Module 1
Career Introduction and Theory
A. The Meaning of Work Across Time
Like it or not, what we do for pay is a big part of our lives. In many ways it
defines who we are, and it’s how most people provide for the basic needs of day-to-day
living, such as food, shelter, and transportation. In time, if we are lucky, our job can
provide more: quality leisure time, investments for the education of our children, a home,
and so on. Every day we get up and go to work. There’s no getting out of it, so it’s
imperative to choose a field or endeavor that will enrich our lives. It#adds a certain
quality not only to our personal worlds but also to the world around us, not with great
bursts of genius, but rather with a slow, steady infusion of our knowledge and skills.
As Stephanie and her classmates discussed their lives as graduate students in the
counseling field, their attention turned toward their required career development course.
They wondered why they needed to take this course. José confidently declared that he
had no interest in providing career counseling and that he was not likely ever to need to
know much about the topics they would cover in class. Jonathan agreed and stated that he
found the prospect of giving people tests to be rather boring. Beth was clear that she was
headed toward private practice and that she would probably just refer clients with career
concerns to other practitioners interested in that sort of work. Chandra did not agree, but
her peers seemed so clearly negative about this class that she was reluctant to say so. She
had witnessed the influence that work had on her family and she knew it was an
important topic to understand. Her father had been laid off from his job as an engineer
when the company he worked for moved overseas. Her family had struggled to make
ends meet as Chandra’s father searched for new employment. Her mother struggled to
keep her full-time job while also taking care of Chandra and her two younger brothers.
When her father was forced to settle for a job that provided far less pay, challenge, and
satisfaction than his previous one, she watched as her father became more depressed and
the tension between her parents increased. Even her brothers were behaving differently
and getting into more trouble at school. Chandra worried about her family and she knew
that their future was being influenced significantly by her parents’ career development.
Chandra saw connections between work and life through the experience of her own
family, and she hoped that the career development course would help her understand how
to help people in similar situations.
The introductory quotes from David H., Ann D., and Camille S. each
communicate the diverse values, purposes, and goals that people attach to work. When
they can, many people view work as an outlet for self-expression and a vehicle for
creating meaning and purpose in life. Other people work to provide for their families and,
often due to circumstances beyond their control, approach work as a means to an end.
Some, like Camille, the physician, see work as a way to fulfill their responsibility to an
ethnic or cultural group. Still others struggle simply to find work. COVID-19 drove the
unemployment rate in the United States in May 2020 to 13.3% (Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 2020) significantly higher than the January 2019 level of 3.2% (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 2019). The May 2020 percentage translates into more than 46 million
workers unemployed in the United States. That is a large number and it is likely that you
know someone who is struggling with unemployment and working hard to find work.
Actual unemployment numbers can often be misleading, however. For example, if you
are unemployed and have given up looking for work for a period of one month, then you
would not be counted in the unemployment numbers- and there are significant numbers
of people whom have simply given up trying to find work. Unemployment calculations
also do not distinguish part-time jobs from full-time jobs or reveal anything about the
quality of those jobs. In fact, the unemployment rate ignores millions of underemployed
Americans whose jobs do not match their skill level, education, or availability to work.
Underemployment is a broad term that generally refers to three types of workers: high-
skilled employees with low-skilled jobs, part-time workers who want fulltime jobs, and
skilled workers with low-paying jobs. Although these workers technically have jobs, they
don’t have the opportunity to contribute as much as they can to society. For example,
someone with a law degree is underemployed if she can’t find a job at a law firm and she
is forced to work as a shoe salesperson. What’s more, underemployment seems to be
worst among workers with the least education. The Economic Policy Institute looked at
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data and reported that the underemployment rate for
workers without a high school degree was 18.8% in 2016. No doubt this number is much
higher today.
Unfortunately, the experience Chandra described is not unusual today. Adults
strive to cope effectively with their careers in uncertain times. Recent college graduates
struggle to land their first postgraduate job. Adolescents feel the pressure to succeed but
often wonder how their daily experiences in high school connect to their future
educational and career opportunities. Children are constantly exposed to occupational
stereotypes that influence their perceptions of which future opportunities are open to
them and which are not. Thus, we state with emphatic emphasis that the need to provide
career assistance exists in every setting in which counselors work! Counselors in school,
higher education, and community settings will, to varying degrees and at various times,
encounter clients confronting career development issues. It is for good reason, for
instance, that the American School Counselor Association has historically identified
career development as a key area essential to the work of school counselors. Positive
engagement in career and educational planning fosters student engagement, which in
turns fosters academic success. It is also the case that survey results examining the
concerns expressed by college students consistently identify the need for career
assistance as their greatest need. Employers downsize frequently, making career issues a
constant worry for adult workers. the COVID-19 pandemic, in which unemployment rose
from 281,000 to nearly more than 46 million unemployed workers within a several-
month time period, provided a tragic and stark reminder of the fragility of anyone’s
employment situation.
Moreover, the topics related to career development interventions are exciting and
challenging. In many ways, career development interventions connect with recent
emphases in psychology on optimizing human functioning, maximizing happiness, and
fulfilling human potential (Niles, Amundson, & Neault 2011; Savickas, 2009, Yoon et
al., 2015). Career counselors meet their clients at the intersection between what has been
and what could be in their lives. At#their core, career development interventions focus on
helping people consider how they will develop and use their talents as they live their
lives. Career development practitioners also seek to empower people to construct
meaning out of their unique life experiences and then translate that derived meaning into
appropriate occupational and other life-role choices. Translating life experiences into
career choices requires people to possess a relatively high level of self-awareness.
Accordingly, career practitioners provide interventions to help their clients clarify and
articulate their self-concepts. These interventions can include formal, standardized
assessments as well as informal, nonstandardized assessment activities that actively and
creatively engage clients in the career intervention process (Amundson, 2019). Because
sorting through career concerns and engaging in career planning are complex processes,
competent career practice requires counselors to be skilled at developing effective
working alliances with their clients (Amundson, 2019; Anderson & Niles, 2000; Brott,
2019; Multon, Heppner, Gysbers, Zook, & ellis-Kalton, 2001; Perrone, 2005). When
career counselors work collaboratively and innovatively with their clients to construct a
clear career direction, both the client and the counselor experience the intervention
process as exciting and positive.
