Career counseling: introduction

• Choosing a career is more than simply deciding what one will do

to earn a living.

• Occupations influence a person’s whole way of life, including

physical and mental health.

• In India formal career counseling services are available in big

cities and
• career choice is usually influenced by parental or peer pressure.
 Career counseling: introduction
• Selecting a career is influenced by a variety of factors:
 Personality style
 Developmental stages
 Life roles, Gender , Age
 Family background
 Happenstance

• In ancient India career decisions were made purely on the basis of

family heritage, caste or community.

• Despite many changes parental pressure, social-economic factors

and cultural factors also play an important role.
 Career counseling: introduction

• Career counseling associations

• The two divisions within American Counseling Association

(ACA) primarily devoted to career development and counseling
 The National Career Development Association (NCDA)
 The National Employment Counselors Association (NECA)

• Both publish quarterly journals

 The Career Development Quarterly
 The Journal of Employment Counseling.
 Career counseling: introduction

• Career counseling defined by NCDA as:

 A process of assisting individuals in the development of a life-
career with a focus on the definition of the worker role and how
that role interact with other life roles.

• Historically Career counseling has been known by different

names such as:
 vocational guidance,
 occupational counseling,
 vocational counseling
 Career counseling: introduction

• Career is a much broader term than occupation

• Career : a group of similar jobs found in different industries or
organizations
• Job: merely an activity undertaken for economic returns.

• Career information: information related to the world of work that

can be useful in the process of career development e.g.
 Availability of training
 Nature of work
 Status of workers
 Career counseling: introduction

• A more modern term is

• Career data: a collection of facts about occupational and
educational opportunities.
• Data becomes information: when it is understood by clients and
used to inform decision making, that is help in choosing one
alternative over the other.
 Career counseling: introduction
• Career guidance: all activities that seek to disseminate
information about present or future vocations in such a way that
individuals become more knowledgeable.

• Guidance activities can take the form of:

 Career fairs
 Library assignments
 Computer assisted information
 Career shadowing (following someone around on his or her daily
work routines)
 Lectures
 Experiential exercises such as role play
 Career counseling: introduction

• Several publications and online software can provide in depth

and current information on careers and trends.
 Dictionary of occupational titles (DOT) or Occupational
Information Network (O*Net)
 Computer Based Career Planning System (CBCPSs)
 Computer Assisted Career Guidance System (CACGS)
 SIGI-3 (System of interactive guidance and information)
 DISCOVER
 The Kuder Career Planning System
 Career counseling: introduction

• In India, the ministry of labor and employment of government of

India runs a vocational guidance and employment counseling
program.
• Job seekers can register on the National career service website (
www.ncs.gov.in)
• Other pvt. Companies: fresherworld, monster job,

• Non governmental agencies and career counseling institutes such

as:
 Asia pacific career development association (APCDA)
 Career information and guidance (CARING)
 Career Development theories and counseling

• Career development theories try to

 Explain why individuals choose careers
 Career adjustment people make over time

• Some of the theories are:

 Trait and factor theory
 Developmental theory
 Social-cognitive theory
 Trait and factor theory

• It stresses that traits of clients should first be assessed and then

systematically matched with factors inherent in various
occupations.

• It stresses the uniqueness of persons.

• Person’s abilities and traits could be measured objectively and
quantified.
• Personal motivation was considered relatively stable.

• Satisfaction in a particular occupation depended on a proper fit

between one’s abilities and the job requirements.
 Trait and factor theory

• Three interviews:

 The first interview session is spent getting to know a client’s

background and assigning tests.

 The client takes a battery of test and return for the second
interview, to have the counselor interpret the results of the tests.

