Chapter 11 Blog Posting

I was very pleased to finally read a chapter that deals with issues that future career counselors will face on a daily basis; namely, the issue of a client saying “I need help finding a job”. Many clients do not care about interest or skills inventories or applying a theory to their specific situation. In today’s economy, people need to work and if a client needs a paycheck sooner rather than later it is important that their career counselor can cater to their needs. I am not saying that it is the career counselor’s job to work as a surrogate temp agency, but it is the counselor’s job to meet the client where they are at that moment and realize that not every client has the time to delve deeply into their career issues. Perhaps working with them to find them a job more quickly will prompt them to continue counseling on a deeper level once they are employed. 

One thing that I found very pertinent to the career counseling process was assisting clients with employability skills. Many clients do not have the basic skills necessary to hold down full-time employment, let alone progress to the next level of finding gainful employment with upward mobility. In much of my group’s research for the literature review, we found that college graduates do not even have the “soft skills” (dressing appropriately, showing up for work on time, etc.) needed to get or keep a job. I often will tell students that once they graduate it is more important to simply get a job than to focus on making their first job the job that they will have for life. “Some of the reasons that high school students and recent graduates fail to obtain jobs include some rather easily corrected problems, such as unsatisfactory appearance, unrealistic attitude about the nature of work, and unrealistic wage demands; insufficient training; expectations of employment through unqualified; impatience and unwillingness to adapt to entry requirements; insistence on own concept of job duties; and general ignorance of labor market facts. These problems can be reduced or even eliminated by an effective combination of training and practice” (Brown, 2012, p. 249). Simply proving that you can show up to work on time and get along with your coworkers will propel you so much farther along in your job search than remaining unemployed in search of the “perfect” job. I feel as though many postsecondary institutions are not doing an adequate job of preparing college students for what lies ahead for them after graduation, thus helping to contribute to many unrealistic attitudes surrounding first time employment. Lastly, while I appreciated Brown’s perspective on Step 3: Developing Employability Skills, I would have liked to see an excerpt surrounding “keeping your first job” as I find this to be just as important as getting the job.

 


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