Working collaboratively and effectively with clients also requires career
practitioners to possess multicultural competencies at an advanced level (National Career
Development Association, 2009). For instance, clients operating from a collectivistic
orientation engage in the career planning process in important ways that differ from
clients operating from an individualistic orientation. Working with the client’s cultural
context is essential to providing effective career assistance. For example, Kim, Li, and
Liang (2002) found that career counselors focusing on the expression of emotion were
perceived as having greater cross-cultural competence than were counselors focusing on
the expression of cognition when working with Asian American college students with
high adherence to Asian values. Leong (2002) found acculturation to be positively related
to job satisfaction and negatively related to occupational stress and strain. Gomez and
colleagues (2001) found that Latina career development is strongly influenced by
sociopolitical, cultural, contextual, and personal variables. Specifically, factors such as
socioeconomic status, family, cultural identity, and the existence of a support network all
helped to shape the course of career development for the Latinas participating in the
study conducted by Gomez and colleagues. Madonna, Miville, Warren, Gainor, and
Lewis-Coles (2006) highlight the importance of understanding the client’s religious
orientation within the career development experience. Paul (2008) describes the use of a
constructive-developmental approach to career counseling that incorporates a client’s
sexual identity into the career counseling process. Pepper and Lorah (2008) discuss the
importance of workplace considerations and career concerns for transsexual individuals.
Powell et al. (2017) offer a career counseling framework that factors family influences
into the career decision-making process. The client’s constellation of cultural/contextual
variables clearly matters in the career intervention process. thus, similar to general
counseling interventions, the career development intervention process is a dynamic,
complex, and challenging one that requires career practitioners to draw upon
multicultural counseling skills to effectively help their clients move forward in their
career development (and, like general counseling, all career counseling is also
multicultural counseling).
In addition to decreased longevity with a single employer, workers today are
operating within a globalized economy. Thomas Friedman described this phenomenon in
his book titled The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century (Friedman, 2005).
Friedman noted that technological advances have created a more level economic playing
field, with previously disadvantaged countries rising in knowledge and wealth to rival
that of the United States and other world powers. Computer and communications
technologies, previously a stronghold of developed countries, have been accessed and
mastered by countries such as China and India, making these nations more economically
competitive. This leveling or “flattening” of access and opportunity has had a major
impact on the nature of work throughout the world. For one thing, it has accelerated
economic globalization or the economic interdependence of national economies so that
what happens economically in one country has an impact on the economy of another
country. The global unemployment rates of the past several years provide clear evidence
of this fact.
What are the practical implications of the trends Friedman identifies? To compete
effectively in a “flat” world, Friedman proposes the following as being necessary for
21st-century workers. First, there is the need to be constantly engaged in learning. It is
essential that workers learn new ways of doing old things as well as new ways of doing
new things. Second, it is essential to develop a sense of passion for, and curiosity about,
life. Passion and curiosity are powerful forces that bring energy, innovation, and new
ideas to the workplace. Third, the capacity to work collaboratively is a requisite skill for
addressing the complex challenges in the 21st century. Interpersonal skills contribute to
someone being viewed as a valued team member who contributes positively to any
workplace challenge. Finally, being able to balance analytical thinking with creativity
provides a valuable perspective to solving problems that companies encounter.
Friedman’s list of effective career self-management skills for the 21st century can be
expanded to include (a) the capacity to cope with change and tolerate ambiguity, (b) the
ability to acquire and use occupational information effectively, (c) the ability to adjust
quickly to changing work demands, and (d) the skills to use technology effectively.
Developing these capacities with specific job content skills will enable workers to stay
current in today’s global economy.
Clearly, globalization presents a mixture of positive benefits for us to enjoy and
negative outcomes for us to address. the negative outcomes listed above can be added to
the long-existing income disparities between men and women; differences in income
levels and employment opportunities between majority and nonmajority workers;
economic inequity and employ ment discrimination experienced by workers with
disabilities; disparities between those who have access to quality education and the
opportunities that education provides and those for whom those opportunities are
currently closed; employment discrimination experienced by sexual minorities; and the
list goes on. In an article addressing the impact of accelerating digitalization and
automation of work, known as the fourth industrial revolution, Hirschi (2018) notes that
estimates regarding the degree to which automation will eliminate jobs are both
significant and exaggerated. Hirschi states that in many instances the impact is likely to
be more task-specific, rather than a situation that impacts the existence of an entire
occupation. That is, portions of many jobs may be automated while other aspects of the
same occupation may not be as susceptible to automation. For example, certain aspects of
diagnosis in mental health counseling may be automated and digitized, however, whether
technology can establish an effective working alliance with a client that is as effective as
a highly skilled counselor remains to be seen! Typically, workers with higher skills and
higher educational levels are less likely to be impacted by automation than workers with
lower skills and less education.
Collectively, the impact of globalization and the fourth industrial revolution
highlight the need career practitioners to help their clients change with change. To
accomplish this, workers need support in maintaining self-awareness relative to how their
life experiences influence their evolving sense of self. Moreover, they need to stay
vigilant in understanding how work is evolving so they are aware of the fact that as work
changes over time, they need to continuously consider how changes in work may
influence their need to consider new training and emerging work opportunities. Finally,
becoming more accepting of change (more adaptable) is a 21stcentury requirement for all
persons. The prevalence of ambiguity relative to the long-term stability of any situation
makes change a constant and the capacity to adapt to change an essential requirement.
These developments within the nature of work and the opportunity to find work indicate a
need for public policies supporting workers. For example, historically in the United
States the federal government has sponsored worker training programs (e.g., the Job
training Partnership Act, the Comprehensive employment and training Act) so that those
workers who lack relevant job skills can pursue low- to no-cost training opportunities
intended to provide workers with relevant skills for employment. Such issues highlight
the need for career practitioners to engage in social justice and advocacy. In fact, we
contend that being able to engage effectively in social justice and advocacy has become
essential for competent career practitioners in the 21st century.
Among other things, engaging in social justice and advocacy requires career
development practitioners to learn about legislation and public policies that support
workers and provide for the provision of career development services (e.g., the
Workforce Investment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act) across the life span.
Related to this, Friedman identifies the need for legislation that makes it easier to switch
jobs by making retirement benefits and health insurance less dependent on one’s
employer and by providing insurance that would partly cover a possible drop in income
when changing jobs. Friedman also believes there should be more inspiration for youth to
aspire to occupations in science, technology, engineering, and math (SteM) fields due to a
decrease in the percentage of these professionals. Such recommendations provide implicit
support for infusing career development language into the reauthorization of the next
iteration of the elementary and Secondary education Act (most recently referred to as the
every Student Succeeds Act). Knowing how to impact policy and legislation is an
important skill for career development practitioners. For example, corresponding with
legislators regarding the importance of career services for all people and informing
legislators of the benefits of career services for the individual and community are
important advocacy actions that career practitioners can take. Being a multiculturally
competent career practitioner is also an essential component of providing effective career
interventions. throughout this text we highlight these skills and connect them to career
development interventions. We also emphasize that because children, adolescents, and
adults are all required to cope successfully with career development tasks to manage their
careers effectively, all counselors must be skilled at providing career interventions and
must understand the career development process, regardless of their work setting.
