Last week’s class gave me an
opportunity to examine what I already know about career counseling. I was not aware of many of the things I have
inadvertently been exposed to or knowledge I previously have gained. Although I did not have formal education or
experiences in regards to career counseling, I have naturally adopted some
techniques into my life as I searched for my own career and field of interest.
The discussion of the environment
and personal traits really stuck to me as well.
My group discussed the importance of most questions we asked and also
believe it is difficult to prioritize objective and subjective theories of
career development. When I think about
my own career development and how I got here, I realized it has to do with so
much more than just my skills or just environmental influences but is a
combination of both (at least for myself).
Brielle and I went to the same
school district for brief period of time and we were given a career development
test during either middle school or early high school. The test supposedly identified “what field
we would be successful in.” As Brielle
and I discussed the outcomes of our tests, we realized we were not alone in
feeling the test was completely inaccurate at finding a field we would both
truly enjoy. Neither of us took the
results to heart nor pursued it any further than simply taking the exam. Though the results now appear to be very
inaccurate, it is rather shocking that there was virtually no administered follow-up
to the test. This makes me realize how
little advisement was offered during our pre-college education.
One connection from the text I would
like to discuss is the concern for future skills that many may need to acquire
to obtain and maintain a career in the future.
For example, although many Caucasian people will report they are not
racist, they have been challenged in their validity of this statement and we
explored this in-depth during Multi-cultural Counseling. In the near future, it will be a requirement
for workers to function normally in a multiracial work environment (Brown,
2003). As we all would love to see that
not be an issue, I find it hard to believe this will be a quick transition as
much racism is deep-seated and most people are unaware of the small prejudices
they may hold.
Overall, I found the first week of
course interesting as well as alarming in a sense which helps me better
understand a need for education in career development. I was shocked by some of the statistics
including the unemployment rates, unhappy employees, and the desired skills
many individuals are lacking (Brown, 2003). As the course unfolds, I hope to be able to better
identify with the objective versus subjective theories.
References
Brown, D. (2003). Career
information, career counseling, and career development (8th ed.).
New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
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