Career Counseling
Encyclopedia
Career counseling and career
coaching are similar in nature to traditional counseling. However, the focus is generally on issues such as career exploration, career change, personal career development and other career related issues. Typically when people come for career counseling they know exactly what they want to get out of the process, but are unsure about how it may work. In the UK
, career counseling would usually be referred to as careers advice or guidance.
Career counseling is the process of helping the candidates to select a course of study that may help them to get into job or make them employable. A career counselor helps candidates to get into a career that is suited to their aptitude
, personality
, interest
and skills. So it is the process of making an effective correlation between the internal psychology of a candidate with the external factors of employability and courses.
Career counselors work with people from various walks of life, such as adolescents
seeking to explore career options, or experienced professionals contemplating a career change. Career counselors typically have a background in vocational psychology or industrial/organizational psychology.
The approach of career counseling varies, but will generally include the completion of one or more assessments. These assessments typically include cognitive ability tests, and personality assessments. The two most commonly used assessments are the Strong Interest Inventory
and the MBTI
.
In a related issue some client groups tend to reject the interventions made by professional career counselors preferring to rely on the advice of peers or superiors within their own profession. Jackson et al. found that 44% of doctors in training felt that senior members of their own profession were best placed to give careers advice. Furthermore it is recognised that the giving of career advice is something that is widely spread through a range of formal and informal roles. In addition to career counselors it is also common for teachers, managers, trainers and Human Resources
(HR) specialists to give formal support in career choices. Similarly it is also common for people to seek informal support from friends and family around their career choices and to bypass career professionals altogether. Today increasingly people rely on career web portals to seek advice on resume writing and handling interviews; as also to research on various professions and companies. It has even become possible to take vocational assessments online.
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
coaching are similar in nature to traditional counseling. However, the focus is generally on issues such as career exploration, career change, personal career development and other career related issues. Typically when people come for career counseling they know exactly what they want to get out of the process, but are unsure about how it may work. In the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, career counseling would usually be referred to as careers advice or guidance.
Career counseling is the process of helping the candidates to select a course of study that may help them to get into job or make them employable. A career counselor helps candidates to get into a career that is suited to their aptitude
Aptitude
An aptitude is an innate component of a competency to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. Aptitudes may be physical or mental...
, personality
Personality psychology
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...
, interest
Interest
Interest is a fee paid by a borrower of assets to the owner as a form of compensation for the use of the assets. It is most commonly the price paid for the use of borrowed money, or money earned by deposited funds....
and skills. So it is the process of making an effective correlation between the internal psychology of a candidate with the external factors of employability and courses.
Career counselors work with people from various walks of life, such as adolescents
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
seeking to explore career options, or experienced professionals contemplating a career change. Career counselors typically have a background in vocational psychology or industrial/organizational psychology.
The approach of career counseling varies, but will generally include the completion of one or more assessments. These assessments typically include cognitive ability tests, and personality assessments. The two most commonly used assessments are the Strong Interest Inventory
Strong Interest Inventory
The Strong Interest Inventory is an interest inventory used in career assessment. The goal of this test is to give insight into a person's interests, so that they may have less difficulty in deciding on an appropriate career choice for themselves. It is also frequently used for educational...
and the MBTI
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions...
.
Challenges of career counseling/guidance
One of the major challenges associated with career counseling is encouraging participants to engage with it. For example in the UK 70% of people under 14 say they have had no careers advice while 45% of people over 14 have had no or very poor/limited advice.In a related issue some client groups tend to reject the interventions made by professional career counselors preferring to rely on the advice of peers or superiors within their own profession. Jackson et al. found that 44% of doctors in training felt that senior members of their own profession were best placed to give careers advice. Furthermore it is recognised that the giving of career advice is something that is widely spread through a range of formal and informal roles. In addition to career counselors it is also common for teachers, managers, trainers and Human Resources
Human resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
(HR) specialists to give formal support in career choices. Similarly it is also common for people to seek informal support from friends and family around their career choices and to bypass career professionals altogether. Today increasingly people rely on career web portals to seek advice on resume writing and handling interviews; as also to research on various professions and companies. It has even become possible to take vocational assessments online.
A history of career counseling/guidance
Frank Parson's Choosing a Vocation (1909) was perhaps the first major work which is concerned with careers guidance.Professional Career Guidance/counseling Centres
There are lots of career guidance and counseling centres all over the world. They give services of guidance and counselling on higher studies, possibilities, chances and nature of courses and institutes.Career Testing
An objective form of career counseling is through an aptitude test, or a career test. Career testing is now usually done online and provides insightful and objective information about which jobs may be suitable for the test taker based on combination of their interests, values and skills. Career tests usually provide a list of recommended jobs that match the test takers attributes with those of people with similar personalities who enjoy/are successful at their jobs.See also
- CareerCareerCareer is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
- Careers Advisory Services
- Career GuideCareer GuideA career guide is an individual or publication that provides guidance to people facing a variety of career challenges. These challenges may include dealing with redundancy; seeking a new job; changing careers; returning to work after a career break; building new skills; personal and professional...
- Holland CodesHolland CodesThe Holland Codes or the Holland Occupational Themes represents a set of personality types described in a theory of careers and vocational choice formulated by psychologist John L. Holland...
- Career developmentCareer developmentIn organizational development , the study of career development looks at:*how individuals manage their careers within and between organizations and,...
- Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorMyers-Briggs Type IndicatorThe Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions...
- Occupational Outlook HandbookOccupational Outlook HandbookThe Occupational Outlook Handbook is a publication of the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics that includes information about the nature of work, working conditions, training and education, earnings, and job outlook for hundreds of different occupations. The Handbook is...
- Personality psychologyPersonality psychologyPersonality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...
- Standard Occupational Classification SystemStandard Occupational Classification SystemThe Standard Occupational Classification System is a United States government system of classifying occupations. It was developed in response to a growing need for a universal occupational classification system. Such a classification system would allow government agencies and private industry to...
- Enneagram of PersonalityEnneagram of PersonalityThe Enneagram of Personality is a model of human personality which is principally used as a typology. Principally developed by Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo, it is also partly based on earlier teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff...
Further reading
- Swanson, J.L. and Parcover, J.A. (1998). Annual Review: Practise and research in career counseling and development — 1997. The Career Development Quarterly. 47, 2, 98-135.
- Galassi, J.P., Crace, R.K., Martin, G.A., James, R.M. & Wallace, R.L. (1992). Client preferences and anticipations in career counseling: A preliminary investigation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 39, 46-55.
- Swanson, J.L. (1995). The process and outcome of career counseling. In W.B. Walsh & S.H. Osipow (Eds.), Handbook of vocational psychology: Theory, research and practice. (pp. 295–329). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Kim, B.S, Li, L.C., and Lian, C.T. (2002) Effects of Asian American client adherence to Asian cultural values, session goal, and counselor emphasis of client expression on career counseling process. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49, 3, 342-354.