Post 3

I immediately connected to Krumboltz's social learning theory, because it focused so much on learning through experience (2012). I felt that the theories in chapter two were essential to the development of new theories (as we addressed in class, they got less rigid as time went on) but they were also a bit cut and dry to me. Brown asked us to choose where we stood on this issue in the beginning of the chapter, and I stood by my belief that all people are different and career theories, as well as counseling, needs to be tailored to the individual. I understand that this means that as career counselors we need to be prepared to pull out any one of these theories that we’ve learned, but I feel like it would be more useful to use a malleable social learning theory than the brick wall of Holland’s code.But I digress.

Especially in regards to David’s case study that we read in class, a career counselor needs to be able to see how his experiences have changed him. Maybe his code in college was prominently an R, but after working on the police force he changed to an E! It seems counterproductive to assume that each person has one code and that cannot be changed throughout their career choices. This seems to be what Krumboltz is positing. He does still focus on following how a client’s attributes would fit specific jobs (2012), it just seems more relaxed and client focused instead of “we need to find the right decision or else-” focused.

Another part of the book that caught my eye was when Brown discussed the applications of Social Cognitive Career Theory. He said that some counselors might have their clients divide a physical pile of jobs (written down, of course) into categories of how much they would like the job or do well at it (2012). This appealed to my anal retentive personality because I love to make lists and such, but it also stuck out because in class when we were discussing questions from the case studies and were asked something like “How would you interview this person?” or “What would your advice be?” I always felt compelled to have them make a priority list or split up their choices into piles.

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