MODULE ONE

CAREER DEVELOPMENT –

THEORY AND INFORMATION

1. Introduction. Short History of Career Counseling

2. Career Interventions – Definitions and Models
3. The Roles of the Career Counselor
4. Career Development Theories
4.1. Structural Theories
4.2. Developmental Theories
5. Adult Development Issues in Career Counseling
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6. Working with Diverse Populations

1. INTRODUCTION

Career development is a process that takes place during the whole life. This
process comprises the jobs, occupations, and activities, spare time activities chosen
by an individual. It is a process where the own decision is influenced also by
family environment, by the family and school education, by religious orientation
and other social factors.
Career counseling became a scientific and practical subject due to the
vocational orientation, a movement that was the answer to the huge social and
demographic form the beginning of XX century. For the time being, career
counseling is considered as a service with a major social impact.
We will speak about the professional category of career counselors, from
two perspectives:
1. Occupational standard for the career counselor, promoted by the
Council of Occupational and Certifying Standards (Bucharest, 1999 –
see annex 1).
2. Standards promoted by the certifying program GCDF – Global Career
Development Facilitator (see www.cce-global.org ).
Exercise:
Draw a coat of arms divided into six sections and label each
section like that:
1. Actual job title;
2. Type of work setting (business, industry, education,
health);
3. Job responsibilities;
4. Target population;
5. Expectations;
6. Hesitancies (personal and professional concerns)

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We call all forms of scientifically based activities to help clients to deal

with their particular job problems “career counseling”. The United States – and
particularly the New England States with their emphasis on self-realization by
work - can be considered as the home of career counseling.

Frank Parsons is said to be the father of career counseling. But he was not
the first in this field. His predecessor was Lysander Richards, a self-educated
merchant from Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1881 he published a book titled
“Vocophy, The New Profession: A System Enabling A Person to Name the
Calling or Vocation One is Best Suited to Follow.” The term “Vocophy” refers to
vocation. This book anticipated the idea of counseling by nearly 30 years. More
successful with this idea was Frank Parsons who formulated his ideas of
counseling at the height of the progressive movement in Boston and opened the
“Vocation Bureau” in Boston with private contributions in 1908. From 1909 on,
teachers from each of Boston's elementary and vocational schools were trained in
vocational counseling twice a month at this offices. Topics included principles
and methods of guidance and occupational information about many local
industries. Another important part of Parsons's program was the collection of
occupational information. In June 1910, Frederic Allen became the Bureau's
assistant director and investigator of occupations. He was active in the training of
teachers as counselors, and issued “Pamphlet 1, Vocations for Boston Boys: The
Machinist.” Ten pages included "The trade"; dangers, conditions, and future; pay,
positions, and opportunities; qualities and training required; census report of
employment; comments of people in the trade; a bibliography; and schools
offering courses in the occupation. Allen, in his investigations, met with a dozen
or more of the Bostonians in charge of hiring workers, who eventually formed an
association that gave rise to the title of "employment manager," or as we would
say today, human resource manager.

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The Boston YMCA was one of the crucial factors in the fast development
of vocational counseling. For many years, it had taught a variety of vocational
classes from bookkeeping to law, sponsoring an employment bureau as early as
1871. By 1905, its employment service had placed more than 2,000 applicants.
Parsons sketched a training program for counselors to be taken up by the Boston
YMCA at the same time that he planned the Bureau. The announcement said that
its purpose was "to fit young men to become vocational counselors and manage
vocation bureaus in connection with YMCAs, schools, colleges and universities,
and public systems, associations and businesses anywhere in the county." Parsons
was named to be dean but died before his plans could be completed.

Already in 1920, Harvard University a Bureau of Vocational Guidance

which today we would describe as a Career Center opened at Harvard University.
It provided services to Harvard students, offered training courses for teachers and
counselors, maintained an extensive guidance library, and conducted research into
vocational and educational fields.

