Blog Post #5

As I read through this week's article I started to think about how I felt about instances of coincidence, happenstance, or fate. I know that I certainly believe that not all career decisions can be linear decisions and in this day and age it is rare that someone starts from the bottom and works their way up to top of the same company based only on hard work. A lot of times we find the right fit or get promotions based on coincidence or being in the right place at the right time. While I do subscribe to the trait-factor ideology that "career development is linear, progressive, and rational" (Guidon & Hanna, 2002, p. 195), not every career decisions can always follow a logical, step-by-step up the ladder pattern. Sometimes things just fall into place. To play devil's advocate though, I do not fully buy into the philosophy that if we dream it, it will be; or if we pray hard enough, it will be. This might be the cynical side of my personality, but I have a hard time believing some of these concepts set forth in the article.

I found the concept of synchronicity very interesting and relevant to how most of us find our jobs in today's society. In my opinion, the concept of synchronicity goes hand in hand with the idea that "it is not what you know but who you know". Take Dan's case story, for example. Had he not known his attorney friend who happened to inherit the small printing press, the rest of his story would not have fallen into place. In the case study we read that, "Dan attributed this 'unbelievable coincidence' to his 'fate', a consequence of his decision, and to his sense of spirituality" (Guindon & Hanna, 2002, p. 201). While I find this to be a very nice concept, I do not know if I can completely swallow the fact that it was fate that brought Dan and his attorney friend together, thus allowing the printing press situation to fall into place so smoothly.

What I do appreciate about the concept of synchronicity is the idea that "Rather than seeing chance events as random and meaningless, synchronicity provides a framework for understanding and working with such phenomena when they occur" (Guindon & Hanna, 2002, p. 206). I think that true synchronicity has to be a combination of planned and unplanned events, with synchronicity being the harmonious middle part of the journey where things seem to click together. "Integrating and using synchronicity in career counseling then concerns itself with expecting the unexpected" (Guindon & Hanna, 2002, p. 206). I think this last concept is very helpful for us as future counselors to remember and take with us as we set forth in our own careers. Whether it is counseling someone else or using this concept in our own career development, understanding that some of what we will end up doing will be due in part to hard work, some of where we end up will be due in part to happenstance. However, something I will relay to students that I work with is that if you do not do the hard work in the first place, you will not be set up to experience the "lucky coincidences" or "acts of fate" that we saw detailed out in the three case studies. All three of those individuals worked extremely to get to the point where these acts of fate were affecting them in a positive way.

Guidon, M.H. & Hanna, F.J. (2002). Coincidence, Happenstance, Serendipity, Fate, or the Hand of God: Case Studies in Synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50, p. 195-208.