Defining Career Through Life Story
International Career Development Conference
PACE Career Centre &
International Association for Educational & Vocational Guidance
Cape Town, South Africa
20 October, 2011
Presenter
Pamelia E. Brott, Ph.D., NCC
Associate Professor of Counselor Education
Virginia Tech – Northern Virginia Center
Falls Church, VA 22043
USA
pbrott@vt.edu
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Consider the following…..
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http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
U.S. Unemployment Rate: 2001-2011
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics http://data.bls.gov/
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CHART 1. Unemployment rates adjusted to U.S. concepts,
10 countries, seasonally adjusted
August 2009–January 2011
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CHART 2. Unemployment rates unadjusted by BLS, 10
European Union countries or areas, seasonally adjusted
August 2009–January 2011
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Clearly, what we know about finding a
job and having a career is being
impacted by the economic climate.
Embracing a more dynamic definition of
“career”. . . .
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20th Century theories of career development
◦ Traditionalists ~ individual differences
traits & factors
(matching)
◦ Developmentalists ~ life roles across the lifespan
time and space
(pre-vocation, vocation, post-vocation; life roles)
◦ Subject to bias in perception and ideology
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21st Century paradigm shift
◦ World is exponentially changing
◦ From a narrow focus on occupations and work
◦ To a subjective career narrative
life designing
subjective well-being
strengths, positive potential, personal development
narrative, storied approach
How you fit work into life
(Savickas, 2002)
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Adaptability
(Brott, 2011)
readiness to cope with predictable tasks and unpredictable adjustments
(Savickas, 1997)
◦ Ability to adapt = adapt ability
◦ Positive uncertainty (Gelatt, 1989)
◦ Future is unpredictable
◦ Changing circumstances
◦ “good enough” = good options rather than maximum benefit
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Sensitivity to diversity
◦ “What does it mean to you to be [single mother, male, Latino, unemployed]?”
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Person in context
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Idiographic assessments
◦ Emphasis on the individual rather than broad generalizations
◦ Ipsative
◦ Subjective constructions
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Work is a means to an end for many urban youth and families; it is
what you do (Chaves et at., 2004)
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Work is an emotional issue especially in turbulent times
(Law, Meijers, &
Wijers, 2002)
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Working has the potential to fulfill one’s needs
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Career is negotiated within a social context where there is power
and ideology through an evolving narrative (Cohen, Duberley, & Mallon, 2004)
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Career counseling to co-construct meanings and understandings of
the client’s life and work (Blustein, Schultheiss, & Flum 2004)
(Blustein, 2008)
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Essential Wellbeing
(Rath & Harter, 2010)
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Comprehensive study >150 countries
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Transcends country and culture
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Common elements
◦ Social wellbeing
◦ Financial wellbeing
◦ Physical wellbeing
◦ Community wellbeing
◦ Career wellbeing ~ “arguably the most essential of the five elements”
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Recommendations for boosting career wellbeing
USE YOUR STRENGTHS
ENHANCE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
SHARE YOUR PASSIONS
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Help clients develop their career wellbeing. . .
instead of predicting the future,
give a voice to the storied narrative of one’s unique life
from finding a job to living a life
(Savickas, 2002)
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Career through Life Story
The personal story that is
Based on essential career wellbeing as clients
• use strengths
• enhance relationships
• share passions
Life story
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ever changing & evolving
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adaptable
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past, present, future chapters
The process of living a life through the ever-changing
interactions among one’s life roles across the life span.
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Life Story . . . .
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Storytelling traditional form of communication
◦ Culture and cultural traditions
◦ Informs us of our history
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Telling the story as the individual uncovers
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Themes
People
High-lights and low-lights
Resources
Time perspective
Voice of possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1986)
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Past, present, future chapters in the life story
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Environment, perceptions, and motives
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Across life roles
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Life Roles . . . .
Relating
relationships: family, school, peers, adults
Learning
formal and informal; experiential; knowledge & skills
Pleasuring
play, activities, hobbies, clubs & teams
Working
home & school; internships; employment
Valuing
center of personality; authentic self; finding meaning;
making a difference; actualization
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setting
characters
life roles
peopled
resolution
plot
meaningfulness
themes
problem
motivations
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the story
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Life Story Apprenticeship
A period of time where you learn a trade (education, life skills)
in a real world setting (school, home) from masters (teachers,
mentors, coaches, family). It begins in the family of origin to
learn ways of speaking, behaving, and getting to know the
environment and continues during formal school years in
learning a trade (develop a life story). Life story apprenticeship
involves gaining knowledge, developing skills, and earning
qualifications (high school diploma) through practical,
classroom, and life experiences.
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career through life story
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The Storied Approach
Construction
DeConstruction
CoConstruction
co-construction ~ de-construction ~ construction
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Co-Construction ~ discovering the story
▫ Client/Counselor collaboration
▫ Uncover the meaning-making themes
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De-Construction ~ opening up space
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Looking for exceptions
Inviting others’ perspectives
Understanding motivations & needs
Revising schemas as ways of knowing
Construction ~ authoring preferred ways of being
▫ Decisions to be made
▫ Actions to be taken
▫ Barriers to confront + resources to support
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What If I Only Get One Session?
