part of counseling, (Granello, 2012, p. 18) since Frank Parsons struggled with this personally and identified it as a need in society. On consideration, I realize that it makes a great deal of sense that finding an enjoyable and appropriate career has a huge impact on personal well-being, and therefore one’s mental health. Frank Parsons identified an important aspect of society (lack of education regarding suitable professions) that he felt might contribute to its dysfunction, and wrote a number of books, including “Choosing a Vocation” (Granello, 2012, p. 14). Although at first this seemed to me a surprising initiator of the Counseling profession, it is probably quite a natural one.

A professional who holds a Master’s degree in counseling my also chose to have a career as a Vocational counselors. They may also be referred to as a career or employment counselors. These counselors offer counseling services in places other than the school setting. Their main objective is to help individuals with career choices, examine an educational background, employment history, skill and abilities, personalities and other aspects to help them. Additionally, career counselors may offer support services to people who have lost their jobs or experiencing career change issues (Baxter, 1997).

During the interview, Stashia presented issues of career changed frequently as she diverted from majoring in one career path to another. She divulged in the interview that she had once listened to others and not decided on her own path. She reported changing her major, considered doing things differently if she could, and not having taken any vocational assessments that would have helped her. The writer will conceptualize interviewees barriers with theories of career counseling.

Pamelia E. Brott, an associate professor of counselor education at Virginia Tech with a Ph.D. in Counseling and Counselor Education at the University of North Carolina, wrote the article “A Career Story Approach to Management, Business, and Financial Occupations”. The article discusses what the future outlook is on business, while giving a personal story on how to achieve a good future outlook in the field. The target audience deals with business majors in general, with some specific majors in mind. Searching for something to do for the remainder of one’s life requires a lot of thinking, which produces a large amount of stress and uncertainty. For one to be able to pick a career that he or she will find a passion for many years will never be

Most individuals struggle at the stage of making career choices and hence they decide to go for career counselling to guide them to the right path by weighing various factors that influence a career like personality. This is where career development theories come into place, these are frameworks that guide the career counsellors in examining and explaining individuals’ career related behaviour. Each career development theory gives a certain unique way to career development and choice. As quoted in Schreuder & Coetzee (2011),” Career counsellors must understand well established and emerging career theories, their strengths and weaknesses and how to apply them to client career development and choice to be able to effectively and

Today's workers need to prepare with continuous job training, growth and development. Given the increased age, experiences and diverse lifestyles of the working population, it is understandable that adult education practices must move beyond the traditional model of teachers and learners, while new skills, working with local companies to match their needs and sending staff into factories and other workplaces to spread the word about state and federal retraining assistance. While trying to decide how to rebuild your life after loss of employment and lack of job opportunities following the current recession, or devastated from a divorce? Adult students faced with other struggles; studies have shown that older adult students face different hurdles, family problems, and poor self-image. These along with poor time management, weaker academic preparation and a need for remediation an increased focus on adult learners and their needs can help. (armour)

Jerry reported being unsure of his interests, stating being indecisive between a career in music or wanting to pursue computer coding. Jerry reported he invested in professional career development services in the past when he was 17 years old to help decide his college major. Using this service now, he hopes to gain clarity on what would be best for him to study and help guide the direction of his career.

However, based on all of the stages been discussed earlier, people in the mid-forties to mid-fifties are at a different stage in their career and life than people that is at age 25 or 45. A career change after age 40 can be a tricky situation. In this stage, people will decide whether to continue along the same track because it is comfortable familiar and secure or change into the other career since there is an opportunity to pursue new personal or professional goals. This stage is called as middle career years or mid-career change. According to OUM textbook, mid-career means re-appraise early career and early adulthood, reaffirm or modify goals, make choices appropriate to middle adult years and remain productive. Mid-career is a time in which one is more likely to consider leaving a current job in order to take work in an organization that might indicate promise of greater career fulfillment or address a need for increased salary or benefits, intrinsic and extrinsic (WordWeb).

CareerBuilder ascribes this drop-off to a general sentiment instability for understudies with regards to making sense of what way they need to take. In a review from CareerBuilder, 41 percent of specialists announced that they wished they had gotten more help and direction before picking a profession way. Join that with another CareerBuilder study where one in four secondary school seniors report having "no clue what profession they need

Patton and McMahon (2006) developed a systems theory framework for development of careers called the Therapeutic Framework. The system categorizes the various factors that influence the choice of career into individual factors (for both the learner who is to choose their career and their counselor), organizational factors, or environmental factors (Patton & McMahon, 2006). The system also recognizes the effect of timing on these factors; thus incorporating the aspects of past, present and future (McMahon, Forde, & Dickson, 2015).

For many people, finding a career that is both fulfilling and practical is a strenuous task. Fortunately, there is a plethora of different interventions, techniques, assessments, and inventories designed to aid those individuals in making the wisest career choices possible. But are any of those routes inherently better than the others? Or are all the differing options separate but equally effective? Donald Super’s Life Span Theory and John Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice are just two of the many theories used for career counseling. Both methods are distinct in the way they approach career issues, yet despite their differences, there are some resemblances between the two theories as well. Comparing and contrasting these two theories will make it easier to see if one theory is better than the other for career counseling or if they are both equally effective.

The second step explains each person is qualified for multiple career paths. Once the individual defines their unique characteristics, the career counselor can begin to create a list of potential career paths (Brown, 2016). Every person has the opportunity to excel at numerous jobs, but the hard task is locating which occupations makes the client happiest. As long as the person as no physical or mental limitations the career options are endless. There are a few job markets that do require a certain skillset. It is the responsibility of the career coach to identify those special traits, then see if the individual possesses those traits. The main goal for a counselor is to do no harm. The counselor can cause the individual harm

Initially, the guidance and client context is identified, with reference to their age group, diversity and need for careers guidance. This is followed by theories of

Career counselling refers to mentoring or coaching on issues, which relate to a person’s career. It generally helps individuals make the right choices in terms of career paths, career development and career change. The overall aim of career counselling is to help the individual maximise the successes they’ll have on their chosen career path.

Career Counseling, or Career Services depending on the institution, is frequently offered on a one-on-one basis, but at times this service is provided through group workshops, classes, or computerized guidance systems. Traditionally a standard function of the career services role is to help students develop job search skills however the scope of the