TEDxTalks "Don't Just Follow Your Passion"

I thought this video was pretty cool! And it placed a younger spin on career/life choices. I'm a sucker for TEDx videos, so I thought I'd share this one as we wrap up our class.

Don't Follow Your Passion

The video below of Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can't Ignore You, was featured in an article by Erin Greenawald for The Muse.

Do you agree with the points in the video?

Danielle Schultz, M.Ed., NCC
dschultz@waynesburg.edu 
Google Text or Voice: 412-447-1616
Google Chat: yell929@gmail.com 
Follow @sch_counselor
Use hashtag #CNS516 for our course

Career Counseling Pinterest Board

I created a Career Counseling Pinterest Board and added job seeking and career resources you can utilize yourself or share with clients. Feel free to check it out and let me know if any articles or resources were particularly helpful or enjoyable.

Career Counseling Pinterest Board: http://www.pinterest.com/schcounselor/career-counseling-course/.

If you find any additional resources or articles related to job searching please feel free to share them in the comment section below!

Just wanted to share a little anecdote:

I'm the graduate assistant for the writing center on main campus.  This past Thursday, I had a girl come in for an hour-long scheduled appointment focusing on her biology lab report.  She seemed a little frazzled; she had never written in APA format and was really confused with the guidance (or lack thereof) from her professor.  I pulled up PowerPoint slides, dusted off my APA manual, and even went to the Purdue OWL's APA guide.  We reviewed everything regarding APA.  As the appointment went on, she was telling me how out of place she feels at a small school.  She graduated from high school with less than 50 people and really wanted to go to a big university, but everyone told her she wouldn't make it.  This story sounded familiar - I graduated with less than 80 classmates then headed to Penn State's main campus with 40,000+ people.  When she told me she had already applied to Penn State New Kensington, but was worried about where to go with her major, I decided to focus on the bigger stressor in her life, which was not her Bio 122 lab report.

I disclosed the similarities of my high school experience and my transition to a large university.  We talked about what she wanted to major in (Animal psychology and communications, but she wasn't sure how to go about doing both), and we talked through some of her options.  I told her everything I knew about the Psych and Communications departments at main campus, since she wants to head there in a year.  This particular client was bright and bubbly and was very easy to talk to- shame on who ever told her she couldn't make it at a big school!!

An hour and a half later, lab report aside, she looked at me and said, "Thank you.  I feel much better about my lab report and my career decisions."  While I may not be anything close to a career counselor, I feel like this young girl experienced a disservice whenever any person told her she couldn't.  Simply by allowing this student to express her feelings and showing her that she absolutely can, she left feeling better about the life-altering decisions she found herself making, while I felt more reassured of my own career choice than ever before.

You Deserve To Love Your Job!

AOL Jobs Week 2014

February 9th- February 15th is AOL Jobs Week!
>>> Inspiring people to view their jobs from a new perspective!

MyPlan

http://www.myplan.com/careers/top-ten/highest-job-satisfaction.php

I found the link above very interesting.  The site MyPlan.com polled almost 14,000 users during their registration to the site to gather information about their careers and their happiness.  While we all know happiness can be extremely subjective, the results were interesting.  The happiness index ranged from 0 ("miserable") to 100 ("very happy").  Educational, vocational, and school counselors ranked in at 78.8 on the happiness index and professors of psychology ranked 76.9.  Mental health counselors came in 28th place with a ranking of 69 on the index.  Let's hope these (very general and not empirically supported) findings ring true for all of us!

Career Counseling Techniques

The Power of Quiet - RSA Animate Short

I came across this video by RSA Animate that features Susan Cain, the author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. 

How does this video relate to career counseling?

Every WU Student Should Be Utilizing This

For Waynesburg University students: Waynesburg has a phenomenally valuable resource that no one seems to know about.  It's called FOCUS CAREER 2.  It is a career counseling website that the college has paid money for so that students can utilize it.

Go to:
https://www.FocusCareer2.com/Portal/Register.cfm?SID=1076

Your student self-registration Access Code is: yellowjackets

To log back in to the portal the address is:
https://www.FocusCareer2.com/Portal/Login.cfm?SID=1076

Systems Theory Framework

I came across an exciting article in regards career development theory, the subject of much of our current text book reading to date.  The article profiles an approach called Systems Theory Framework (McMahon, 2011).  This approach represents the convergence or integration of different schools of career development theory (McMahon, 2011).  Its strength – providing a map for the process of career counseling by combing the best of past traditional approaches with more recent constructivist ones (McMahon, 2011).  Give it a read, and see how you could envision your own integration with your primary orientation of career development theory.

References

McMahon, M. (2011). The systems theory framework of career development. Journal of Employment Counseling, 48(4), 170-172.

Holland's Theory of Vocational Choice

             I identify with Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice for several reasons. In high school and college, I used O*Net to help me form ideas about what type of a career I wanted to pursue. My experience of career exploration using Self-Directed Search was positive and made sense to me as a 17- or 18-year-old. Now, as a graduate counseling student, I also find myself think this theory makes a lot of sense. I value the underlying assumptions that Holland’s theory holds to be true. Perhaps the assumption that is most important to me is that personality and vocation are interconnected when examining the best career matches (Brown, 2012, p. 30). 

              Holland’s theory asserts that personality is the most important factor when considering career paths. Therefore, this theory utilizes personality types as a means of categorizing and matching personalities to career choice options (Brown, 2012, p. 31). Simply put, Holland would assert that when the environment of vocational choice is well matched to characteristics of an individual’s personality, then the greatest outcomes of satisfaction and achievement will occur. 