Obviously, understanding the career development process and being able to
provide holistic, comprehensive, and systematic career development interventions across
the lifespan requires career practitioners to appreciate the role that work plays in people’s
lives. there is substantial evidence indicating that the meaning of work for people across
the globe is changing in the 21st century (e.g., Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2009; Borchert &
Landherr, 2009; Ferrar, Nota, Soresi, Blustein, Murphy, & Kenna, 2009; Hirschi, 2018).
Unfortunately, many of the shifts occurring in work patterns are not positive for workers.
For example, most workers in industrialized countries now enjoy the benefits of
substantial periods of paid annual leave (typically about three weeks per year) and paid
parental leave. Currently, 134 countries have laws establishing a maximum length to the
workweek. the exception to these trends is the United States. According to the
International Labour Organization, Americans work 137 more hours per year than
Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per
year than French workers. Currently, 85.8% of men and 66.5% of all women in the
United States work more than 40 hours per week. It should come as no surprise,
therefore, that Americans report sharply higher levels of work-family conflict than do
citizens of other industrialized countries. Fully 90% of American mothers and 95% of
American fathers report work–family conflict.
By standards that existed in the 1800s, when the average American worked 70
hours per week, the centrality of work in the identities of many Americans has arguably
lessened, but by current standards the data indicate that work continues to dominate the
identities of many Americans. this is not surprising given that the work you choose
influences the persons with whom you will associate for a major portion of your daily
life; it also affects how much vacation you take and when it will occur, the types of
continuing education and training that you will engage in, the type of supervision you
will have, the degree of autonomy you will experience, and the lifestyle you will enjoy.
thus, it is no surprise that one of the first questions people ask each other when first
meeting is, “What do you do?” Although on the surface this is a rather open question and
people could respond by describing a wide variety of life activities, they seldom do. there
is the implicit (if not explicit) understanding that the query relates to what one does to
earn a living. Such interactions reinforce the contention that in a fluid industrial society,
occupation is one of the principal determinants of social status (Super, 1976). Such
interactions also support Sigmund Freud’s statement that “work is the individual’s link to
reality.” For better or worse, our choice of work colors the perceptual lens through which
others often view us and through which we often view ourselves. No doubt we make
differing assumptions about people who tell us they are neurosurgeons as compared with
those who tell us they are employed at a local fast-food restaurant. In many countries,
occupational title tends to be used, correctly or incorrectly, to identify a person more than
does any other single characteristic.
A more dramatic shift in the meaning of work resulted from the theological
perspective espoused by John Calvin and his followers. John Calvin built on earlier
traditions that viewed work as the will of God by adding the idea that the results of work
(i.e., profits) should be used to finance new ventures for additional profit and, in turn, for
additional investment. Additionally, Calvin’s doctrine of predestination (i.e., that one’s
fate after life is predetermined) led his followers to search for visible signs in this life that
one was predestined for eternal life. Success in work came to be viewed as a visible sign
that one was predestined for eternal life. this view of work resulted in the notion that one
was obligated to God to achieve the highest possible and most rewarding occupation. As
a result, striving for upward mobility became morally justified. this coincided with the
belief that God rewards those who devote time and effort to work. thus, the reformation
brought about a view of work labeled as the “Protestant work ethic.” the value attached to
hard work, the need for all persons to work, and the justification of profit emerging from
Calvinism would eventually form the basis of modern capitalism and industrialism. the
values associated with the Protestant work ethic also served as the basis for the 19th-
century view of work labeled by Savickas (1993) as the “vocational ethic.” this ethic
valued independent effort, self-sufficiency, frugality, self-discipline, and humility and
was brought to the United States by the Puritans.
More recent developments in the nature of work bring into question the viability
of the career ethic (McCortney & engels, 2003). For example, many of the organizations
served by the career ethic are downsizing in unprecedented numbers. Many workers have
found that computers are performing the work tasks they once did. Many employers view
workers as expendable commodities. those workers who have been downsized are often
left feeling betrayed, anxious, and insecure about the future. After working long hours
and/or relocating to new communities to maintain their employment, many workers are
less willing to sacrifice everything for their employers when their employers are so
willing to sacrifice them. Survivors of downsizing realize that their situations are
anything but secure and their anxieties manifest themselves in longer working hours and
more alienation at home (McCortney & engels, 2003). Additionally, companies are
flattening their organizational structures, resulting in fewer career ladders to climb. the
elimination of vertical hierarchies brings into question the definition of a “successful”
career. Hall and his associates (1996) argue that changes occurring in the structure of
employment opportunities portend a future in which “people’s careers will increasingly
become a succession of ‘ministages’ of exploration-trial-mastery-exit, as they move in
and out of various product areas, technologies, functions, organizations and other work
environments” (p.# 33). Callanan, Perri, and tomkowicz (2017) contend that a new normal
has emerged in career development. this new normal reflects high degrees of career
uncertainty due to environmental influences that increase the speed with which career
decisions are made. the result is shorter and more frequent career cycles and an increase
in the number of career decisions people make over the course of a lifetime.
Of course, descriptions related to how work evolved in the United States, but
certainly not limited to the United States, most often describe the evolutionary work
experiences of a limited group—the White and privileged. For many, especially people
who are Black and/or poor, slavery was the dominant influence shaping the skills a
worker learned and used daily, what each day entailed, and, obviously, how one lived. the
viciousness of the slavery system and the ubiquitous nature of slavery historically have
given way to a more “modern” version of systemic racism and individualized racist
beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes. It is obvious that discrimination continues to thrive.
reminders of the challenges related to dismantling systemic racism and other forms of
discrimination in education, politics, work, community life, and daily interactions surface
regularly. Sadly, those who continue to propagate racism fail to see that the poison of
their racist and discriminatory behavior does not flow in one direction. Clearly people of
color, women, those with disabilities, and sexual and gender minorities experience the
brutal force of discrimination most acutely. those perpetuating such discriminatory
behavior, however, are themselves, made less than as a result. their hate, fear, and vitriol
represent dysfunctional characteristics that significantly limit who they are and what they
could become. thus, the intersection of slavery, racism, and discrimination with career
development has a prominence in the United States and around the world that cannot
continue. Global support for the Black Lives Matter movement speaks to the widespread
prevalence of racism and discrimination as well as the growing awareness that antiracist
activism is everyone’s responsibility. We discuss these processes in more detail in
Chapter 4; however, readers need to consider that the system of slavery that took hold in
the United States in 1619 continues to impact how we view others, especially people of
color, and how access to a quality education and occupational opportunity continues to
relate to the opportunity structures.
Career development occurs within a context of constant economic, social,
cultural, technological, political, global, and historical change. these changes also
underscore that career development, like human development, is an evolutionary process.
However, unlike biological manifestations of development—which are ontogenetic and,
therefore, fairly predictable—career development is a process that is dynamic,
interactive, contextual, relational, and often unpredictable. the experience of working also
is shaped by systemic racism and systems that exclude people due to differences in race,
color, gender, sexual orientation, and whether they have disabilities. Career counselors
have a role to play in empowering their clients to achieve their full potential, but it does
not stop there. Career counselors, because of their expertise, can be effective advocates
for creating a workforce that is more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. Until then, we are
all less than what we can be.
