Week 7 and career tools

I learned a lot from the class discussions and activities this week. The group discussion on the Bloch (2005) article helped me understand the important components of  complex entities, principles of attractors and attractions, and the idea of ‘chance’.  Hashing out what are actually examples of point attractors, pendulum attractors, torus attractors, and strange attractors lifted the fog of theoretical and helped me see how I could be aware of these concepts in decision making of my own and of clients. The practice/mock Career Style Interview Questions based on Savickas (1998) I not only found enjoyable but very enlightening about the process. I see this being utilized with adults only, as it has the question about subject enjoyment in high school.

I thought we were concentrating on the theories the first part of the semester and application the second part of the semester. Chapter 8 changes in tone and focus from the other articles and chapters. Several of the tools presented in this chapter I used regularly in my position as an Academic and Career advisor at Lord Fairfax Community College in Virginia. Career Services at Millersville first exposed me to O*Net with I would present on career searches with the GA’s as an undergraduate student. I then used O*NET myself for personal reasons and for professional knowledge when a student wanted to know more about a career I did not know much about yet. I saw in another blog that someone commented about O*NET being a bit more information than a high schooler might want; I disagree.  The book makes O*NET seems a lot more overwhelming than it is. I found O*NET a great tool where you can take as much or as little from it as you want.

Contrary to the book, in July 2013 O*Net expanded its military information with an upgrade from the OOH (National Center for O*NET Development, 2013).

I, too, looked at the Children’s Occupational Information and I was confused by Brown’s choice of having www.careerkids.com listed for print and online separately and including a url address with lots of numbers. There could have been a better way of organizing that table 8.1. (2012). Another great free tool is www.vacareerview.com. I recommend it to my Elementary School group as a resource for our project, and I recently noticed it on a resources link on a professional school counselor organization’s website. VA

Career VIEW is website funded by the State of Virginia and housed at Virginia Tech. Last year its funding was almost cut; however, the Virginia School Counselor Association lobbyist and Education lobbyist fought hard to keep it funded.  I share this information to highlight the importance of state professional organizations. It is a free tool and great for K-8.  Virginia also has www.vawizard.com for 7-12 and community college students transfering; however, unlike VA Career VIEW, the VA Education Wizard contains a lot of specifics for the state of Virginia's higher education system and would be hard for a counselor in Pennsylvania to use. 
 

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

Brown, D. (2012).  Career information, career counseling, and career development(10th ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

National Center for O*NET Development. What's New. O*NET OnLine. Retrieved October 11, 2013, from http://www.onetonline.org/help/new/

Savickas, M. L. (1995). Constructivist counseling for career indecision. The Career Development Quarterly,43(4), 363-37