ch 13 and 18

I cannot honestly say that these chapters had much relation to what I want to do, but I will try my best to discuss some points that are relevant to my own career development or my future career.

First of all, I will mention how scared I am that I will not be able to find work, even with a graduate degree. Finding a job in graduate school has proved difficult as I don't have any experience in the field, due to the fact that I concentrated more on research than field work in my undergrad. I was also unable to have a job through most of college due to many obstacles that I faced throughout. I am expected to have experience in order to get the experience and this is really throwing me off, even when I express my willingness to learn. This has produced significant anxiety in my life.

My experiences with career counseling have not been terribly positive. I gave it a shot in my undergrad because I was bouncing between two career options. He gave me a huge test and went over my results with me. My desires and skills are all over the place (social services, traveling, language) but he didn't really sit down and help me weigh the pros and cons of each or help me overcome my indecision. He didn't really explain to me what I could do with a degree in either or what was required. Come to find out, I'm behind because I was not aware that I should have been gaining experience before I was off to grad school. No one really made that clear, even my academic adviser.

It was also mentioned in the chapter that peer counseling can be helpful. I would have definitely found this to be helpful. It would have been great to have a mentor and have someone there to answer questions with you. I also know that my peers notice some of my traits and attitudes more than I do. For example, I am told that I get very excited when talking about anything neuropsychology and that that seems to be my passion and the way I think. I did not realize this until it was brought to my attention. I don't think that a career counselor would necessarily see this side of me.

This is just my experience, as career counseling may be extremely helpful for some. I wish that I would have been provided with the practical requirements for each career and a detailed summary of what I needed to be doing and maybe even real world tasks that clinical psychologists do, as well as the different forms of clinical, such as neuro. I have mostly been relying on professors for this information or to tell me that I should have experience by now. It's all very haphazard because I was just never told about this. I like to assume that I just didn't mesh well with the counselor I had and that other people have positive experiences with it.

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