B. Linking Work with Worth
It also seems clear that, despite historical changes in the meaning people attach to
work, and whether it is viewed as a blessing or a curse, work continues to play a central
role in our lives. the fact that work maintains its standing as a central role in the lives of
many has been supported empirically (Brief & Nord, 1990; Mannheim, 1993). More
recently, Doherty (2009) found that work played a central role in the lives of his study
participants; he specifically noted that work provided social interactions, which fulfill
social and personal needs and provide a sense of personal identity and meaning. the
results supporting the primacy of work in people’s lives in the Doherty study were
uniform across workplaces and occupations. Moreover, this phenomenon is not limited to
the United States—results from cross-national studies suggest that many people in other
countries view work as being more important than leisure, community, and even religion
(Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2009; Borchert#&#Landherr,#2009). Harpaz (1999) found that in
several multinational studies work was second in importance only to family activities.
Neves, Nascimento, Felix, da Silva, and de Andrade (2018) examined research conducted
in Brazil from 2008 to 2015 and found that work continues to be one of the fundamental
values for individuals and still plays an important role in self-actualization and
subjectivity as well as in contributing to the development of one’s identity.
Not only do we continue to place an extremely high value on work, but people in
the United States also tend to use psychological definitions of work. Psychologically
oriented definitions of work place the perceptions and motivations relative to work within
the individual’s actions and control. Such definitions reflect a largely American view
toward work, which emphasizes individual control in career development (e.g.,
motivation, discipline, perseverance, goal directedness) and deemphasizes the role that
sociological/contextual variables (e.g., the opportunity structure, the economy,
socioeconomic status) play in shaping one’s career. thus, if a person has a “successful
career,” we tend to make a number of very positive attributions to that person; we say
that person who is a “success” (regardless of whether we actually know the person). the
corresponding assumption is that the “unsuccessful” person is inferior. Our denial of the
sociological factors influencing the pattern of one’s career development, and the
centrality of work in our culture, become problematic for many of us because we link
work with self-worth (Niles & Gutierrez, 2019). Obviously, if our sense of self-worth is
substantially dependent upon how we feel about our work contributions, then our self-
esteem can unravel fairly quickly if our work situations go awry (Herr, Cramer, & Niles,
2004). If you have ever felt undecided about your career choice; if you have ever been
fired from a job or worked in a job that was extremely dissatisfying; and/or if you have
been unable to find a job or lived with anyone experiencing any of these events, then you
probably have a good sense of the negative emotions that often surface in negative work-
related situations.
High levels of career uncertainty and occupational dissatisfaction are positively
correlated with high levels of psychological and physical distress (Callanan, Perri, &
tomkowicz, 2017). Across time, high levels of unemployment have been associated with
increased rates of chemical dependency, interpersonal violence, suicide, criminal activity,
admissions to psychiatric facilities, financial distress, and economic downturns (Herr et
al., 2004; Holland, 2012; Kalton, 2001; Liem & rayman, 1982; Simpson, 2017). Difficult
career situations often translate to difficult life situations. Fritzche and Parrish (2005) cite
research supporting the “spillover hypothesis,” which suggests that feelings in one area of
life affect feelings in other areas of living. Clearly, the ripple effects that occur when
career situations go awry can be dramatic and tragic. Moreover, all counselors, regardless
of their work settings, will encounter these ripple effects either directly (by working with
a client experiencing career difficulties) or indirectly (by working with a family member
of a person experiencing career difficulties).
It is clear that the need to provide systematic assistance to individuals attempting
to deal more effectively with the influence of work in their lives is tremendous (National
Career Development Association, 2011). the young, the elderly, the unemployed, the
underemployed, the displaced homemaker, the displaced worker; and members of diverse
racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups each confront work-related issues that have
significant implications for their lives. How well they are able to cope with these issues
may be the difference between living a life that is meaningful and productive and one that
is largely void of meaning and satisfaction. Counselors provide career assistance to their
clients in a number of ways. For example, counselors in high school, postsecondary, and
community settings teach clients the skills (e.g.,# self-assessment, job search, and career
information acquisition) necessary for effective career planning and career decision-
making. Counselors in all settings can also help their students/clients to realize that
decisions about work influence one’s total life. Correspondingly, counselors can help
clients develop realistic expectations for what work can provide in terms of personal
satisfaction. When work is lacking in personal satisfaction, meaningful participation in
other life roles can help to offset this lack of satisfaction. Given the extreme emphasis we
place on intraindividual variables in career development, a major task confronting
counselors involves helping people to realize that self-worth is not defined by one’s work
situation. Selfworth relates more to how one lives, rather than where one works. these are
important lessons that counselors in school, postsecondary, and community settings can
teach and reinforce in their students/clients.
C. Definition of Terms
Career development interventions are shaped, in part, by how we define our
terms. A major issue within the area of career development interventions is the misuse of
terminology among career practitioners as well as clients. For example, it is not
uncommon for professional counselors to use the terms career and work interchangeably.
It is also not unusual to hear professionals talk about “doing career development” as if
career development were an intervention rather than the object of an intervention.
Similarly, counselors often confuse the terms career guidance and career counseling. this
lack of precision confuses practitioners, students, and clients and, therefore, is a barrier to
advancing the efficacy of career development interventions. When language lacks
precision, the implication is that terminology does not matter. However, words have
power in that career development practitioners are “engaged in a verbal profession in
which words and symbols frequently become the content of the interactions they have
with clients” (Herr, 1997, p. 241). thus, the need exists for greater clarity and specificity
with regard to the key terms related to career development interventions. Such specificity
enhances the credibility of our profession and provides a common ground for devising,
implementing, and evaluating career development interventions. In this text, we define
key terms as explained in the following paragraphs.
Rather than limiting the definition of career to work, we advocate viewing career
as a lifestyle concept. Accordingly, we concur with Super’s (1976) view of career as the
course of events constituting a life, and Herr et al.’s (2004) notion of career as the total
constellation of roles played over the course of a lifetime. these definitions are broader
than the one offered by Sears (1982), which defines career as the totality of work one
does in a lifetime. Broader definitions highlight the multiple life roles people play and
acknowledge differences across people regarding life-role salience generally and the
importance of work in people’s lives in particular (richardson, 1993). For example, broad
definitions of career apply to those locating work in the life role of homemaker or in
volunteer activities.
