Running head: CAREER COUSNELING CASE STUDY

Assignment 3: Career Counseling Case Study

Leeza Thomas
Azusa Pacific University

CAREER COUSNELING CASE STUDY

For this case study assignment I chose to interview a student and Resident Assistant that I
currently supervise and I have given him the pseudonym of Derek. I have spoken to Derek on
numerous occasions about his degree choice, how he enjoys his classes and how he feels that he
can apply what he learns in the classroom to his work as a Resident Assistant. Prior to this
assignment, I had observed that Derek is very personable and is eager to learn. He is not satisfied
until he understands the purpose for certain aspects of protocol or all of the necessary steps in a
procedure. I briefly mentioned this case study assignment to him and he was eager to participate
because he wanted to know if the inventories would affirm his degree choice and career
aspirations.
During the intake session, I wanted to gain a better understanding of Dereks background
and what his career aspirations are. Derek is currently a second year college student at California
State University Dominguez Hills. He has chosen biology as his major and is also minoring in
Africana studies. Derek is 18 years old and is the youngest of four children in his family. He
disclosed to me that he is a first-generation student and that two of his older siblings have also
chosen to attend a college/university. Derek is employed at the university campuses Jamba Juice
restaurant and as a Resident Assistant within the universitys Housing Services department. In his
spare time, Derek enjoys attending events hosted by the Pre-Health Society on campus, a club
primarily for those interested in pursuing careers in the medical/health field. (This club is also
helpful for students interested in nursing to network with each other because CSUDH does not
offer a nursing degree.) Derek aspires to be a family doctor or pediatrician in his future.
I asked Derek more specific questions regarding his knowledge of the college experience
based on him disclosing that he is first-generation student. He stated that his only goal while in
high school was to get into college. He also stated that his parents were his biggest support and

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helped him to obtain the information that he needed to apply to universities, including
information about financial aid. In high school, Derek had friends who were also applying to
colleges/universities so he found support in them as well. He did not seek any help from high
school counselors, teachers or other professionals that he had access to. Derek grew up wanting
to be a teacher. When he as in high school, he realized that teachers are not respected enough
and dont get paid enough. He knew that he wanted to be able to help people in a practical way
and has always been interested in math and science. Once Derek was offered admission to
CSUDH, he quickly spoke to a pre-health advisor on campus who suggested that he work toward
the medical field and major in biology. Just prior to beginning his first year at CSUDH, Derek
decided that he wanted to be a family doctor or pediatrician. When I asked him why, he stated
that this career choice would allow him to use his enjoyment of math and science as well as help
people in the practical way that he desired.
After learning more about Dereks background, his area of study, and his desired career
choice, I wanted to gain a better understanding of how familiar Derek was with the medical field.
I asked Derek to identify a few skills or characteristics that doctors must be able to demonstrate.
The four that we discussed in detail were good communication skills, well-educated, good
counseling skills and hard-working. Derek proceeded to give examples of each and why they are
important to the success of doctors and why patients may value these characteristics. I asked
Derek if he had ever done research on the medical field or the responsibilities of doctors, or if he
had ever had the opportunity to interview or shadow a doctor for a day. Derek stated that he
enjoys watching interviews and videos of doctors discussing their careers through the YouTube
website. Through viewing these interviews, Derek has been able to gain valuable insight into the
roles and responsibilities of doctors of varying specialties. I asked Derek if he has reached out to

