LECTURE NOTES: CHAPTER 12

Career Development, Processes, and Resources: Your Future in the Human Services

Chapter Outline

I. The Importance of Work in One’s Career DevelopmentII. Career Development Models: A Brief Overview

a. Trait-and-Factor Approachb. Career Psychodynamic Theoryc. Career Developmental Theoriesd. Social Cognitive Career Theorye. John Holland’s Personality Theory of Occupational Choice

III. Choosing a Career: A Self-AnalysisIV. Finding a Job

a. Gathering Informationb. The Application Processc. The Résuméd. The Portfolioe. Professional Associations and Networkingf. Informational Interviewsg. Responding to Ads in Professional Publicationsh. Interviewing at National Conferencesi. College and University Job Placement Servicesj. Other Job-Finding Methods

V. Applying to Graduate Schoola. Gathering Informationb. Graduate Program Resources

VI. Ethical, Professional, and Legal Issuesa. Being Chosen and Being Denied for a Job or a Graduate Programb. Optimizing Your Clients’ Career Processc. Know Your Laws

i. Carl Perkins Career and Technical Education Actii. Americans with Disabilities Act

iii. PL94-142 (Education of All Handicapped Children Act)iv. Rehabilitation Act of 1973v. School-to-Work Opportunities Act

vi. Title VII and Title IXVII. The Effective Human Service Professional: Viewing Career Development as a

Lifespan Process

SUMMARY: This chapter examines career development, processes, and resources related to your future in the human services and how you might work with clients who are struggling with career issues. The focus is on how career counseling can increase one’s awareness of one’s

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career development process and note that part of one’s career development is the work a person chooses. We highlight some psychological, societal, family, and interpersonal needs that work serves.

Next is a brief overview of a some select career development models, including trait-and-factor theory which focuses on matching one’s traits with job characteristics; psychodynamic approaches that look at how significant relationships early on in life influence us and unconsciously affect the choices we make; developmental theories, with a particular focus on Donald Super’s approach, which examines expected stages that individuals pass through in their career development process (i.e., growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline or deceleration); social cognitive career theory which is based on self-efficacy regarding career decisions and subjective and objective perceptions of the world; and finally, John Holland’s Personality Theory which examines one’s personality orientation toward the world of work and how it “fits” job characteristics.

Relative to John Holland’s theory, the author presents the RIASEC hexagonal model and note that research has shown that if one can identify one’s top codes and match them to job codes, the likelihood of satisfaction at a job is greater than a person who is in job that is a poor match to their code. The average salaries of different types of human service professionals is discussed, noting that the field is moving much faster than average in terms of job outlook, and asks you to reflect on whether these basic statistics in human services makes the field appealing to you. Then, mostly based on the career-developed theories, ten steps are offered that you can use in conducting a thorough career analysis for yourself or your clients.

This chapter then goes on to give some hands-on ways of helping students apply for jobs or apply to a graduate program. For instance, some items that should likely be addressed during the actual application process (to jobs or graduate school). Another suggestion is ways of developing a good essay and the importance of having a portfolio. Finally, specific ways to find a job (e.g., networking, informational interviews, responding to ads in professional publications, interviewing at national conferences, placement centers, and other “tried-and-true” methods) are identified and this is followed by a list of specific books and websites students can use to find more information about graduate schools. This chapter concludes with a short discussion on what it means to be denied a job or to not be accepted to a specific graduate school.

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