Career development refers to the lifelong psychological and behavioral processes
as well as contextual influences shaping one’s career over the lifespan. As such, career
development involves the person’s creation of a career pattern, decision-making style,
integration of life roles, values expression, and life-role self-concepts (Herr et al., 2004)
Career development interventions, defined broadly, involve any activities that empower
people to cope effectively with career development tasks (Spokane, 1991). For example,
activities that help people develop self-awareness, develop occupational awareness, learn
decision-making skills, acquire job-search skills, adjust to occupational choices after they
have been implemented, and cope with job stress can each be labeled as career
development interventions. Specifically, these activities include individual and group
career counseling, career development programs, career education, computer-assisted
career development programs, and computer information delivery systems, as well as
other forms of delivering career information to clients.
Career counseling involves a formal relationship in which a professional
counselor assists a client or group of clients to cope more effectively with career concerns
(e.g., making a career choice, coping with career transitions, coping with job-related
stress, or job searching). typically, career counselors seek to establish rapport with their
clients, assess their clients’ career concerns, establish goals for the career counseling
relationship, intervene in ways that help clients cope more effectively with career
concerns, evaluate clients’ progress, and, depending on clients’ progress, either offer
additional interventions or terminate career counseling.
Career education is the systematic attempt to influence the career development of
students and adults through various types of educational strategies, including providing
occupational information, infusing career-related concepts into the academic curriculum,
offering various worksite-based experiences, and offering career planning courses. Career
development programs can be defined as “a systematic program of counselor-coordinated
information and experiences designed to facilitate individual career development” (Herr
& Cramer, 1996, p. 33). these programs typically contain goals, objectives, activities, and
methods for evaluating the effectiveness of the activities in achieving the goals.
A variety of individuals provide career assistance in a variety of settings.
Doctoral-level psychologists who specialize in career development interventions often
work in private practice, university counseling centers, corporate settings, and
community-based agencies. they typically have earned a doctoral degree in counseling
psychology from programs accredited by the American Psychological Association and
use the term vocational or career psychologist to describe themselves. Licensed
professional counselors can also provide career interventions in settings similar to those
in which vocational psychologists work. Additionally, they often work in school settings
providing career assistance to students in elementary, middle, and/or high schools. In
most cases, professional counselors possess a master’s degree and/or doctoral degree in
counseling, often from a program that is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation
of Counseling and related educational Programs (CACreP). Career development
facilitators (CDFs) may or may not have a postsecondary degree but they have received
120 hours of training from an approved provider; this training equips them to offer more
entry-level career assistance that focuses on job search skills (e.g., resume writing,
interview skills, networking) and the use of more basic self-assessment activities. they
work primarily in employment centers, schools, and postsecondary settings.
D. Important Events in the History of Career Development Interventions
The rise of career development interventions accelerated in the late 1800s as the
national economy in the United States shifted from one based primarily in agriculture to
one that was grounded in the industrial and manufacturing processes. this economic shift
brought with it new sets of occupational opportunities. these new occupational
opportunities connected to industrial and manufacturing activities created new dilemmas
for workers in the United States. Particularly, workers were confronted with the new
challenge of identifying and accessing the new jobs emerging in the United States.
Moreover, the emerging jobs were often located in urban areas of the country, requiring
many workers to move from rural areas to the growing cities. these trends were
accompanied by increasing numbers of immigrants seeking new lives and opportunities
in the United States.
the early emphasis on job placement partly reflected the prevailing White middle-
class male linear model of career development that dominated the field until recent times.
Put simply, this view involved choosing an occupation early in one’s career (usually upon
leaving secondary or postsecondary school) and then staying in one’s chosen occupation
until retirement. to help people cope with vocational decision-making tasks, practitioners
used objectivistic methodologies, usually in the form of standardized aptitude and interest
tests. Important advances regarding the development and use of aptitude and interest tests
were identified and articulated in books such as Aptitude Testing, authored by Clark Hull
and published in 1928; Aptitudes and Aptitude Testing, authored by Walter Bingham and
published in 1937; and Vocational Interests of Men and Women, authored by e. K.
Strong and published in 1943. For most of the 20th century, the process of matching
people to jobs based on the person’s characteristics or traits and the requirements of
occupations was the dominant approach to helping people identify appropriate
occupational options.
Thus, early approaches to career development interventions reflected an emphasis
on testing clients, providing them with occupational information, and advising them as to
which occupational choices seemed to offer a reasonable chance for experiencing
occupational success. this approach evolved from the work of Frank Parsons. An
engineer by training and a social reformer by personal commitment, in the early 1900s,
Parsons merged his training and commitment to outline a systematic process of
occupational decision-making, which he referred to as “true reasoning.” Zytowski (2001)
noted that Parsons delivered a lecture in 1906, titled “the Ideal City,” to the economic
Club of Boston. In this lecture, Parsons discussed the need for young people to receive
assistance in the choice of a vocation. the lecture generated interest and requests by
recent high school graduates for personal meetings with Parsons. From these activities,
Parsons generated his systematic approach to vocational guidance. this approach was
described in detail in Parsons’s book Choosing a Vocation (Parsons, 1909). In this book,
published one year after his death, Parsons discussed various principles and techniques
that he found useful in helping the adolescents with whom he worked, first at the
Breadwinners’ College at the Civic Service House, a settlement house in Boston, and
then at the Boston Vocation Bureau. Specifically, Parsons noted the following principles
pertaining to vocational counseling.
Step 1 requires self-investigation and self-revelation, when possible assisted by a
career counselor. Step 2 relies upon accurate and comprehensive occupational
information. Because during Parsons’s time it was uncommon for occupational
information to meet these two requirements, Parsons developed occupational materials
that described occupations in great detail (e.g.,#compensation, task requirements, work
settings). the third step, “true reasoning,” relied upon the person’s capacity (with the help
of a counselor) to integrate information acquired from steps 1 and 2 into a career decision
—a task that, while on the surface appears rather straightforward, in practice proved to be
rather challenging. Parsons developed his model against a background of social (e.g.,
rapid urbanization, child labor, immigration), economic (e.g., the rise of industrialism and
the growing division of labor), and scientific (e.g., the emergence of human and
behavioral sciences) changes that were occurring in the United States. these changes
resulted in the need to place workers in jobs requiring specific skills and aptitudes, to
help young people develop career plans, and to protect young people from child abuse in
the labor force. Parsons’s approach also fit nicely with the dominant scientific thinking of
the 20th century, which emphasized positivism and objective methodology. that is, the
Parsonian model encouraged practitioners to objectify interests, values, and abilities
through the use of standardized assessment to guide people in identifying where they fit
within the occupational structure.
The matching model sought to address the challenges inherent in step three of
Parsons’s model. An initial solution to the challenge of matching persons to
environments was the use the practice of “clinical matching,” in which expert clinical
judgments were made to ascertain the person’s chances of success within an occupational
field based on the use of a “psychograph.” the psychograph, developed by Viteles in
1932, was a graphic representation of a person’s relevant characteristics (e.g., abilities,
trainings, specific vocational skills) and numerical ratings of the person’s strengths as
they relate to each characteristic (e.g., on a scale of 1–10). Job psychographs were also
developed with similar ratings for the relevant characteristics required for successful
performance in that job. Comparisons between the psychograph and job psychographs
were made to determine the person’s “goodness of match” for the occupation. the trait-
and-factor approach then emerged with an emphasis on the identification of a person’s
relevant traits or characteristics, usually through the use of standardized tests or
inventories. the same approach is used in describing occupational factors or requirements
(i.e.,#occupations are profiled according to the degree to which they require certain traits,
such as aptitudes). then the individual’s profile of traits is matched with the factors or
requirements of specific occupations. the goal of this type of matching is to identify the
degree of fit between the person and an occupation.