             I work with college students who are in a stage of life that involves a lot of identity exploration. From my perspective, Holland’s theory is helpful for this population because it frames vocation and identity in a way that might allow me to better engage my students in why thoughtfulness in career choice matters. After all, being a doctor who makes a lot of money might not be congruent with your personality, no matter how much your parents want you to be a doctor. I can imagine myself using this theory in session to help increase a client’s desire to have congruency with who they are as a person and the vocation they are pursuing. This generation of college students is familiar with inventories as a means of self-exploration, and I believe that would make using something like The Self-Directed Search a way to open the conversation.

Duane, B. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed.). Upper 

          

          Saddle Ridge, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 

Self-Concept and Vocational Choice

Regarding the textbook reading, I have been especially interested with the relationship between self-concept and vocational choice (Brown, 2012).  Inherent amongst the theories of career choice and development is how vocation and career choice mirror one another.  This is why the talk “A kinder, gentler philosophy of success” given by writer and philosopher Alain de Botton was of interest to me.  De Botton notes that inflated ideas of success for projecting and preserving our self-image based on our vocation can lead to what he calls “job snobbery.”  I think the inverse is also true – that a debasing or self-rejecting identification with our work can lead to self-rejection.  As I see it, this social construct of self-concept relative to  occupational or vocational choices can led to the emergence and maintenance of a false self – arguably the most significant foundation of a host of mental disorders.
            Of more practical interest, de Botton encourages us to find authentic satisfaction and enjoyment in our work by examining the true nature of what success and failure is, and to rise above our culture of “job snobbery.” As I see it, many fall within a spectrum of either rejecting themselves, or being ashamed of what their work says about them, to becoming the “job snob” de Botton seeks to examine.  The video of de Bottons talk can be accessed at youtube:  "Alain de Botton:  A Kinder Gentler Philosophy of Success."

Career Counseling and Eating Disorders

Hello Everyone.  I apologize if the "Ron Burgundy" test blog actually posted.  In addition, I'm having trouble exporting a file so I copied this link in hope that you are able to read the article.

This particular article details how eating disorder clients, in particular those who suffer from anorexia and bulimia, can benefit from a combination of psychotherapy and career counseling.  It also explains how eating disorders can be perceived as maladaptive careers which can transition into a productive career as part of the healing process.  I found it interesting and hope you do as well.

Sonnenberg, S., & Chen, C. (2003). Using career development theories in the treatment of clients with eating disorders. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 16(2), 173-185.

The link above will redirect you to Waynesburg University access to EBSCO Host. You may have to login and then click on the link again.

Career Assessment

I know the majority of the class is not as into working with kids as I am... but I found this career assessment that is kinda convenient for high schoolers.  It's simple and easily sums up the basics. http://www.yourfreecareertest.com/

National Career Development Association (NCDA) Website

While searching for materials related to the content of our course I found the National Career Development Association (NCDA) Website.

NCDA is a division of the American Counseling Association. The NCDA website has a wealth of information related to career development and career counseling. The resources page has links to many different online assessments, job-seeker resources, and tons of information that would benefit you during this class. The NCDA website is definitely a resource I can see myself using during this course as well as in my occupation as a school counselor working with middle school students. This is a great resource for finding information related to career development.

How would you use this resource in your current or future work with clients? How would you use this resource in this course?


Danielle Schultz, M.Ed., NCC
dschultz@waynesburg.edu 
Google Text or Voice: 412-447-1616
Google Chat: yell929@gmail.com 
Follow @sch_counselor
Use hashtag #CNS516 for our course

Share Materials Related to the Course Content

This blog is an excellent place to share materials related to the content of this course.

If you come across news articles, videos, images, or other materials related to the course content please post it. It is not required that you contribute to the blog, but it is one of the ways that you can justify your participation outside of the course.

Below is a short (3 minute) video about how to publish a post.

Danielle Schultz, M.Ed., NCC
dschultz@waynesburg.edu
Google Text or Voice: 412-447-1616
Google Chat: yell929@gmail.com
Follow @sch_counselor
Use hashtag #CNS516 for our course

Welcome to Our Class Blog!

Reflection is key to developing the skills and knowledge that it takes to be a professional counselor, regardless of the setting in which you intend to work. This blog is for us to reflect on what we are learning, pose questions to each other and ourselves and to offer insights and thoughtful feedback. Here are some basics to follow:

 1. CONTRIBUTE. Interact with the blog in some way at least every week by posting or commenting. There are no number or length requirements but consider that contribution is an indication of your commitment to others' as well as your own learning.

 2. INCORPORATE LINKS AND PHOTOS. Enrich your posts and comments with related information that you have found from other sources, give us all more tools and more to think about. Feel free to connect to concepts from your other classes as well.

 3. KEEP IT PROFESSIONAL. The blog is a professional, collegial discussion that extends the learning process for all. Our blog will be "open to the world" even though only we are authors. Practitioners in the field will also be invited to comment on our reflections so use good judgement.

 4. HAVE FUN AND SHARE! Blog writing is simple and authentic. Don't worry about trying to sound smart or creating a perfect post, aim for being genuine and real, even if that means a few typos here and there or an honest and humble confession. You are free to share posts or the blog itself with whomever you like.

 5. I'LL BE REFLECTING TOO! I am a big believer in writing for reflection so I'll be "walking the talk" and blogging along with you. My own professional growth is exceedingly enhanced by engaging with you in this way.

Note to all students and site visitors: The owner and manager of this site retains full and exclusive rights to delete inappropriate material and to block users who violate the purpose of this site and/or the professional integrity of the members of the class. The views on this blog are mine or students' alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University.

I look forward to reflecting, learning, and having an exciting course with you at Waynesburg University!

Danielle Schultz, M.Ed., NCC
dschultz@waynesburg.edu
Google Text or Voice: 412-447-1616
Google Chat: yell929@gmail.com
Follow @sch_counselor
Use hashtag #CNS516 for our course