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Determine needs
◦ How can I be useful to you?
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Select how to meet need/s
◦ Information? Clarification? Encouragement? Decision making?
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Set action plan
◦ What will you do next? When? Obstacles? Resources?
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Assess
◦ What will you take with you from today’s session?
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How Do Assessments Play a Part?
illuminate and organize discrete pieces of information
woven into the story
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Quantitative
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Qualitative
◦ Strong Interest Inventory
◦ Card Sort
◦ Self-Directed Search
◦ Holland Party Game
◦ Life Values Inventory
◦ Résumé analysis
◦ Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
◦ Ideal Day
◦ Checklists
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Holland’s Typology
RIASEC
REALISTIC
INVESTIGATIVE
R
I
CONVENTIONAL C
A ARTISTIC
E
ENTERPRISING
S
SOCIAL
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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
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Where you get your energy from
INTROVERSION
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----------EXTRAVERSION
How you take in information
SENSING----------INTUITION
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How you make decisions
THINKING----------FEELING
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How you live in the outer world
JUDGING----------PERCEIVING
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Opening
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Determining needs
◦ “How can I be of use to you?”
◦ “When you leave today, what will you take with you?”
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Becoming collaborators
◦ Individual as the expert
◦ “I would like to understand what has/not been working for you.”
◦ “We are creatures of habit….we repeat our patterns…let’s uncover
and find meanings in those patterns.”
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Co-Construction:
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Early recollections
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Discovering the Story
Perceptions
Selected memories
Survivors
Based on present interpretations
Significant events
Interactions from the past
Techniques
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Audio taping, video taping, photographs
Video game, storyboard, music arranger, scrapbooking
News headline, life motto, slogan or saying (phrases you live by)
Career genogram, occupational daydreams, 5 lives
Life balance wheel
Card sorts
Lifeline, early recollections, life roles,
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Life Line
(Title of My Story)
Mark off your lifeline as chapters (e.g., before starting formal schooling, elementary school, graduate from high school).
Jot notes about your early recollections from chapters in your life story.
Write the names of significant people in each chapter.
Choose 3-4 words that best capture the essence of this chapter.
Give a title to the chapter; give a title to your life story.
DOB:
____/____/________
Today’s Date:
____/____/__________
Life Roles
relating
learning
working
pleasuring
valuing
On this side, select a time in the future when you see your life roles in
On this side, draw five circles representing your current life role situation. The balance. Draw the five life role circles in size to represent the
size of the circle represents the importance/time that you currently place in this
importance/time that you want to be spending in each life role. Proximity
life role. Proximity of the circles represents relationships between/among the
of the circles represents relationships between/among the life roles in the
life roles.
future.
Today’s Date:
Future Date:
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Five Lives
(Osborn & Zunker, 2006)
If you were able to live five completely different lives,
what would they be?
Tell me more about each option
What is attractive about each option?
What do you know about each occupation?
What’s keeping you from following these aspirations?
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De-Construction:
Opening Up Space
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Looking for exceptions
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Inviting others’ perspectives
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Understanding motivations & needs
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Revising schemas as ways of knowing
◦ Alternate viewpoints
◦ Could it be?
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Techniques
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Possible selves
Happenstance
Career style interview
Résumé analysis
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Possible Selves
(Markus & Nurius, 1986; Martz, 2001)
What I might become:
What I would like to become:
What I am afraid of becoming:
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Planned Happenstance
HOW AN UNPLANNED EVENT AFFECTED MY CAREER
(MITCHELL, LEVIN, & KRUMBOLTZ, 1999)
DIRECTIONS: In the space below, write a story giving details about one unplanned event that
had a significant impact on your career.
(continue story on backside if necessary)
Then, answer the following three questions:
1. Before that unplanned event, how did one of your own actions contribute to creating it?
2. After the unplanned event, how did one of your own actions transform it into a career opportunity?
3. Now, tomorrow, how can you apply Planned Happenstance to what you do next?
Career Style Interview
(Savickas, 2002)
◦ How can I be useful to you?
◦ Whom do you admire? self-concept
◦ Do you regularly read magazines? watch TV? favorite book? typology
◦ What were your three favorite subjects in high school – not based on
teachers? What subjects did you hate? typology
◦ What do you like to do with your free time? in play, we prepare
◦ Tell me your favorite saying or motto. self advice
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Construction:
Authoring ^ Ways of Being
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Preferences
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Decisions to be made
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Actions to be taken
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Barriers to confront
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Resources to support
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Future chapters
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Techniques
◦ Goal map
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Goal Map
My Goal Map
My goal is to
My Resources for Overcoming Obstacles
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Obstacles in My Way
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One Step at a Time
Today’ Date:
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