The theory of work adjustment (tWA), developed by rene Dawis and Lloyd
Lofquist at the University of Minnesota in the 1960s, is an excellent example of a theory
within the person– environment tradition (Dawis, 1996). tWA addresses the
“correspondence between the individual (abilities and needs) and the environment (ability
requirements and reinforcer system)” (Dawis, england, & Lofquist, 1964, p. 11). thus,
tWA focuses on person and environment interactions and posits “the person and
environment attempt to maintain correspondence with each other” (Dawis, 1996, p. 81).
Both the worker and the work environment have needs and requirements, respectively,
that must be satisfied. Adjustment to work is achieved when the person and environment
correspond to each other’s requirements. Such correspondence is not always achieved,
however. the degree to which the worker is willing to tolerate discorrespondence defines
the worker’s flexibility. Work environments also demonstrate varying degrees of
flexibility. the worker’s tenure in a specific job is influenced by the worker’s
satisfactoriness (defined as the work environment’s degree of satisfaction with the
worker), satisfaction (defined as the degree to which the work environment provides the
worker with sufficient and appropriate reinforcers), and the work environment’s
perseverance (Dawis et al., 1964). thus, there are four possible states that relate to the
person’s work experience: the person experiences satisfaction with work and the person’s
work performance is satisfactory; the person experiences satisfaction with work but the
person’s work performance is unsatisfactory; the person experiences dissatisfaction with
work but the person’s work performance is satisfactory; and the person is dissatisfied
with work and the person’s performance is unsatisfactory (Dawis, 2005). the first
condition (satisfied and satisfactory) theoretically leads to maintaining the person’s
employment, while the latter three conditions theoretically will result in behavior to
change the situation (adjustment behavior) (Dawis, 2005). Although research results
pertaining to tWA constructs have been generally supportive, unfortunately tWA has
failed to generate sufficient research activity, and few empirical tests of tWA have been
published within the past 20 years.
Dawis (2002) also describes a more generalized tWA in his person–environment
correspondence (PeC) theory. A basic assumption of PeC theory is persons (P) interact
with environments (e). Both P and e are active and reactive. Moreover, both P and e have
requirements and expectations that P and e interactions will result in fulfilling these
requirements. For example, a counselor (P) working within a counseling environment (e)
expects to have the opportunity to help others by using her counseling skills. Likewise,
the counseling environment (e) expects the counselor (P) to perform competently and
successfully as a counselor. to the degree that such expectations are met successfully, the
result is satisfaction on the part of P and e and the corresponding behavior is maintained.
When expectations are not met successfully, then dissatisfaction occurs and adjustment is
required on the part of P and/or e. Adjustment is pursued until satisfaction occurs or until
P or e gives up. A good fit, or correspondence, occurs when the person’s capabilities
fulfill the environment’s requirements. A bad fit, or discorrespondence, occurs when the
person’s capabilities are not able to fulfill the environment’s requirements.
However, Parsons was not the only significant contributor to early advances in
vocational counseling. For example, the testing movement exemplified through the work
of James Cattell, Alfred Binet, and Walter Bingham was also a primary force in the
growth of career development interventions and helped to operationalize Parsons’s
emphasis on self-understanding. Influential publications, organizations, and legislation
also emerged in the early part of the 20th century. For example, The Vocational Guidance
Newsletter was first published by Boston’s Vocation Bureau in 1911 (which opened in
1908 with Parsons as its first director and vocational counselor); the National Vocational
Guidance Association (NVGA) was founded in Grand rapids, Michigan, in 1913; the
U.S. Department of Labor was organized in 1913; the Vocational Guidance Bulletin was
first published in 1915 by NVGA; the Vocational rehabilitation Act became law in 1918;
and Harry D. Kitson of teachers College authored the book The Psychology of
Adjustment, published in 1925.
In the early 1940s, personnel testing and placement activities were greatly
expanded as a result of World War II (the G.I. Bill was enacted in 1944). An excellent
example of the advances being made in testing at this time is provided in e. K. Strong,
Jr.’s publication, Vocational Interests of Men and Women, in which he documents nearly
20 years of interest-measurement research. Also during World War II, women entered the
workforce in unprecedented numbers, with many finding successful employment in
manual and technical jobs that were previously held exclusively by men. At the same
time that testing and placement activities were being expanded, Carl rogers’s book
Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942) was published. In this book, rogers highlighted the
importance of attending to clients’ verbalized feelings: “Among the significant
developments which resulted were a revamping of the older cognitive concept of the
client in vocational guidance to include the dynamics of affective and motivational
behavior, the increased emphasis on self-acceptance and self-understanding as goals of
vocational counseling”.
The merging of the NVGA, the American College Personnel Association, the
National Association of Guidance Supervisors and Counselor trainers, and the Student
Personnel Association for teacher education resulted in the formation of the American
Personnel and Guidance Association in 1951. the American School Counselor
Association was formed in 1953, and its primary focus was the provision of career
services to young people. Finally, in 1957, the American Personnel and Guidance
Association created the American Board on Professional Standards in Vocational
Counseling, the functions of which “were to evaluate and certify qualified vocational
counseling agencies and to foster the maintenance of high professional standards,
including standards of ethical practice”.
The primary organization for professional career counselors, however, has been
the NVGA (which changed its name to the National Career Development Association
[NCDA] in 1985). From its inception, NVGA/NCDA has been dedicated to improving
the quality of services provided by career development practitioners. As early as 1920,
the NVGA/NCDA established a code of principles to guide practitioners in the delivery
of career-related services. In 1981, the NVGA Board of Directors approved the first
policy statement for the roles and competencies of career counselors. this statement has
been updated several times since then (most recently in 2003). the most recent
competencies are listed in Figure 1.1. this statement reflects a broad range of general
counseling skills and specific career-related competencies. the competencies reflect the
belief of NVGA/NCDA that professional career counselors are professionally trained
counselors with additional and specialized training related to career development. In
addition, the competencies reflect the importance of providing a wide range of career
development interventions to meet the needs of diverse client populations.