The first national conference on vocational guidance was convened in

Boston in November of 1910. Several hundred delegates from 35 different cities
attended. Speakers, including the then-mayor of Boston, John Fitzgerald,
enunciated principles that we espouse nearly a century later:
 the dignity of useful work
 that elementary schools should not train for a particular vocation but develop
the mind in a broad sense
 that high schools should enable students to know about different vocations
 warning against the prescription of vocations
The last issue was very important at that time because the school authority
had a authoritarian approach, directing young people into certain fields of
vocational education.

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Already the third meeting in 1913 was the genesis of the organization that
became the National Vocational Guidance Association (now National Career
Development Association), members of which spawned the Division of
Counseling Psychology of the American Psychological Association in 1945.

During the last decades, career counseling became more and more a
domain of educationalists, a fact that corresponds with the early intentions and
the educational approach of Frank Parsons. The National Board for Certified
Counselors, Inc. and Affiliates (NBCC), an independent not-for-profit
credentialing body for counselors, was incorporated in 1982 after the work of a
committee of the American Counseling Association (ACA). The committee
created NBCC to be an independent credentialing body to establish and monitor a
national certification system, to identify those counselors who have voluntarily
sought and obtained certification, and to maintain a register of those counselors
(www.nbcc.org).
NBCC's certification program recognizes counselors who have met
predetermined standards in their training, experience, and performance on the
National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification (NCE), the most
portable credentialing examination in counseling. NBCC has about 40,000
certified counselors. These counselors live and work in the United States and
over 50 countries.

2. CAREER INTERVENTIONS – DEFINITIONS AND

MODELS

Under the name of helping professions, we find a range of fields focused on

different social needs. Some professionals are easily identified as practitioners of
helping professions (psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and social assistants).

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Others (medical doctors, priests, nurses, and teachers) start to be considered, in the
specialized literature, as professionals.

The Practice of Professional Counseling: The application of mental

health, psychological, or human development principles, through cognitive,
affective, behavioral or systemic intervention strategies, that address wellness,
personal growth, or career development, as well as pathology (see www.nbcc.org).

The counseling is the process when a specialized person called career

counselor offers support, in a very well limited methodological framework, to
another person (client) who is supported in such a way in order to take good
decisions regarding his professional and personal life.

We should take into account that there is clear distinction between career
counseling (as a continuous support process for the individuals of any age) and
vocational guidance.

Vocational guidance represents the process of assisting subjects to

assimilate the necessary knowledge and to adjust their life opinions according
to the labor market requirements.
Career counseling addresses choice and development of occupation.
Career counselors undergo specialist training equipping them with knowledge
of job opportunities, employment trends and requirements for training and
qualifications [Dictionary of Counseling, 1993, page 24].

There is a range of controversies between the theoreticians, regarding the

meanings of the following terms: career, professional position, and job.
Even if there existed controversies related to the term of career, for the
other terms involved in the career developmental theory and practice there is a
relative agreement.

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The professional position is directly related to a range of tasks given to

an individual. Therefore, there are as many professional positions as many
individuals work.
A job involves the existence of a similar professional position in a
certain professional area.
The occupation is a group of several similar services in different
professional areas.

The term of career registered multiple changes during the time. In the ‘70s,
the career was a concept exclusively related to the professional aspects of the
individual life. After that moment, new meanings were added to the term, related
to the personal, community and economical life.
From the economical point of view, career represents a sequence of
professional positions of an individual, as per his/her training and professional
results (related to the professional development process).
Regarding the process of career development, this was identified with “the
interaction of psychological, sociological, economic, physical, and chance factors
that shape the sequence of jobs, occupations or careers that a person may engage in
throughout a lifetime. Career development is a major aspect of human
development. It includes one’s entire life span and concerns the whole person.
Career development involves a person’s self-concept, family life, and all aspects of
one’s environmental and cultural conditions” [Ettinger, 1996, page. 4-1].
Zunker (1994) considers the career development as reflecting “individually
developed needs and goals associated with stages of life and with tasks that affect
career choices and subsequent fulfillment of purpose” [Zunker, 1994, page 3].
Exercise:
Enumerate the professional positions you have had so far and discuss
their sequence from the professional development perspective:

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From the sociological point of view, career is a sequence of roles played by

a person and each of them is at the base of the following.
The role is a position adopted temporarily and functionally. Even
though one may be in a certain role over a considerable period of time (e.g.
motherhood), this role is not identical with the whole of one’s personality:
everyone has a variety of roles, which correspond with the activities they
undertake at any one time [Dictionary of Counseling, 1993, page 165].

