Blog 12- Chapters 11 & 16

The information in Chapter 11 was very relevant to what many people in today’s society are facing.  In recent years so many individuals have lost their jobs and are now reentering the job market for the first time in several years.  The job market had changed drastically with the improvement of technology, searching for a job is not the same as it used to be.  Years ago job hunters would have to go from company to company and fill out paper applications.  Today applying for a job can be as simple as a mouse click from your living room.  Although this may sound easy, the job market is just as fierce as ever before and without the right skills, it can be nearly impossible for an individual to land a job.

This chapter touched on the many different organizations and programs that are available for unemployed individuals.  One suggestion listed was job clubs (Brown, 2012). I had never heard of this before, but it seems like an extremely positive group.  Being unemployed is hard enough, but when you have little support, it can be even more depressing.  These job clubs give these individuals a safe space to share stories and advice and they can learn from their peers. 

Another interesting part of this chapter was the diagram which showed the things that recruiters found to be the most important in an interview.  The top three were oral communications, enthusiasm, and motivation (Brown, 2012, p. 241).  This was especially interesting to me because none of these things have to do with qualifications for the job.  It goes to show you that the most important things in an interview are things that you can control.  Employers are looking for people to show them that they are willing to work and willing to learn.

In Chapter 16 it discussed the different ways that counselors can evaluate their programs to find out if they are successful.  Evaluation of the event or program is probably the most important part.  Although it can be extremely time consuming and cumbersome, it is necessary to determine if all the effort you put in to the actual event is actually producing the results that you want it to.  To me, I think that the most frustrating part about the evaluation stage is trying to limit the number of external factors that limit the validity of the experiment.  Quantitative experiments seem to have an easier time creating external validity because researchers are able to control and manipulate almost every aspect of the experiment.  In a business such as counseling, Qualitative research tends to be more common due to the nature of the job.  Because qualitative studies rely more on the individuals emotions and perceptions; there seems to more opportunity for external factors to influence the outcome.

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