Blog 7

First I would like to say that technology has been a big influence on today’s culture.  Mostly everything we do today revolves around computers and what we can do next with them.  In the career development field, it has given many schools and organizations the opportunity to do all kinds of career development programs at minimal cost (Brown, 2012).  Technology has shaped not only the career field and what’s available but the way we assess career development.  I think that computers have really helped in this field.  Technology makes it easier to assess and to create things within the career development field.  However, one cannot just use computers to assess what career pathway they should go into.  We need a career counselor to look at the data and relay the information to the client.  Technology has really been helpful in the field but there needs to be a career counselor to help the client go through the data and do what computers cannot do.

When looking back at the text, I had no idea that there were so many programs out there that looked at career development in some way.  I know there are online sites that ask you a bunch of questions and then finds a job that might be good for someone and I know that there are search engines out there that help one look for a job, but there are so many different kinds that I had no idea about.  When looking at some of the search engines, I found that they are similar to some of the theories we have already gone over in class.  Two of the theorists that come to mind are Pearson and Holland’s theories.  They both look at the traits of a person and the traits of a career and put the two together to find a good and satisfying career.  In chapter 8, Brown (2012) describes a lot of different programs that do these types of assessments like the O*NET and CACGS.  Even though these programs are good, I feel that one still needs a counselor to go over the results and what can be done.  Brown (2012) says, “that counselor intervention or counselor plus computers are more effective than CACGS alone” (pg. 217).  This shows that counselors play a big part in the career development process and one cannot simple go online, fill a few things out, and get under way with a career.  Careers take time to create and a career counselor is there to help with the process and what everything means.

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