 In the third session the client reviews career choices in light of the
data presented and is sent out by the counselor to find further
information on specific careers.
 Trait and factor theory

• John Holland (1997) identified six categories in which personality

types and occupational environment can be classified (RIASEC):
 Realistic
 Investigative
 Artistic
 Social
 Enterprising
 Conventional
 Trait and factor theory

Hardheaded, practical,
unassuming, un-insightful
(athlete, engineer,
mechanical work, farmer)
Trait and factor theory
Intellectual, curious,
analytical, scholarly,
open, (Researcher,
Computer
programmer, lab
technician)
Trait and factor theory

Creative,
Imaginative, open,
non-conforming,
Aesthetic
(Musician, painter,
writer)
Trait and factor theory

Agreeable, friendly, understanding, Sociable,

Extroverted (Counselor, Teacher, Nurse)
 Trait and factor theory

Persuasive, Outgoing, adventurous, enthusiastic, power

seeking, energetic (Sales, Management, entrepreneur)
 Trait and factor theory

Organized,
unimaginative,
Practical and
Conforming, inhibited
(Accountant, Financial
manager, clerk)
 Trait and factor theory

Characteristics:
• The closer one type is to another type on the hexagon, the more it
resembles the other.
• If people identify with types that are close to one another on the hexagon, Holland
defined that as being consistent. Their career exploration proceeds much easier than
would be the case for those with inconsistent identifications
• Holland introduced the principle of congruence, that is, thinking about the agreement
between a person’s personality type and the environment (i.e., the more agreement or
congruence, the more satisfaction with the choice).
• Although we all relate in some way to each of the personality types and the six
environments as well, some of us bear much stronger resemblance to one type than to
another. A highly differentiated type, for example, might strongly identify with one type
and bear little or no identification with another type. A less differentiated type might bear
strong resemblance to all types or no types.
 Trait and factor theory
• When we rank these six categories according to prestige:
 Investigative (I)
 Enterprising (E)
 Artistic (A)
 Social (S)
 Realistic (R)
 Conventional (C)

• Analysis of the census data from 1960 to 2000 showed that

 The realistic area had the largest number of individual employed
 The artistic area had the fewest number employed
 Trait and factor theory
• Analysis of the census data from 1960 to 2000 (contd..)

 Over the five decades the gap between the number employed in the
Realistic and Enterprising shrank.

 Investigative area more than doubled during this time.

 Regardless of age, between 75% and 85% of male workers were

employed in the Realistic and Enterprising areas.

 Women were more varied and concentrated in conventional,

Realistic, Social, and more recently Enterprising areas.
 Trait and factor theory

• Personal satisfaction in a work setting depends upon a number of

factors, some of the important ones are:

 The degree of congruence between personality type, work

environment, and social class.

 Also as a general rule women value language related tasks more and
men value mathematics related tasks more.

 Other external factors such as economical and cultural influences

also play a role.
 Trait and factor theory
• Vital for persons to have adequate knowledge of themselves and
occupational requirements to make informed career decisions.

• According to Holland a three letter code represents a client’s

overall personality, which can be matched with a type of work
environment.

• Three-letter codes tend to remain relatively stable over the lifespan

beginning as early as high school.

• Ex- a profile of SAE would suggest a person is most similar to a

Social type, then an Artistic type and finally an Enterprising type.
 Trait and factor theory

• However, it is the interaction of letter codes that influences the

makeup of the person and his or her fit in an occupational
environment.

• Miller (1998) suggests that instead of using the three highest scores
on Holland’s hexagon, the top two, middle two and the lowest two
scores should be paired to given the fuller picture.
 Developmental theories

• Two most prominent developmental theories are associated with

Donald Super and Eli Ginzberg.

• Donald super’s theory have been examined in great detail and

researched upon.

• Developmental theories are in general

 More inclusive
 More concerned with longitudinal expression of career behavior
 Highlight the importance of self-concept.
 Developmental theories

• According to Donald Super the vocational development unfolds in

five stages:
• Each of which contains a developmental task to be completed
• The first stage is Growth (from birth to age 14)
• Self-concept develops through identification with key figures in
family and school
• Children become oriented to the world of work in many ways
(exploration, information, interests etc.)
• Needs and fantasy are dominant early in this stage
• Interest and capacity become important with increasing social
participation and reality testing.
 Developmental theories

• Learn behaviors associated with

 self-help, social interaction, self-direction, industrialness, goal setting,
persistence.

• Substages
 Fantasy (4-10): needs are dominant; role playing in fantasy is
important
 Interest (11-12): likes are the major determinant of aspirations and
activities.
 Capacity (13-14): abilities are given more weight and job
requirements are considered.
 Developmental theories
• The second stage, exploration (ages 14-24)
 It involves general exploration of the world of work and the
specification of a career preference.
 Self-examination, role tryouts, and occupational exploration take
place in school, leisure activities and part time work.