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a faculty member or a professional in the field and had the experience of gaining career related
information face-to-face. Derek stated that he has not taken the initiative to pursue any
professional relationships, but that he is a member of CSUDHs Pre-Health Society. As
previously mentioned, this on-campus club targets students who are interested in the pursuing
careers in the health/medical field. Derek appreciated this club because it offers peer support for
students who are interested in similar careers.
Next, I was interesting in learning more about what assessments and inventories Derek
has taken in the past. I knew that his response would influence which inventory we were going to
work with and what prior knowledge, of himself and inventories in general, he was bringing into
our case study sessions. Derek stated that the only assessments that he has participated in were
during our 2013 Resident Assistant training. During this training, my co-worker and I facilitated
sessions during the training where the Resident Assistants were given a self-assessment that
categorized their communication style with various animals. On a different day, we facilitated a
session where the Resident Assistants were given a self-assessment to help them identify their
conflict management style.
Finally, I asked Derek to state what he was hoping to gain from our sessions together.
Derek stated that he is determined and he is pretty sure he knows what he wants to do once he
graduates from college. He was most interested in taking the inventories and discovering if the
results of the inventories would align with his career goals and aspirations. I then concluded our
first session by explaining what he could expect during our second session that was scheduled
for the following week. I described the inventories that we would be working with, the value
card sort activity, the StrengthsFinder, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. I asked Derek if he
had any questions about the inventories I had described and proceeded to give him all the

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materials he would need (i.e., the paper copy of the MBTI and web links). I shared that the goal
for the second session would be to discuss the value card sort activity and the MBTI since those
would most likely take the most amount of time. I also informed Derek that during our third
session, we would discuss the results of the Gallup Strengths Finder and that we would also
explore the O*Net website together as well.
I began my second session with Derek by asking him to describe what his experiences of
the value card sort activity and the MBTI were like. He stated that the value card sort activity
was simple, but that he was surprised with the final outcome. The five values that he placed in
the most important category were: security, competence, location, helping others, and balance.
Derek had emailed me a screenshot of the online activity so we were also able to discuss the
somewhat important and not important categories as well and his reasoning for placing the
values in the categories. Next, we began to discuss the MBTI and Derek shared that the
inventory seemed redundant because it asked similar questions. He expressed his mild frustration
in having difficulty deciding how to answer certain questions. He also expressed his nervousness
in completing the self-scoring portion for fear of not calculating his responses correctly. Prior to
the second meeting, I had guided Derek through the self-scoring portion and the inventory
identified him as INTJ. Derek shared that he had spent some time reflecting on the results of the
inventory and really thinking about how he could or could not see how they applied to him.
When Derek first shared the results of his inventory, neither Derek nor myself were
surprised. I used our course text to create a PowerPoint presentation to better explain the purpose
of the MBTI and what the results show. The main message that I wanted to communicate to
Derek was something that we were told in class, that this inventory is not meant to label the
people that take it, but instead it aims to help people identify what personality types are natural

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for them. We discussed each element of the inventory and the differences between each of the
pairs that the inventory looks at (i.e., extraversion/introversion, sensing/intuition,
thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving). Again, Derek stated that he felt the inventory was very
accurate and true to how he knows himself to experience life. As I gave more detailed
descriptions of each element of the inventory, I asked Derek to identify words or phrases that
really stood out more than others. The words that he noted were competence, skeptical,
independent, and great drive and we discussed the meanings and implications of these words in
great detail. When I have taken the MBTI most recently I have been identified as ISTJ. I found
that because my results were so similar to Dereks results that I did not find it challenging to
explain the results to him. I was also able to offer real life examples of how I have seen certain
aspects of the ISTJ type show themselves in my experiences. Our second session concluded with
a reminder to reflect on the results of the StrengthsFinder inventory so that we could discuss the
results during out last session. I also encouraged Derek to read through the supplements that
were available to him online after taking the inventory (Signature Theme Report, Brief Theme
Descriptions, Strengths Insight and Action-Planning Guide, and Strengths Insight Report). I
specifically wanted him to read through the descriptions of his top strengths and come prepared
to discuss what he found.
I began our third and final session by reminding Derek that I am not a certified Strengths
coach but that the inventory would provide him with valuable information that he could further
discuss with a career counselor at CSUDH. I proceeded to ask Derek to describe what his
experience of taking the StrengthsFinder was like and how it compared to his experiences of the
two other inventories. He stated, the StengthsFinder inventory took a longer amount of time to
complete, but the questions were simple to answer. Dereks top five results for the

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StrengthsFinder inventory were competition, restorative, harmony, relator and intellection.