Exercise:
WHO AM I? Roles.

In the past Now (current roles) In the future

Conclusions:
How do the roles I am playing affect my personal and professional life?

Career development is an on-going process of learning, following some

flexible steps related to self-discovery, research on work possibilities, decision-
making actions and setting goals:
Gather information about self:
o Roles
o Interests
o Values
o Skills
o Aptitudes
o Personal style

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o Preferred environments
o Developmental needs
Gather information about work possibilities (mass-media, networking,
informational interviews):
o Research existing occupations
o Research industries
o Research the labor market
Make decisions:
o Identify and assess the possibilities
o Explore alternatives
o Choose an option (short-, medium-, long-term)
Set a goal:
o Project and develop necessary steps to reach the goal
o Build in support, accountability, rewards.

Beyond the analytical, structured approaches of the career development

process, we should take into consideration some other elements – like creativity,
for example, innovation or proactive attitude toward work and life.
Poehnell&Amundson presents the Careercraft concept, as a metaphor suggesting
anyone’s power to reframe the thinking and actions in new, innovative ways. The
key-concepts are engagement, energy and empowerment – in a different
perspective, which is focused on the active client, looking for some career
opportunities, rather than on the passive actor in the career social game

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LIFE-LINE activity:
The horizontal line below represents your life-line. Place an X on the line to represent the position you are currently
in. The „+” sign above the line indicates life successes and sources of pride. The „–” sign below the line indicates
failures and times when things were not so well. For each life stage indicated, please write in personally significant
events and roles that you perceived as either positive or negative. What conclusion you can draw?

EARLY ADOLESCENCE YOUNG ADULTHOOD MIDDLE ADULTHOOD OLDER ADULTHOOD

CHILDHOOD

+
BIRTH DEATH

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3. THE ROLES OF THE CAREER COUNSELOR. THE

GCDF.

The main task of the career counselor is to facilitate the client’s access to
the professional opportunities and to assist him/her for the career development
process. The counselor should never suggest ways of action, directly advice or
draw any conclusion on behalf of his/her client.
Exercise:
Enumerate some roles you think you can play as a career counselor.
Comment on them:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Basic activities performed by the career counselor:

1. Assists people with career development in a rapidly changing world,
according to:
 Technological development;
 Competitive global economy;
 Workforce diversity.
2. Work with people of all ages for career development purposes.
3. Works in public and private educational facilities, community and
government agencies and business settings [Ettinger, 1996, pages 4-1].

In a detailed way, we can describe the career counselors’ activities like that:
Conduct counseling sessions to help clarify life/career goals.
Administer and interpret informal instruments to assess abilities and interests,
and to identify career options.
Encourage exploratory activities through assignments and planning
experiences.

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Utilize career-planning systems and occupational information systems to help

individuals better understand the world of work.
Provide opportunities for improving decision-making skills.
Assist in developing individualized career plans.
Teach job hunting strategies and skills and assist in the development of
clients’ portfolios.
Help resolve personal conflicts on the job through practice in human relations
skills.
Assist in understanding the integration of work and other life roles.
Provide support for persons experiencing job stress, job loss, and/or career
transition.

Career Counselor’s roles:

1. A client advocate in the system
2. An educator of occupational exploration tools
3. A coach/motivator
4. A role model
5. A group facilitator.
The career counselor should be aware that what he or she doing is career
assistance, support and development – not psychological counseling or
psychotherapy. The counselor must explore his or her own boundaries, limitations,
developmental needs, psychopathology – which can unconsciously hinder the
client’s development.

The GCDF
Our training program is widely based on a curriculum that has been developed
in the United States und spread by the NBCC. It provides a bundle of supporting and
helping skills that forms the base of the activities of the so-called “Career
Development Facilitator” (CDF). The need for this curriculum was evaluated by an
analysis of the National Career Development Association (NCDA).

