Bloch's Article

      Have you ever wondered how great leaders and role models reached their success? Or have you ever thought about the reality of one's success stories, including their struggles and failures he/she triumphed over?  I have always thought in my mind that the road to success was an easy one for the greats such as Michael Jordan, President Barack Obama, and Ben Carson. Looking at Bloch's (2005) principles of complexity, chaos, and nonlinear dynamics on one's career development, I have been able to see that behind every success, there are secret career stories that reveal the reality of one's career development. It was interesting to see that people have this idea that given a certain amount of experience/education, that one is expected to reach a certain level of  within the work place and certain work roles. In reality, jobs are hard to come by and it is very uncommon in our world of uncertainty, that a linear sequence does follow. This dawned on me because after I graduated from college I expected to find another opportunity for school, or a job, and it didn't quite work in that fashion. After achieving a graduate school acceptance and a job, I never would reveal to my peers the struggle and uncertainty I experienced, before the opportunity came. Sometimes I wonder why we make these realistic stories a secret. Is it because we are afraid of our own failure, or to be looked down upon because of a lack of opportunities? I know for me my secret career stories made me feel vulnerable.

         Out of Bloch's adaptive entities he discussed as making up the complex nature of human beings, the phase transitions between order and chaos was one that really helped me gain a sense of self. The transition from graduating college to finding my first job was one that exemplified a transition from order to chaos. In college, I worked two jobs, and took a full load of classes and became very comfortable with having a busy schedule. As soon as I graduated from college, I moved back home, and spent a lot of time looking for a job, instead of actually having one. My transition from having a distinctive schedule (order) to being unemployed for eight months later (chaos) showed my resilience, and adaptive nature when I eventually received an acceptance to graduate school, as well as receiving two jobs. As career counselors, when advising clients in a time of chaos or extreme uncertainty, we must emphasize that these transitions can be an opportunity for self-growth.

 Bloch, D.P. (2005). Complexity, chaos, and nonlinear dynamics: A new perspective on career development theory.The Career Development Quarterly, 53(3), 194-207.