• Substages:
 Tentative (15-17): Needs, interests, capacities, values and
opportunities are all considered
 Tentative choices are made and tried out in fantasy, discussion,
courses, work and so on.
 Possible appropriate fields and levels of work are identified.
 Developmental theories
• Substages contd……:
• Transition (18-21)
 Reality considerations are given more weight as the person enters the
labor market or professional training.
 Generalized choice is converted to specific choice.

• Trial-little commitment (22-24)

 A seemingly appropriate occupation having been found.
 A first job is located and tried out as a potential life work.
 Commitment is still provisional
 Developing a realistic self-concept
 Learning more about opportunities
 Developmental theories
• The third stage, Establishment (ages 24-44)
• Having found an appropriate field, an effort is made to establish a
permanent place in it.
• Thereafter changes that occur are changes of position, job, or
employer, not of occupation.

• Substages:
• Trial-commitment and stabilization (25-30)
 Settling down, Securing permanent place in the chosen occupation.
 May prove unsatisfactory resulting in one or two changes before
life work is found or before it becomes clear that the life work will be
a succession of unrelated jobs.
 Developmental theories

• Substages contd…………..:
• Advancement (31-44)
 Effort is put forth to stabilize, to make a secure place in the world of
work.
 For most persons these are the creative years.
 Seniority is acquired
 Clientele are developed
 Superior performance is demonstrated
 Qualifications are improved
 Developmental theories

• The fourth stage, Maintenance (ages 44-64)

 The major task is preserving what one has already achieved.
 Little new ground is broken, continuation of established pattern.
 Concerned about maintaining present status while being forced by
competition from the young workers in the advancement stage.

• The final stage, Decline (age 65 to death)

• It is a time for disengagement from work and alignment with other
sources of satisfaction.
• As physical and mental power decline, work activity changes and in
due course ceases.
 Developmental theories

• Substages:
• Deceleration (65-70)
 The pace of work slackens, duties are shifted or the nature of work
is changed to suit declining capacities.
 Many find part-time jobs to replace their full-time occupations.

• Retirement (71 onwards)

 Shift to part-time, volunteer or leisure activities.
 Developmental theories

• Emphasized how personal experiences interact with occupational

preferences in creating one’s self-concept.

• Many theorists before him simply looked at personality and

occupation and focused on a trait matching approach.

• One of the major contribution is that Self-concept can change with

new experiences over time.

• Before this, career development was mostly seen as a singular choice;

however, Super viewed career development as a lifelong activity.
 Developmental theories

• He also identified different areas or “life-spaces” that help make a

person who they are.

• The six main life-spaces that make up who we are include:

parent/homemaker, worker, citizen, leisurite, student, and child.

• So many of these roles imply that other people are involved in our
lives and thus impact who we are.

• These inhabited social spaces didn’t constitute a distraction but were

an integral part of the rainbow of our lives.
 Social-cognitive theory
• First published in 1994, inspired by the work of Albert
Bandura.
• Triadic reciprocal model of causality, personal attributes, the
environment, and overt behavior, affect each other in a bi-
directional manner.
• Developed by Robert W. Lent, Steven D. Brown, and Gail Hackett in 1994
 Social-cognitive theory

• Career-related behavior is influenced by aspects of the person:

 Self-efficacy
 Outcome expectations
 Goals
 Self-efficacy
• self-efficacy beliefs are relatively dynamic (i.e., changeable) and are specific to
particular activity domains.
• people are likely to become interested in, choose to pursue, and perform better
at activities at which they have strong self-efficacy beliefs
• as long as they also have necessary skills and environmental supports to
pursue these activities.
 Social-cognitive theory

• Career-related behavior is influenced by aspects of the person:

 Outcome expectations:
• refer to beliefs about the consequences or outcomes of performing particular
behaviors (e.g., what will happen if I do this?).

• likely to choose to engage in an activity to the extent that they see their
involvement as leading to valued, positive outcomes

• (e.g., social and self-approval, tangible rewards, attractive work conditions).