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The curriculum has been developed in 1994/95 by the Career Development

Training Institute (CDTI) of the University of Oakland with financial support by the
National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC). Thus it is a
product of a big network of public and professional institutions and stakeholders. It
has been practically tested in many situations. Originally designed for the demands in
the United States and provided by about 17 public and private institutions, it turned
out to be a rather universal standard. It was adapted to national conditions in other
countries and it can be seen as the first worldwide training and quality standard for
career guides, developers and employment coaches including a minimum of 120
hours of training (in Germany 160 hours).

Because the CDF is a certificate for „paraprofessionals“ and not for counselors
with an academic background, the NBCC has founded a new institution, the Center
for Credentialing and Education (CCE; www.cce-global.org). Since 1997, CCE has
certified GCDFs („Global Career Development Facilitators“) worldwide. Any person
who fulfils the requirements of the curriculum including a final test, and who has
shown the needed practical experiences can become certified as GCDF. This
certificate can be seen as a quality standard for academic and non-academic career
developers, consultants, and employment coaches etc, who are able to give effective
support to their clients.

Except from the United States the GCDF has been implemented in other countries
like Japan, New Zealand, China, Romania, Germany, and it will be introduced in
Bulgaria, Turkey, and other countries. There are about 5.500 non US-American
GCDFs

The competency areas promoted by the GCDF program are:

1. Helping Skills
2. Labor Market Information/Resources

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3. Assessment
4. Diverse Populations
5. Ethical and Legal Issues
6. Career Development Models
7. Employability Skills
8. Training Clients and Peers
9. Program Management/Implementation
10. Promotion and Public Relations
11. Technology
12. Supervision

The Global Career Development Facilitators are professionals who have

met the requirements set by CCE. They may serve as career group facilitators, job
search trainers, career coaches, career development case managers, intake
interviewers, occupational and labor market information resource persons, human
resource career development coordinators, employment/placement specialists and
workforce development personnel.

4. CAREER DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

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Even at the beginning of the vocational orientation movement, but

especially in the last 3-4 decades, a range of career developmental models was
created, as a support for the client who finds himself / herself in the situation of
taking a decision related to his / her career and life. The theories approach the
problem of the social roles and of career in a different way. For example, the
theory of self-efficiency (Bandura) considers that the career decisions are
determined by the people’ belief that they cannot be efficient in certain activities.
Tiedeman formulated the decision theory, according to which the career options
are based on the person’s self–image. The situation theory (Warnath) considers
that the basic career options are beyond our control and that they are determined
by internal factors and by social factors.

Jepsen (1984) divides the career developmental theories in two big groups:
Structural theories, oriented on individual characteristics and on
professional responsibilities.
Developmental theories, oriented on people development across the life
span.

S.H. Osipow (1983) believes that even the most incomplete theory is better
than no theory at all. The lack of theories reduces the counselor to a sympathetic
listener. Theories can be used
- to integrate facts in an system of meanings
- to get an insight into complex questions and problems that cannot be simply
solved by common sense
- to make predictions about future developments
- to stimulate research questions.
Career development theories provide a set of assumptions about vocational
development. Theories provide models to sort out the various factors involved in
career development. They help the career counselors understand the process and
offer a framework in which to organize activities that will facilitate insight and

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growth within the client. These theories give us a foundation for organizing
information about the client to use in formulating appropriate goals.

Conclusion:
Career development theories help to:
Make sense of what we experience and learn.
Bridge gaps between knowledge and the unknown.
Explain and summarize information.
Make predictions.
Formulate goals.
Support the professional development of the career counselor.

Structural theories Authors

Matching individual skills and job requirements, i.e. Trait Frank Parsons /
and Factor Williamson
Person and environment John L. Holland
Learning styles David A. Kolb

Development theories (dynamic theories)

Job maturity Donald D. Super
Individualization and “patchwork careers” Ulrich Beck
Social learning John D. Krumboltz
Decision theories
Social-cognitive career theories Lent, Brown & Hackett

4.1. Structural Theories

In this category there are the theories developed by Frank Parson, John
Holland and the socio-economical theories.