Another critically important development in recent years has been the increased
attention to addressing the career development needs of diverse client populations.
research related to career development theory and practice has gone beyond addressing
the career development of White, middle-class men. Issues of gender, class, ability status,
sexual orientation, and cultural bias in career development theories and practices have
been exposed, resulting in greater attention to how such variables factor into the career
development process and bringing into focus the importance of including the cultural
context in career development theories and interventions (Chung, 2001). Models of
identity development as they relate to areas such as gender, race, sexual orientation, and
disability status are increasingly being integrated into career development theory and
practice (Pope, 2000). Career treatment outcome studies are also beginning to move
beyond the traditional college student samples to examine career intervention effects with
more diverse populations.
Recapturing the spirit of social justice by acting as agents of social change to
maximize the career development opportunities available to all members of our society is
emerging as an essential aspect of career interventions for many career practitioners
today (see Blustein, 2006). Conducting career interventions for social action requires
counselors to provide multifaceted career interventions and to expand their roles beyond
traditional individual career counseling practice. Career counseling for social action
begins with career counselors possessing the multicultural competencies (i.e., knowledge,
skills, and attitudes) necessary for understanding how the environments their clients
occupy interact to influence the interpretations and meanings clients attach to work and
occupational opportunities. Multicultural competencies serve as the foundation for
identifying social action strategies aimed at facilitating career development.
Advocacy is also important when clients’ career concerns are the result of
external factors such as large-scale downsizing, wage stagnation, and salary inequities
experienced by women, persons of color, and persons with disabilities. More often than
many care to acknowledge, workers struggle to earn a living. Women working full-time
earn 77% of what their male counterparts earn (Gao, 2014). the inequities experienced by
persons with disabilities are even greater. In#February of 2015 there were 8.7 million
people unemployed in the United State and 2.7 million people who had been unemployed
for greater than 27 weeks (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). those in the dwindling
minority of persons not experiencing an encounter with job loss, either directly or
indirectly through a family member or close friend, are acutely aware of the tenuous
nature of job security and experience high levels of guilt, fear, and anxiety.
In each of these instances, career counselors concerned with social justice address
not only the career concerns of individual clients, but also the career concerns of the
community at large (Cahill & Martland, 1996). this is accomplished by integrating
individual career-counseling skills with community counseling skills. Integrating career
counseling and community counseling strategies is especially critical in rural
communities in which economic restructuring can threaten the very existence of the
community. Cahill and Martland argue that community career counseling builds on the
strength of individual career counseling and offers assistance to people in their struggle to
maintain their communities as they create opportunities for career development. thus, in
addition to individual career counseling skills, career practitioners need skills in
facilitating group problem solving and consensus building, and an understanding of social
and economic factors that affect careers in contemporary society. Finally, Ludwikowski,
Vogel, and Armstrong (2009) point out the importance of career interventions that
engage potential clients via their social networks. the use of social media as a vehicle for
communicating the importance of career assistance and for normalizing the use of career
counseling resources may help to reduce the stigma that some experience related to
seeking counseling of any sort.
Essentially, career counselors who instill hope in their clients and empower them
to manage their careers are multiculturally competent, act as facilitators of information
and referrals, advocate for their clients when employment practices and community
traditions stand in the way of equity in the workplace, and integrate individual career-
counseling skills with community counseling skills to assist people in their struggle to
maintain their communities and create opportunities for career development (Blustein,
2006; Chope, 2006). Only time will tell if the recent attention related to addressing social
justice issues in career development interventions will blossom into a more common and
prominent role for career practitioners. It seems reasonable to expect this to occur given
the high rates of global unemployment and growing economic disparities between the
“haves” and “have-nots”—especially in the recovery from the 2020 pandemic.
E. Future Trends in Career Development Interventions
Bingham and Ward (1994) note that “if vocational counseling was born from the
changing demographics and economic needs of this century, then clearly career
counseling will need to change in response to the changing needs of the coming century”
(p. 168). Indeed, the rapid changes occurring in the world of work that are influenced by
technological developments, the emergence of an interdependent global economy, and an
increasingly diverse workforce reinforce the need for career development theory and
practice to be revised to meet the career development tasks confronting people in the 21st
century. the response to, and emergence from, COVID-19 will undoubtedly have a
lasting impact on how and where we do our work. this shift brings other issues, such as a
more isolated worklife and life-role boundary issues (e.g., the tendency for home
activities to mingle with or conflict with work duties). the evidence is clear that people,
both young and old, are struggling to cope more effectively with these tasks.
We are confronted daily with news reports citing statistics about high levels of
global unemployment, corporate downsizing, and a jobless economic recovery. these
statistics provide examples of the fact that the social contract between employer and
employee is gone. Other evidence that the nature of work is changing is found include
increases in the number of companies now offering daycare and parental leave; increases
in the numbers of families requiring dual earners; and increases in the numbers of people
working at home. these themes reflect the strong intertwining of work and family roles.
thus, career theories, career interventions, and career development professionals must
respond to these evolutionary shifts occurring in the nature of work. Moreover, career
development interventions must be embedded in assumptions that reflect the shifts we are
experiencing in work (e.g., that adults change occupations many times over the course of
their lives, that lifelong learning is essential to maintaining one’s marketability, that life
roles interact, that rapid changes in the world of work are a constant, and that everyone
must become skilled at interacting with diverse coworkers). In 2003, Herr contended that
the demand for career assistance would expand due to rising unemployment rates and an
increase in part-time work. His prediction is now a reality.
How we intervene in the lives of the people we serve is guided by our
understanding of how these contextual shifts influence what is required for people to
move forward in their careers. Savickas (1993) discusses his interpretation of what is
required to move the profession forward. Specifically, he notes that in the 21st century,
career development professionals will shift from supporting the 20th-century notion of
careerism to fostering self-affirmation in their clients. People will need to be encouraged
to make a commitment to their culture and community and learn how to develop and
express their values in the real world. rather than providing clients with predefined
services in a sort of “one-size-fits-all” approach, career counselors will collaborate with
their clients to help them interpret their life experiences within the context of their
evolving career development. rather than emphasizing a singular truth and objectivity,
career counselors will move toward appreciating multiple realities, perspectives, and
relationships in their work with clients (Savickas, 1993). In the emerging scenario it
seems clear that a primary task of career practitioners involves clarifying (rather than
assuming) how they can be useful to their clients. Achieving this basic and essential
understanding requires career practitioners to be skilled at providing culturally
appropriate career interventions.
Career decisions are essentially values-based decisions. Some values will figure
prominently in a future scenario and others will be left behind, subordinated, or perhaps
even distorted in a career transition. Indeed, career decisions entail determining what is to
prevail and what is to be sacrificed (Brott, 2019; Cochran, 1997). Without the promise of
gain and the threat of loss, there is no decision to make. One could just follow a “perfect”
possibility that was presumably all positive. Yet, in an ordinary decision, one must
evaluate to decide. It can be argued that these evaluations are primarily values-based and
that the way one evaluates defines the person one is to become and the life one is to live.
