Unsurprisingly, Chapter 18 begins by discussing the
trends and upcoming changes in occupations and the job market caused by
technology. As we know and have
discussed numerous times throughout this semester, technology is a driving
force for the economy and careers.
Advances in technology determine what jobs will no longer be needed, and
which jobs may require more training to become more knowledgeable and
technologically advanced. I think it is
interesting that the author is even attempting to guess the trends in jobs and
careers in the next 20 to 25 years since things in the economy have been
unpredictable lately. It caused me to
want to understand the reasoning behind his predictions, so I read on.
Despite my interest, I wasn’t impressed by the trends
listed such as an increase in information to help job searching, assessing your
interests, and career counseling (Brown, 2012).
Those seem like “no-brainers” with the information we have learned thus
far in the textbook and throughout class.
It seemed to summarize the core concepts learned in this course where I
was expecting to gain new information.
The
only piece of information that I found to be slightly new or not touched upon
as heavily in previous chapters was the piece regarding counseling minority
individuals. As stated in the text, research
shows that Asian Americans prefer dependent decision making which means they do
not typically have an independent focus orientation (Brown, 2012, p. 378). This jives with the notion that they are
collectivistic and place high importance on their family and relationships with
kin by including them in their decision making.
This needs to be considered when offering career counseling services to
these individuals because interventions may need to be done at a familial level
rather than an individual level.
Also
the text stated that Native Americans learn better from visual information
(Brown, 2012, p. 378). This is very
important information to consider when providing career counseling services to
this population. Talking with them and
discussing information may not be the most helpful. Providing a visual tool such as O*NET or
including a handout with figures or information may make a huge difference. A counselor in any field must tailor their
sessions and interventions to the client’s needs rather than provide the same
interventions for every client. A
one-size-fits all approach is not helpful or appropriate in the field of
counseling.
In
summary of this chapter and the class in general, I have learned some valuable
resources for the field of career counseling.
Holland’s research and assessments for vocational interest are very
helpful in the process of determining an appropriate career, and also O*NET
provides a lot of useful information as well.
Technology will always be a driving force in the job field today,
tomorrow, and in the future which should also be considered when thinking of
career counseling.
References
Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career
counseling, and career development (10th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
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