A. Trait and factor theory, developed by Frank Parson, was very popular
until the ‘50s. The counselor was obliged to assist the client in appreciating the

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weak and strong points in searching for the vacant jobs in the labor market and
finally, in applying a rational strategy to take the right decision. It was contested
mostly because it considered that the unique role of the counselor was to compare
mechanically the client’s skills with the skills requested in the labor market. At
present, the career counselors who apply this strategy usually adopt the latest
assessment techniques for the client’s skills and personality. The counseling
process is now being developed in a dynamic way, where the client develops a
career decision-making process, knowing exactly about his/her own skills and
knowledge.

B. Vocational decision theory belongs to John Holland and it had a great

success in the ‘70s, maybe because of the tool he used to collect the information, a
questionnaire, which is very easy to fill, and which the client can self-apply.
Holland says that the genetic and environmental factors can influent the
people in order to develop a hierarchy of the favorite methods for the social
indebtedness. Holland identified six types of personality, according to the methods
of social action, which reflect their main orientation: realistic, investigative,
artistic, social, enterprising and conventional (the RIASEC acronym). In the
same time, he claimed that there are many jobs that match each person, according
to his/her personality. There are pure personality types but certainly, one or two
main features can determine the positive career orientation. Holland presented the
six personality types as a hexagon, where the close types have more common
points than those that are not close. After applying the instrument, every subject
gets a code, according to the predominant type and the following two types.
Holland and his collaborators made a very big research, in order to identify the
personality code, for each job. In 1996, he published together with Gottfredson and
Ogawa, the Dictionary of Holland Occupational Codes – where are the codes for
more than 12.000 jobs. For instance, the personality code for a counselor is SAE
(the social type is predominant, there are the additional two types: artistic and
enterprising).

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A very brief overview of the six personality types, six work-related

activities and sample occupations is presented below:

Type Activities Occupations

Realistic Working with things (tools, machines, Farmer
Carpenter
devices)
Mechanical Engineer
Investigative Working with information (ideas,
Chemist
theories)
Artistic Creating things Painter
Writer
Social Helping people Social Worker
Teacher’s Aide
Enterprising Leading others Sales Representative
Entrepreneur
Conventional Organizing data Night Auditor
Secretary

C. The Socioeconomic theories emphasize the following factors: culture,

family, social and economical conditions and some other external factors of the
individual, which are able to influent one’s self-image, identity, social status and
career. Those theories take into account elements called “chance” and “accidents”
in career. The theoreticians claim that generally, people prefer to accept the first
career chance that is offered to them (“minimal effort”).

4.2. Developmental Theories

The career developmental theories are oriented to the biological,

psychological, sociological and cultural aspects that influence the individual career
choices. Among them, correspondences between the development stages
(childhood, adolescence, maturity) and the professional dynamic of the human
being are being researched.

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A. The Life-career rainbow / Lifespan Development Theory proposed

by Donald Super in the ‘80s claims that the career development is a continuous
process, started in the childhood and finished in the moment of death. Super
considers that the change of the professional statute is determined by social and
economical reasons, personal needs, values, interests, skills in the field of
interpersonal relations and also by intelligence.

Donald Super identifies five developmental stages, each stage being characterized
by unique responsibilities and roles:
Stage Age Characteristics
Growth Birth to 14-15 Form self-concept, develop capacity, attitudes,
interests, and needs, and form a general
understanding of the world of work.
Exploratory 15 - 24 “Try out” through classes, work experience,
hobbies. Collect relevant information. Tentative
choice and related skill development.
Establishment 25 - 44 Entry skill building and stabilization through
work experience.
Maintenance 45 - 64 Continual adjustment process to improve
position.
Decline 65 and more Reduced output, prepare for retirement.

In the first stage (growth) the children identify easily with those around
them, they start to become aware of their interests and skills related to the
professional world. In the exploration stage, they test their “occupational fantasies”
at school, with their friends, etc. The vocational preferences start to appear and one
option or another is chosen. The third stage, the establishment, supposes to
establish an occupational field and. The maintenance stage brings the effort to keep
the professional achievements intact, also the refuse of an eventual stagnation. The
last stage, the decline, is marked by the orientation towards personal activities,
interest regarding the retirement and spending the spare time.

