Blog 9

For this week’s blog post, I will evaluate my experience in relation to the Career Development Case Study Project. I will discuss my selection process for selecting a participant. I will also discuss my preparation and experience with the interview process, the analysis of the collected background information and the theory selected. 

For the career development case study project, I have to admit that selecting a participant to interview and analysis was the most challenging part.   My goal was to select an individual that I could relate to and understand his or her career indecision and aspirations. I was interested in a participant who had experience in the field of psychology or someone with a similar vocational stage of development as mine.   This would allow me to compare and contrast my career development.

My friend informed me of her brother that had dealt with career indecision and lack of career aspirations over the years.   After speaking with Thomas briefly, I was intrigued with his family background and the impact it had on his vocational aspirations.  I prepared interview questions following the outline provided in the syllabus.   The interview was captivating as he informed me of the details of his background, his parent’s business and the impact it had played on the development of his career aspiration. 

Thomas is the son, of the founders, of a family owned trucking company.  His parents and older brothers found careers in the business. However, Thomas was not interested in the remedial and corporate lifestyle of the family business.  He wanted to find a career that was meaningful to him and that positively impacted the lives of those around him.

I was shocked at my ability to easily recognize the various components of each theory we have studied thus far in the class, such as his identifying his occupational life themes, the influence of pendulum attractors during his times of transition and recognizing that small changes bring about large effects.         

Due to his young age and lack of a lifelong career development, I ran into difficulties with the application of a beneficial theory that I felt applied accurately and fully.  However, I selected a theory rooted in postmodern philosophy because of his non-traditional approach to career development. I also felt his career indecision and career development was best explained through the use of narratives.

I believe the Career Development Case Study was beneficial to my overall understanding of the theories and application of the theories to real-world settings. It also improved my ability to distinguish between the schools of philosophical assumptions and recognizing the different components of the individual theories.