Our identity is defined by these fundamental evaluations. thus, helping clients clarify and
articulate their values will become even more important in providing career development
interventions in the 21st century. Career practitioners can empower clients to make
choices that implement their declared values through serving as counselor, coach, and
advocate for their clients.
An increased emphasis on values clarification reflects the fact that today, perhaps
more than ever, it should be clear that providing clients with information about
themselves and the world of work (through objective assessment) is necessary, but not
sufficient, for empowering people to manage their careers effectively. to be sure, having
information about how one’s interests compare with others and where one stands on the
normal curve is helpful in the process of identifying viable career options. However, most
people do not think of themselves as locations on a normal curve. rather, they focus on
the process of trying to make meaning out of their life experiences. Certain life
experiences capture more attention in this regard than others do. Most likely, the
experiences that capture the most attention are those that have been the most painful. A
painful or negative experience creates a yearning for its opposite, which becomes an ideal
toward which to strive (Watkins & Savickas, 1990). In this sense, one’s early life
preoccupations provide the direction for what later in life can become one’s occupation.
Our life experiences provide the crucial backdrop against which we sort through our
values, interests, and skills and then try to connect them to career options. Career
development interventions in the 21st century must be directed toward helping people
clarify and articulate the meaning they seek to express in their career activities.
Implicit in what we have discussed thus far is that “personal” and “career”
concerns are inextricably intertwined. Many adults in career counseling struggle to cope
with uncertainty, ambiguity, low self-efficacy, and personal, as well as occupational,
information deficits (Amundson, 2019; Niles & Anderson, 1995). Career counseling
clients also report valuing the relationship dimension of the career counseling experience,
and they often take advantage of the opportunity to discuss general concerns in the career
counseling process (Anderson & Niles, 2000). Accordingly, many now conclude that
there are few things more personal than a career choice and that the overlap between
career and general concerns is substantial (Anderson & Niles, 1995; Krumboltz, 1993;
Niles & Gutierrez, 2019; Savickas, 2010; Subich, 1993). Career development
practitioners respond to this overlap by offering counseling-based career assistance.
Concern about meeting the career development needs of culturally diverse clients
has been a significant issue in the literature since the early 1980s (Sue et al., 1982). this
issue becomes even more critical given the increasing diversity within society and the
workforce (Parmer & rush, 2003). Career development interventions must address the
“effects of social and economic barriers such as economic hardship, immigration
disruption, and racial discrimination on the career behavior of ethnic minority
individuals” (Leong, 1995, p. 550). Certainly, Leong’s list can be expanded to include
persons with disabilities and persons who are gay, lesbian, transgendered, or questioning
(Hershenson, 2005). Moreover, career practitioners must be aware of the worldviews
embedded in their interventions and offer assistance that is congruent with the client’s
worldview (Fouad & Byars-Winston, 2005). Byars-Winston and Fouad (2006)
recommend that career counselors actively engage in self-reflective processes throughout
the course of career counseling to increase their capacity to examine the impact of their
personal cultural contexts on their work with their clients (p. 188). Finally,
intersectionality embraces the importance of understanding how a person’s identities
(e.g., lesbian, Black, lower income, etc.) interact to shape the person’s experience with
oppression and privilege. In addition, the intersection of these identities influences the
person’s self-perception much more powerfully than any single aspect of that person’s
identity (Chan, Cox, & Band, 2018). thus, providing multicultural career development
interventions requires counselors to be culturally aware, sensitive to their own values, and
sensitive to how their cultural assumptions.
these statements are in contrast to many career theories and practices that have
limited relevance for clients who do not adhere to eurocentric worldviews, which
emphasize individualistic and self-actualizing perspectives regarding career behavior
(Byars-Winston & Fouad, 2006; Chan, Cox, & Band, 2018; Hershenson, 2005; Leong,
1995). Such statements also reinforce the importance of context in career development.
Blustein (1994) defined context as “that group of settings that influence developmental
progress, encompassing contemporary and distal familial, social, and economic
circumstances” (p. 143). Diversity in clients and client concerns makes it clear that
context and intersectionality must be considered in the construction and implementation
of career development interventions. to act otherwise is to risk providing “culturally
encapsulated” (Wrenn, 1962) career assistance.
Incorporating context into career development interventions also requires career
practitioners to acknowledge that the metaphor of the “boxes of life” does not reflect life
as many people live it. Life is not lived in compartmentalized life-role “silos.” For some
people, work provides a focus for personality organization, but for other people, work
may be more peripheral. to understand a person’s career, it is important to understand the
person’s web of life roles. How a person structures the basic roles of living into a life
organizes and channels the person’s engagement in society (Super, Savickas, & Super,
1996). theories and interventions that are not sensitive to this basic fact address a life
situation that does not exist. Life roles interact and influence each other so that the same
job holds different meanings for two individuals who live in different contexts. Because
people seek to express specific values in each of the life roles they play, career
development practitioners must encourage their clients to clarify and articulate the values
they seek to express in the life roles that are important to them. Once clarified and
articulated, clients can be encouraged to identify outlets for values expression within each
of their salient life roles (Super, 1980). the increasing sense of work–family conflict
reported by both men and women (Williams & Boushey, 2010) reinforces the need for
career interventions that address the person’s life structure. Career development
interventions in the 21st century will need to address the totality of career concerns that
people experience so they can be empowered not only to make a good living, but also to
live a good life.
Such competencies require career counselors to move beyond individual and
group counseling interventions to advocate for their current and potential clients. toporek
(2006) also emphasizes the role of career counselors as social change agents and
advocates. toporek and Liu (2001) define advocacy as “action taken by counseling
professionals to facilitate the removal of external and institutional barriers to clients’
well-being” (p. 387). toporek and Liu also note that advocacy involves career counselor
actions ranging from empowerment to social action. the former tends to occur in
individual and group-level interventions. the latter often involves engaging in the political
process via a variety of actions, such as writing letters to the editor of a newspaper,
meeting with congressional representatives, conferring with lobbyists, collaborating with
other groups with similar interests to generate more political capital in order to influence
the legislative process, and conducting strikes and/or demonstrations. For example, when
it was revealed that a popular restaurant chain engaged in discriminatory practices toward
sexual minorities, a number of human rights groups conducted protests located at a
number of that chain’s restaurant locations. the negative publicity related to these protests
led to an eventual change in the restaurant’s practices. Similar actions and congressional
testimonies have led to increased workplace safety standards, legislation protecting
persons with disabilities, nondiscriminatory practices in hiring racial/ethnic minorities,
and so on. Participating in protests related to the murder of George Floyd and supporting
the Black Lives Matter movement also stand as collective social action opportunities. It
seems clear that the negative effects of globalization on workers worldwide indicate that
career practitioners have much work to do in the social justice arena. Incorporating social
justice and advocacy into career development interventions raises the collective
consciousness of career issues and can serve to engage participants from educational,
political, and other societal arenas in the process of creating more just conditions for all
workers.