 Social-cognitive theory

• Career-related behavior is influenced by aspects of the person:

 Goals:
• two types of goals are, respectively, referred to as choice goals and
performance goals.
• Choice goals (e.g., to pursue a given academic major) or
• performance (e.g., to receive an A in a particular course).
• By setting goals, people help to organize and guide their own behavior and to
sustain it
• goals are importantly tied to both self-efficacy and outcome expectations
 Social-cognitive theory

• In addition to expectations of outcome, factors such as gender, race,

physical health, disabilities and environmental variables influence
self-efficacy development.

• Actual career choice and implementation are influenced by a

number of direct and indirect variables e.g. discrimination,
economic variables, and chance happenings

• All things being equal, people with the highest levels of ability and
the strongest self efficacy beliefs perform at the highest level.
 Social-cognitive theory

• One of the most important assumption of this theory is that self-

efficacy and interests are linked.

• Interests can be developed or strengthened using modeling,

encouragement and by performance enactment.

• One of the strengths of this approach is that it uses intra-individual

and contextual variables in career development.
 Social-cognitive theory

• Krumboltz (1979, 1996) has also formulated a socio-cognitive theory.

• He has highlighted four factors that influence a person’s career

choice:
 Genetic endowment
 Conditions and events in the environment
 Learning experiences,
 Task-approach skills (values, work habits)
 Social-cognitive theory

• According to krumboltz career decisions are influenced by both

internal and external processes.

• Self-observation generalizations: an overt or covert self-statement

of evaluation that may or may not be true

• Task approach skills: an effort by people to project their self-

observation generalizations into the future in order to predict future
events.

• Actions: implementations of behaviors, such as applying for a job.

 Career counseling with diverse populations

• It is usually used for college and school students, but can also be
applied to
• Those released from mental hospital
• Those released from prison and looking to rehabilitate
• Learning disabled
• Many people face difficulty while making career decisions because
of factors such as
 Lack of readiness
 Lack of information
 Inconsistent information
 Career counseling with diverse populations

• In the Indian context career guidance is usually offered by some

school counselor who organize career talks and seminars.

• Career counseling in India is not available through out the school

life but only towards the end stages when a choice has to be made
regarding stream of study.

• Such group guidance activities are also held in colleges about career
areas related to the field of study.
• Placement services are available in professional colleges such as
engineering and business administration.
 Career counseling with children

• First 6 years of school, many children develop a relatively stable

self-perception and make a tentative commitment to a vocation

• Career guidance and counseling programs should focus on

awareness rather than firm decision making.

• Provide as many experiential activities as possible and should help

children realize they have career options.

• Unfortunately career guidance is not provided to primary school

children in India.
 Career counseling with children

• Levels of career awareness in primary school children may be

raised through activities such as:
 Field trips to local industries
 Manufacturing plants
 Banks
 Encouraging parents to take children to their workplace
 Inviting persons who hold non traditional occupations
 Reading stories, showing videos regarding typical activities on a job
 Career counseling with adolescents
• In middle school,
• Career guidance activities should include the exploration of work
opportunities and
• Students’ evaluation of their own strengths and weaknesses in
regard to possible future careers:
 Talents and skills
 General intelligence
 Motivational level
 Life experience
 Family and friends
 Career counseling with adolescents
• In middle school,
• Libraries and/or career centres may have special Career
Information Delivery Systems (CIDS) :
 Occupational information
 Assessment
 Educational information
• In high school
• Students benefit from using self-knowledge as a beginning point for
exploring careers.
• At this stage the career counselor can provide students with
information, emotional support, planning strategies, attitude
clarification.
 Career counseling with adolescents
• In high school,
• Mainly to techniques are used by career counselors:
 Cognitive
 Experiential
• Cognitive techniques could be guided fantasies:
 Imagining a typical day in the future
 An award ceremony
 Mid-career change or
 Retirement
• A career day or career fair could be organized to provide
information about career entry and development
 Career counseling with adolescents
• In high school,
• An occupational family tree to find out how present interests
compare with careers of family members.
• Experiential and comprehensive techniques include:
 Apprenticeships
 Internships

• Apart from school students, special effort must be made to help

students who drop-out from school or doesn't complete their
graduation.
 Career counseling with college students

• Committing to a career choice is one of the main psychosocial tasks

that college students face.

