The Changing Landscape of Career

Development:Trends and Implications for

Counselling

Kris MagnussonCCA 2009

A portion of territory that the

eye can comprehend in a

single view

1.Who am I?

2.Where do I belong?

Significance

Sun Dogs

Population: 15

Freeman’s Story Memories of a Prairie

LifeCareer Planning - Are you kidding me?

Mozart

The Bennett Buggy

The Commute to Work

Imagine - being able to afford to go

to school!

Two Features of Work in

Saskatchewan in the 1930’S

•Work - any work - was preferable to no work

•Work character was more important than work content

Why the History Lesson?

1.Because to understand the person, you have to understand the “place” they have come from.

2.Because we need to examine our current practices; if they cannot help deal with the issues of the past, they have no hope for dealing with the issues of the future.

How well would our most common career

counselling interventions have helped Freeman?

Saskatchewan NowFinancial Post, April 16, 2009

•The only province expected to post economic growth this year

•Predicted to be the first to emerge from “economic doldrums”

•Outperformed GDP national average since 2004, and predicted to exceed it by 10%

Changing landscapes mean

Changing landscapes mean

we have to learn to see

we have to learn to see

things from a different

things from a different

perspective.

perspective.

Six Perspective Changes in Career

Development

Trend #1: From Static to Dynamic Systems

Static•Work stays the same

•Decide on occupational destination

•Predict, Plan and Control

Dynamic•Work Changes•In content, pace and form

•Decide on process

•Manage

Trend #2: From Simple to ComplexSimple

•Career = Occupation or job

•One size fits all•Opportunities the same•Process the same•There is a “right” path

•Individual focus

Complex•Career = Roles over the life span

•Career paths vary•Structure of opportunity varies•Process varies•Paths are idiosyncratic

•System focus

Trend #3: From Linear to Cyclical Planning

Linear•Sequence of steps that are followed

•Definite start and end points

•Highly prescriptive

Cyclical•Grouping of inter-related processes

•No predictable sequence or starting points

•Highly creative

Trend #4: From Choice to ConfidenceChoice

•More information + better decision skills = good occupational choices

•Success highly correlated with self-esteem

Confidence•More opportunity to experience + higher confidence = Better occupational plans

•Success highly correlated with self-efficacy

Trend #5: From Busy-ness to ImpactBusy-ness

•Individual accountability based on how many clients served and kinds of services offered

•Service accountability based on end-point outcomes (such as job placements)

Impact

•Individual accountability based on measures of client change

•Service accountability based on developmental or “milestone” outcomes (such as aggregate measures of client change)

Trend #6: From Head to Heart

Head•Career planning as a cognitive activity

•Emphasis on information and rationality

•Goal = “right” occupational match

Heart•Career planning as a passionate activity

•Emphasis on discovery and opportunity

•Goal = career integrity

If career planning is mostly a rational activity, then the best

way to help a client is to start by gathering information about the client’s skills, interests, abilities,

etc.

Problem 1:Habituation

•The tendency to form a pattern of perception and behaviour that then interferes with subsequent actions or perceptions.

Problem 2:Predictive Coding

•The brain has an expectation of what it will see, then compares this template with information from the eyes.

Problem 3:Emotional Filters

•We cannot feel good about an imaginary future when we are busy feeling bad about an actual present.

• (Daniel Glibert, Stumbling on Happiness)

The best way to help clients is to determine

how they are seeing the world, and then help them to see other possibilities.

4 Fundamental Career Development Challenges

Facing Individuals

Individual Challenge #1

•How do I find hope? Once found, how do I build and sustain the enthusiasm, energy and just plain will to be continuously adaptive?

Career Gumption

Individual Challenge #2

•How do I acquire and then make sense of all of the information available to me so I can make choices that will benefit me in the future?

Career Literacy

Individual Challenge #3

•How do I achieve a balance between my needs and all of the forces and influences around me?

Career Context

Individual Challenge #4

•How do I make all of these decisions, and take all of these actions, in a way that allows me to maintain a sense of who I am?

Career Integrity

QuickTime™ and aH.264 decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

What can you do to help change that portion of the landscape that

your clients can see?

Ay-Hay!Nitsiniiyi

‘taki!Merci!Thank You!

The Positive Change Cycle

Commitment Hope

Information Attitude Change

Skilled Practice Confidence

Planned Action New Goals