Case Study and a Different Look at Career Development

When doing my interview for my case study, I interviewed someone at my mother’s job. The person I interviewed is the program director/therapist at the adolescence rehabilitation center. Throughout the interview he was very open and honest and shared things about his personal life that related to his career development. I think interviewing him allowed me to see career development from an interesting perspective that probably will not be covered in class. He also has not had an appealing life as he has been through a lot from his parents being divorced when he was younger, to getting kicked out of school, to being in the judicial system which made for an interesting interview that others can relate to.

For a while, the interviewee’s choice of employment was selling drugs. He had a bad addiction and was selling drugs as well. Even when he got caught by selling to an undercover police officer, he continued to sell drugs. He said that even once he had a criminal record he would pick up little jobs here and there to meet his probation requirements, but he never stopped selling drugs at that point. His reasoning was he could make ten times the money selling drugs then he could at any job he was picking up. My question is, how do you get someone like this to stop selling drugs? They are used to making a large amount of money so asking him to go back to a job making a couple dollars an hour is not realistic. This brings me back to the conference session I attended for extra credit. This is exactly what Murphy (2015) said in regards to getting ex-drug dealers real jobs. Asking someone who once sold drugs to work at Wendy's is not going to work. 

This really showed me that we can learn about all the theories we want in regards to career development, but unless the client is ready and willing to listen changes will not occur. As a counselor, if I would have talked to him about his career development it might not have worked. He was focused on making fast money and did not care about getting in trouble. I think career counseling for someone like this should take place once they are in recovery from their addiction and once they have a mindset to move on from that choice of career. 

Once he was no longer using drugs and ready to get a real job, he did so. He even went on to receive a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree and is now helping those who are suffering from an addiction like he once was. He moved on from selling drugs when he was ready. Nobody was able to make this decision for him, but himself when it came down to getting in trouble and getting a serious sentence or getting a real job. 

Reference

Murphy, J. (2015, October 1). Civic and Community Engagement and Research Project (CCREP) International Policy Conference at Millersville University.