Career Counseling Over the Lifespan Essay

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

The words “career counseling” and “substance abuse treatment” on the surface appear as two completely isolated areas, with little interconnection. Personally, as an individual in recovery from addiction, as well as professionally, working as a drug and alcohol case manager, experience has shown me that vocation is very relevant to this population. It is one of the primary goal areas in which I work with my clients on a daily basis. Many of these individuals have completed treatment and are looking for new ways to enter the workforce and provide for themselves and their families, while also battling past career mistakes and missteps. Furthermore, education levels have

One of the overall goals of the career counseling process is for the counselor to assist the client to transition from a stage of exploration of themselves and their abilities, interests and values to that of making career decisions. By identifying this in Ruby helped me guide her throughout our sessions and formulate an action plan to overcome her obstacles and challenges at work. As a counselor I must informed Ruby of the many phrases that we may go through during the career counseling process as well as to discuss the goals of each phase. This process is called “Exploring Phase” then “Decision-Making Phase” (Andersen and Vandehey, 2006, p.179).

What I have learned over the time in this course is career counseling incorporates all aspects of the individual. Yes, career counseling is focused on helping people find that career that fits them best matching their interests and personality but deals with other issues in the individuals’ life. The theory that resonates most with me is Holland’s theory and the use of Self-Directed Search (SDS) to identify interests, abilities, and personality (Sharf, 2013). When we were able to complete the Strong Interest Inventory and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Career Report and compare the result with the SDS to recognize the consistencies. These assessments reinforced my choice of becoming a professional counselor, although with my past career history

Savickas (2013) discussed the life design model to narrative career counseling, as it pertains to individuals already involved in a career. He stated that this model assists

Third, the views of career and career issues are culturally defined. Fourth, all theories of career development and models of career counseling contain culturally defined assumptions. Fifth, the goals of career counseling need to be collaboratively defined, which means they might be connected to cultural norms career outcomes, and family/community expectations when making decisions. Sixth, CICC challenges counselors to incorporate multiple levels of interventions that go beyond just normal individual counseling. The CICC model emphasizes that career counseling is very much related to the cultural point of view of the individual. It helps the counselor understand that their culture affects the way they work, which is why it is important for them to understand the culture of the

A brief background overview on a few career development theories will help direct this literature review and give a foundation to current theories in career development. Career development is a complex, lifelong process that is influenced by a variety of factors. Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey (2005) defined career development as “the lifelong psychological and behavioral processes as well as contextual influences shaping one’s career over the life span” (p. 12). Although there are many career development theories, this literature review will focus on just a few. Donald Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space Career Theory highlights the “complex and multifaceted nature of career development” (Niles & Hutchinson, 2009, p. 69). Super’s theory builds upon 14 assumptions and supports three key aspects of career development: life-span, life-space, and self-concept (Niles & Hutchinson, 2009). Life-span focuses on the development over one’s life through growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and

In the beginning, career counseling was strictly developed to help with job placement, but it became so much more than that after the career development was further researched by a group of theorist that focused on career process. What is it that drives us to choose a specific career path? According to Zunker (2012), different theorists such as Parsons, Holland, Krumboltz, Bandura, Super, and Gottfredson all developed theories on career development and their perspective on the importance of occupational process. Throughout this paper one will discuss the John Holland’s Typology and the significance of this particular career theory. Some of the points that will be covered in this paper include: history of theory, strengths and weaknesses, assessments used, population best fit for this theory, and diversity and

This model requires a close relationship between client and coach for it to be successful.  A career coach is responsible for helping an individual "identify their sharpest skills, define career goals, be more productive, set strategies to earn more money, and make them more valuable to their current or next boss (Simpson & Glowiak, 2012, p. 289). Peterson and Millier (2005) stress learning and development as the main goal of career coaching. The authors encourage career coaches to implement techniques that help clients make decisions based on long-term priorities and not contemporary

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.

Gysbers (2003) proposes that the value of career theories comes from providing practitioners with a framework to examine client behaviour, help understand the possible meanings of or explanations for the behaviour and subsequently, enables them to identify and respond to clients’ goals or problems. Significantly then, such theories may help explain an individual’s vocational behaviour, such as their initial career choice or later aspects of career development. This essay attempts to identify the theoretical framework that will underpin my guidance practice in the future.

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