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Even if in the initial theory, Super said that those stages are rather fixed,
later he mentioned that there are situations where, in certain moments, a person can
“explore” all the ages, for instance.
Super’s theory meant a very important progress for career counseling. His
principles are widely applied also by the school counselors, who have important
reference points regarding the recommendations made to their clients, according to
their age and to every stage’s features, they go through.

B. Social learning Theory

John D. Krumboltz developed a theory that claims that the social maturity is
mostly due to the learning and imitation of the others’ behavior. People orient
themselves in their career according to what they learned, assimilated from the
others. Some behaviors are accepted by the others, some others are rejected.

Krumboltz identified four elements that influence the career decisions:

1. The genetic inheritance and the special skills. The author considers that
some certain factors can have restrictive influences on the individual (race, sex,
physical appearance) or can impose some limits regarding the professional
performances (intelligence, artistic skills, physical coordination, etc).
2. Environmental conditions that can provoke certain events. The existence of
the learning opportunities inside the family, the employment opportunities that
the individual is informed about, the professional selection / promotion
procedures, aspects related to the labor market, natural events (earthquakes,
floods, and droughts) quantity of natural resources, level of technical
development, family experiences, and community experiences.
3. Learning experiences. The author speaks about the two types of learning
that influence the career decision:
Instrumental learning experiences (those situations when the individual
takes action on the environment, in order to produce some sound effects);

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Associative learning experiences (where the individual learns as a reaction

to the external stimuli, by observing the real or the fiction models, by
comparing facts, events, and people).
4. Abilities to solve the working tasks that are influenced by the working
habits, performance standards, individual values, cognitive processes.

Krumboltz considers that the individual is changed, shaped by the society

during his whole life, based on a punishment and bonuses system of the social
behaviors.

C. Career decision theory

There are theoreticians that claim that there are some critical situations in
our lives when the personal decision/choice has a very important role within the
career development. These decisions can be related to the choices we make in our
education, to the jobs we choose, to the job changing, etc.
In 1991, H.B.Gelatt developed a theory called “Positive Uncertainty”. His
theory speaks about a paradoxical approach of the career decision, the moment
where the individual knows nothing about the consequences of his decisions. It is a
method to combine the objective/intellectual techniques and the
subjective/imagined ones in a non-conventional “wisdom” involved in the future
planning and in making creative decision-making.

Gellat promotes flexibility, proactive creativity for facing an uncertain

future – a future that the client has the opportunity to influence.
Exercise:
Study the last online article of H.B.Gelatt (The New Neuroses) on
www.gelattpartners.com. Draw some personal conclusions.

D. Cognitive theories

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They refer to the methods in which the individual process, integrate and
react to information – methods that are influenced by the cognitive structures.
Those structures influence the human being’s vision regarding his/her own person,
the others and the environment.
At the beginning of the ‘90s, Peterson, Sampson and Reardon developed a
career model based on the cognitive information procession (CIP) in career
development. It is a model based on the learning theories that place two types of
information at the base of the career decision process:
Information about the individual;
Information about the labor market related to the individual.
The model shows that in the moment when the adult should make a decision
regarding his/her career, a certain process of analyzing and decision/making based
on the informational elements occurs. The authors propose the CASVE acronym in
order to explain the possible stages of this process:
COMMUNICATION (identifying a need): the person becomes aware of the
existence of a problem;
ANALYZE (interrelating problem components): all the informational
aspects that are involved are analyzed;
SYNTHESIS (creating alternatives): the individual generates the possible
solutions and identifies realistic solutions;
VALUING (prioritizing alternatives): cost/benefits analyze;
EXECUTION (drawing and implementing strategies): the action is taken
according to the alternatives.
That model emphasizes the fact that career counseling is an on-going
learning process. The major difference between that theory and the others is that
the CIP model promotes the superiority of the cognition, as a mediating element
that helps the human beings to achieve a higher level of their own destiny’s
control.