• Approximately half of all college students experience career-related

problems.

• According to Erikson (1963): it is primarily the inability to settle on

an occupational identity which disturbs young people.
 Career counseling with college students

Comprehensive career guidance and counseling programs services

are:
 Helping with the selection of a major field of study.
 Offering self-assessment and self-analysis through psychological
testing.
 Helping students understand the world of work.
 Facilitating access to employment opportunities through career
fairs, internships, and campus interviews.
 Teaching decision making skills.
 Meeting the needs of special population.
 Career counseling with college students

• Students need “life-career developmental counseling”

 It is broader approach seeks to help people plan for future careers
while balancing and integrating life-work roles and
responsibilities.
 Anticipate problems related to work, Intimate relationships.
 Such knowledge can help prevent , Work-family conflicts (WFC).
 Students can avoid problems and create realistic job previews
(RJPs).
 Fortunately, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently
announced grants for setting up career and counseling cells in
colleges.
 Career counseling with adults

• Career interests tend to be more stable after college

• Adults experience cyclical of stability and transition throughout
their lives
• Career change is a developmentally as well as situational
expectation at the adult stage of life.
 Developmentally, some adults have a midlife career change that
occur as they enter their 40s
 Situationally, adults may seek career changes after a trauma such
as a death, divorce, layoff.
 Career counseling with adults

• There are two dominant ways of working with adults in career

counseling:
 The differential approach
 The developmental approach
• The differential approach states that people who shift careers at any
point in life, seek to find more consistency between personality and
environment
• The developmental approach states that adults always are in the
process of evaluating how they are affected by outside
environmental influences and how they influence them.
 Career counseling with adults

• In India, the need of career counseling with adults has not been fully
recognized.

• The only time a counselor or the human resource manager would

intervene when a person is not performing well or has
interpersonal issues within office.

• Counseling for a mid-career change or for pre-retirement phase is

rarely seen.
 Career counseling Women and Ethnic Minorities

• Women and ethnic minorities historically have received less

adequate career counseling than males.

• Reasons has often involved stereotypical beliefs and practices.

• Society have generally assumed that women will have discontinuous

career patterns to accommodate their families’ needs.

• Ethnic minorities have often been viewed as interested in only a

limited number of occupations.
 Career counseling Women and Ethnic Minorities

• Women
• Women elsewhere and especially in India have move towards career
paths earlier reserved for men.
• Problem in career development comes in terms of work/family
conflict,
• Family and work responsibilities create role overload.
• Occupational sex-role stereotyping: mistakenly assuming that
women as a group prefer social, artistic, and conventional
occupations as opposed to realistic, investigative, and enterprising
occupations.
 Career counseling Women and Ethnic Minorities

• Women
• Glass ceiling phenomenon: women are seen as able to rise only so
far in a corporation because they are not viewed as being able to
perform top level executive duties.
• Counseling strategies:
 Career plus life counseling: counseling focusing on personal and
relationship issues in addition to explicit career issues.
 Ecological perspective: focusing on career development issues
keeping in mind the contexts and complexity of the environment in
which they live.
 Career counseling Women and Ethnic Minorities

• Racial and ethnic minorities

• Concentrated in lower level positions and unskilled occupations.

• E.g. black youths in USA who have lived in poverty:

 Few positive work-related experiences
 Limited educational opportunities
 Lack of positive work role models
 Career counseling Women and Ethnic Minorities

• In Asian culture, parents traditionally make career decisions for

their children.

• While working with inner city youths traditional theories of career

counseling may not work.

• By staging neighborhood workshops to introduce parents to diverse

career opportunities.
 Career counseling with Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, and Transgenders
(LGBT)
• Problem can occur when they disclose their sexual orientation
openly.
• Therefore, career counselors must evaluate both theirs and
surrounding community’s stereotyping of LGBT.
 By looking at the personal, professional and environmental bias
 Discrimination can be in the form of blackmail, exclusion,
harassment, and termination
• Lavender ceiling: a career plateaus early due to discreet prejudice
by upper management against a person due to their sexuality.
• Transgenders in India are treated with contempt and disgust, and
are often left on the streets to beg.