Week 7/ Chapter 8 Blog

       I really enjoyed conducting the career style interview in class.  This helped me to understand how career counselors can use narratives to help their clients.  I think that allowing the client to tell narratives about their past ages 3-6 helps lessen anxiety that the client may have about coming to career counseling.  However, I do not understand how all of the questions in the career style interview will help the client with career counseling.  The question about what magazines the client reads does not seem to be relevant.  I guess that this question is trying to find out more about the client's interests but I think the client's interests can be found with other questions, such as what the client's favorite subjects were in school.

       From the textbook reading, I found out that most students can only describe about six jobs in detail but there are more than 1,000 occupations in the United States (Brown, 2012, p. 178).  I do not know the details of very many jobs myself and I did not know that there are more than 1,000 occupations in the United States.  There are different ways of finding out the details of different occupations.  The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is an online database that gives details about occupations (Brown, 2012, p. 180-183).  It includes information on each occupation in six different categories: worker characteristics, worker requirements, experience requirements, occupational requirements, occupation specific, and occupation characteristics (Brown, 2012, p. 181-182).  As a possible future career counselor, I think the O*NET is extremely important to show my clients and to use with my clients.  My clients can use the O*NET to find occupations that match their interests and then discover more details about those specific occupations.

       There are several different types of occupational information including simulations, games, interviews with experts, direct observation, job shadowing, career days, career conferences, work experience programs, and career fairs (Brown, 2012, p. 185-188).  I remember being able to experience job shadowing in high school.  I shadowed a veterinarian for one day in the tenth grade.  I was able to watch the veterinarian with routine check-up exams and I also observed another veterinarian perform surgery.  I remember feeling sick to my stomach during the surgery because of all of the blood.  I was able to ask the veterinarians questions throughout the day.  The next day at school I had to present to my English class what I had observed and learned about being a veterinarian.  After the job shadowing, I still wanted to be a veterinarian.  However, I later found out that I am allergic to both dogs and cats so I needed to change my career plans.  I think job shadowing is an excellent way for high school students to find out more thoroughly about a specific career.  The students are able to actually see the environment and the daily activities that are performed for that job.  This helps students really clarify if that specific career is a good fit for them.

Reference

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