E. The humanistic and holistic theories

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Those theories try to relate work and career as parts of the individual life, as
a whole – and not as auxiliary lucrative activities.

Vernon Zunker has a humanistic vision on career, considering that the

right way to achieve the professional success is represented by a good self-
knowledge. The awareness of the own qualities and weaknesses, of the personal
potential, of the value of previous professional experiences, the lifespan self-
development activities – are good ways to succeed in life.
Zunker analyses the relation between the work and the life style, asking for
a balance between the professional activity and the spare time.

Richard Bolles is the author of the best-sold book about searching a job in
the world. 24,000 copies from “What color is your parachute?” are sold every
week. The book is annually revised.
The second book of a great success of Bolles (“The Three Boxes of Life”)
presents a theory according to which our life has significance within the three
activities we do when we do not sleep:

Work
Education
Leisure activities
This theory became known as “Bolles paradigm” and it tried to offer an
instrument for the proper time planning (from a normal working day or a week – to
a longer period).
Bolles speaks about the “total person”, taking into consideration physical,
intellectual, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs. He promotes the challenging of
all our assumptions, paying careful attention on two levels:
The human level
The spiritual level

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The author speaks to the fulfillment of our psychological needs as well as

the importance of addressing spiritual issues.

Exercise:
Analyze yesterday’s schedule according to the relation between work-
education-leisure. How many hours did you spend on each, every day?
What are your conclusions?

Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation and personality promotes the

idea of moving in the direction of growth by seeking fulfillment of our needs. He
identified a hierarchy of needs the individual strives to fulfill:

1. Physiological/Survival: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.;

2. Safety/security: out of danger;
3. Belongingness and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted;
4. Self-esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition;
5. Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore;
6. Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty;
7. Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize one's potential
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn,
starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself.
Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional well-being are
satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal
development. In addition, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept

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away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher order
needs.
In the career counseling process, it is important to support the clients to
identify their own status on the hierarchy and to find out the motivating factors.

*
The career developmental theories bring something new from different
points of view, but still they have the same solution that in a career, the decision is
made on long term, which is prepared from the childhood, by the family, by school
and by the community where the individual grows up. Knowing the personality
features and the attempts can be of a real help in order to make an important
decision, to bring satisfaction and fulfillment.

5. ADULT DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN CAREER

COUNSELING

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Today, it is considered that the development process does not end at the end
of the school-university. New concepts have emerged, emphasizing human
development as a total life process. The following ideas asserted in the past years:
1. The development is specific to every stage of our life, starting with birth,
continuing to different ages and finishing with death;
2. Each of us has a course of life marked by continuity and change;
3. Each person should be considered taking into account the physical,
intellectual, social and emotional development;
4. The human being should be analyzed in the context of the circumstances
and interpersonal changes she/he lives in.

Until very recently, adult development issues were seen in a sequential

manner. In addition, much of the research has been based on men. However, things
are changed in the research sector – at present it is considered that the development
and change are phenomena that can appear in any stage, no matter the age. In the
last decades, the adult issues seemed to become more and more significant,
especially because of the dramatically changes in the global labor market.

The number of adults in career transition has significantly increased over

the last three decades. As they search for meaningful work, some adults have
experienced a change in needs, a disparity between current work content and
reformulated goals, a lack of conformity between personal goals and employer
goals, a feeling of isolation in the work environment, despair about the future and
the slow economy and downsizing of organizations. [Zunker, 1994, page 18].

Up to now, we considered only the internal factors that can influence the
career decisions. What do the business environment and the labor market offer in
this respect? Which are the world's trends registered at our working place at
present („Informational Age”)?
Exercise:
1. Enumerate some of the trends of the global labor market:

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2. Enumerate some of the trends of the Romanian labor market:

What conclusions can you draw?