Reviewing the Signature Theme Report together, I asked Derek to identify and discuss with me
elements of each strength that stood out to him. I also asked him if any of the strengths surprised
him. When I asked this, he immediately stated, The competition one really got me, I wasnt
expecting that to show so strongly. I asked Derek to expand on his statement and he said that
the first statement for competition in the Signature Theme Report was absolutely true
competition is rooted in comparison. He explained that he uses the work and drive of others and
their success to motivate him to do better.
After we discussed each of the strengths in a similar manner, I was interested to know if
Derek would be able to make any connections between each of the three inventories. In asking
this question, Derek was eager to share of the connections he was able to make on his own prior
to our third session. He noted that the intellection strength related to the competence value, the
harmony strength to the location value, the competence value to some of the principles found in
INTJ (from the MBTI), and the restorative strength to pursue a career where he can help others.
Derek shared similar connections to what I had noticed when I reviewed the results from his
inventories. We discussed the implications of each similarity/connection and how they might
affect his current work (as a student, Resident Assistant, and employment at Jamba Juice) and
how they might affect his future work as a doctor.
Finally, I shared with Derek the two online resources that he could explore to discover
more about the medical field and the career he wants to pursue. Together we looked at the O*Net
website as well as the Occupational Outlook Handbook. To my surprise, Derek was already
familiar with the O*Net website and he explained to me what he has used it for in the past, who
introduced him to it, and how he plans to use it in the future. I then explained to him some of the

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differences and similarities between O*Net and the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Using
O*Net, we looked at what was listed for a pediatrician and discussed some of the skills and
abilities that Derek thought would be a challenge to master and others that, based on what he
discovered about himself in the inventories, would be simpler to work toward. I concluded our
session by encouraging Derek to make an appointment during the spring semester with a career
counselor at CSUDH to continue to have valuable conversations about his degree and career
choices and to learn about how he can work toward achieving his goal of becoming a doctor.
In preparation for this assignment, I was unsure of how to use a particular theory during
our sessions together. During our first session, I took extensive notes regarding the types of
questions I was asking and what I was most interested in knowing about the student. After the
first session, I refreshed my mind on the theories that we have discussed in class and I was
reminded of the one of the first theories that we learned about, the trait and type theory. I think
that of all the theories we have been exposed to, this is the one that I most closely aligned my
sessions with. This theory consists of three foundational steps: 1) gain self-understanding
2) obtain knowledge about the world of work and 3) integrate information about self and the
world of work. I believe that I was able to assist Derek through each of these elements. I believe
that I have provided evidence of how I was able to successfully do that from discussing the
inventories to discussing the roles and responsibilities of doctors and ending with assisting Derek
in making the connections between the two. One aspect of this theory that I could been more
prepared for and done a better job of communicating would be obtaining knowledge of the world
of work. I know very little of the medical field and I think I have been more helpful if I would
have offered more information or at least ways/resources for Derek to gain more information.

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Before beginning this case study I was nervous and apprehensive about having to lead a
student through something I have never experienced myself. After reflecting on this assignment,
I realized that I chose to work with a student that I happen to connect with fairly well. As I
previously mentioned, I supervise Derek on a weekly basis, but our conversations primarily deal
with our work. I was surprised to learn that we were more similar than I thought. I recognize that
not every career counselor and student will have similarities and I can imagine that some
sessions would be frustrating, but I was pleased with the outcome of our sessions. Having done
this case study, I now have a better understanding of what a career counseling session might feel
like. Although I continually communicated to Derek that I am in no way a career counselor and
that I was learning just as he was throughout the experience, I was able to notice how much he
trusted my knowledge of the inventories and the topics that we discussed in our discussions. I
learned that using more than one inventory is helpful because it will help the student have a
broader understanding of themselves and the career counselor to know more of how to assist and
support the student. Through this case study, I learned that career counseling is a very tangible
way to help students learn more about themselves and to help support them in achieving their
goals.