Employing new ways to choose a career

THE world of work is changing all the time. In the past, people would probably choose one career and stick to it for the rest of their lives, gradually climbing up the ladder. They might even remain at one company.

But today people move between careers and jobs several times; they have to navigate many transitions.

The problem is that career counselling hasn’t, for the most part, adapted to these realities. In the developing world, traditional career-counselling approaches are still the order of the day. Young people in their second-last or last year of high school who are able to afford such a service, consult a professional career counsellor.

They are asked questions about their personal and family history, then complete a few interest and personality inventories. They may also write a set of aptitude tests, answer questions about their study habits and attitudes, and then receive career guidance.

Based on my own research, and drawing from different approaches to career counselling that have enjoyed success in the developed world, I believe it’s time for developing countries to approach career counselling differently.

One approach, which we tested, was having conversations with pupils in which they tell their stories.

Research has shown that encouraging people to tell their stories in career-counselling settings has direct, positive results.

It enhances people’s career adaptability and career resilience. This makes them more employable. When people share their autobiographies, they can be helped to identify their key life themes and find out what really drives or motivates them.

This sort of approach has also been shown to improve people’s chances of finding sustainable, decent work.

“Storytelling” is widely used in career counselling in the US, Western Europe and Australia. Some of my colleagues and I have begun to introduce it in South Africa. This sort of career counselling involves asking people not just to fill in aptitude tests or assessment sheets, but to also explain what drives or motivates them.

This approach calls for listening and repeated reflection. Counsellors who are trained in the method create a “safe” space for people to narrate stories about their lives and work. Ideally, people who undergo this sort of counselling should emerge with a deeper understanding of who they are and how this might play out in their work.

Of course, it will take time and training for career counsellors to start embracing this sort of approach.

It took me more than a decade-anda-half of applying the new approach in my private practice (and constantly refining it) before feeling that I had mastered it to a satisfactory degree.

First, relevant stakeholders would have to accept that a different approach is required by career counsellors to respond appropriately to large-scale changes in the world of work.

Second, universities’ psychology (and education) departments will need to adjust their curricula, since it is here that future career counsellors are trained.

I am training master’s students in educational and counselling psychology in this approach, and their feedback is consistently positive.

Those who are already working as career counsellors could undergo further training to develop new, different approaches.

Career counsellors’ allegiance should be solely to their clients.

Given this fact, and the fact that research has shown how valuable this and other different, more modern approaches to career counselling can be, it would be good to see them more widely in action.