For the past few years, we have faced high rate of unemployment. Our
society has grown more technologically advanced. Many of the people with whom
we work do not have marketable skills any more; some of them even lack basic
skills. Old jobs do not longer exist and the new “well paid” jobs require higher-
level professional skills. There is a critical skills gap between current and emerging
job requirements.
Nowadays, even high-skilled people who considered their jobs would last
forever face “right sizing” phenomenon – as employers eliminate workers in order
to become more cost-efficient. Companies must provide high quality
products/services at reasonable costs, in order to remain competitive.
Downsizing is a “normal” part of our professional life, as the world seems
to get smaller and the competition in the marketplace seems to become higher. In
addition, there is an increase of workers from culturally diverse populations,
related to the major trend of global immigration. That is why cultural awareness
starts to become a part of our professional skills.
There is another one myth that falls today: the expectation that income
increases over the lifetime, and that the children are likely to earn more than their
parents – is no longer valid.
In addition, loyalty to the company is no longer as valued as it was in the
past, since employers started to rely on temporary workers. The companies no
longer feel the need to guide individual career paths; the responsibility is now in

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the employees’ hands – and they really need career transition skills to control their
career and life. Actual trends:
Recession.
Unemployment, adjustment of the number of jobs, temporary labor contracts.
The need of marketable skills, high-level skills.
The lack of loyalty towards the company Þ the companies do not have the
responsibility to direct the employees’ careers; individual responsibility.
Globalization.
Contracting orientation (individual/organizational level).

6. WORKING WITH DIVERSE POPULATIONS

Paul Pedersen described culture as the things a stranger needs to know to

appropriately in a specific setting. He said, “Multi-cultural counseling is a situation
in which two or more persons with different ways of perceiving their social
environment are brought together in helping relationship. His definition includes
the following elements:

Race – a pseudo-biological system of classifying persons by a shared

genetic history or physical characteristics such as skin color.
Ethnicity – a shared socio-cultural heritage that includes similarities of
religion, history, and common ancestry.
Minority – a group receiving differential and unequal treatment because
of collective discrimination rather than by numerical criteria, e.g.
women [Pedersen, 1994, pages ix-x].

Exercise:
Think about a friend/an acquaintance from another culture.
Describe a moment when you realized you were culturally
influenced by him/her behaviors/thoughts/values. What did you
do? What would you do NOW, in a similar situation?

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The “Iceberg” model of culture distinguishes what is in or out of our

cultural awareness. Elements related to the “deep side" of the culture (values,
ideals, concepts, communication patterns, decision/making practices, nature of
friendship, time sense etc) influence our prejudices.

Exercise:
Enumerate few possible stereotyped groups, from your point of view –
and indicate some reasons for that.

The stereotyped groups might include the elderly, at-risk youth, women, the
physically or emotionally disabled, gay men and lesbians, and ethnic and racial
minorities:

At-risk Youth:
Issue: Due to a variety of devastating life experiences, these socially or
economically deprived students are unprepared for college or work. Usually
they face low self-esteem problems, isolation from the peer groups, social,
educational failures.
Ideas for supporting: Direct career planning to expand life options and plan
activities to increase self-esteem and build confidence. Maintain continuous
follow-up.

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The Disadvantaged:
Issue: The disadvantaged and undereducated may have poor self-esteem,
limited work experiences, narrow world perception image.
Ideas for supporting: Career development activities are meant to build self-
trust, basic skills, increase hope, and develop focus.

Older Adults:
Issue: They face discriminatory policies, stereotypical attitudes, changes in
their abilities, a negative self-image. Some of them become defensive and
reluctant to market themselves.
Ideas for supporting: Teaching them to market their personal and work
experience, skills, loyalty to employers – as positive attribute that can help
them to professionally integrate.

Women:
Issue: Women have gradually become a significant part of the workforce, but
they still face social barriers and professional challenges. Their career pathing
is different from that of men, usually because of the double responsibilities of
work and family.
Ideas for supporting: Teaching them to organize their own
private/professional life, to balance the responsibilities, to emphasize and to
market their abilities and skills.

Dislocated workers:
Issue: Laid-off workers are grieving for their loss and often fell hopeless. If
they stuck in the frustration position, they become unable to move toward
another career opportunity.
Ideas for supporting: Outplacement programs that include dealing with loss
career counseling, employability skills and job placement.

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