Chapter 16
Using Information, Taking Action, and Developing Plans of Action

We find ourselves in the midst of revolution, and the implications are far reaching. It is a revolution not of the sword but of the word. Career counselors, like most people, now have phenomenal access to the printed word and to information. This revolution brings power to everyone, particularly the educated. We may find ourselves with an additional responsibility to bring the benefits of the revolution to the less educated and to the many clients who, because of poverty or other forms of marginalization, do not have the same access to technology.

Not long ago this chapter would have focused primarily on how and where you could find career information and then would have stressed the importance of making it available to clients to use as they developed plans of action for themselves. We now are at a point where the information is often too readily available, and, in fact, sometimes there is too much of it to be useful. Whereas clients once might have been forced to make decisions with too little information, today they are more apt to be confronted with how to make decisions with too much information. Counselors need to be able to recognize symptoms or complaints of information overload—not necessarily good information, and too much of it. The key issue for career counselors today is identifying accurately the real needs clients have for career information. Once needs are established, other issues, such as why and when to provide career information, how to provide it, how much to provide, which sources are good, and how to help sort out the quality of the information, become important concerns.

In this chapter, then, we discuss how to identify clients’ needs for information, clients’ problems objectifying these needs, our own needs for gathering information, why and when we must provide information, assessments that help us with the process, and some good sources of information. This chapter demonstrates that the appropriate and effective use of career information is an important task, but not a simple one, and discusses how it comes into play as we help clients develop plans of action for themselves.

Identifying Client Needs for Information

We should not assume that all of our clients need career information. Although they may present themselves as needing information, this could mask other concerns. They may come to us believing they only need information, but in the first few minutes of the initial interview they may suggest that other issues are more pressing and that information may instead be useful later. Or you may see that responding to a simple request for information only further confuses rather than solves a problem. Information is powerful, but it can be confusing, overwhelming, or seemingly irrelevant if not offered at the right time (Schwartz, 2005). Knowing whether, when, and how to provide it is part of the essence of good career counseling. Information must be harnessed and offered in appropriate ways to be beneficial. Career counselors develop skills at doing this, which can make them particularly helpful at times when those without such skills may not be so helpful.

Review here some typical client requests that have been expressed in early career counseling sessions. Try to ascertain whether the need is for information and if (or when) providing it would be helpful.

A 55-year-old woman recently divorced:

Client: I don’t know what to do next. I never thought I would have to work outside the home, but now without a husband to support me, I need to find a career for myself.

An 18-year-old college freshman:

Client: Everyone in the family is in medicine, and I always thought I would be, too. But now I’m not so sure. I’m good in science and I like it, but what else can I do with it? I’m not sure I want to be in school for 10 years, and besides, I don’t see myself working with sick people or in a hospital.

A 50-year-old Navy officer about to retire:

Client: I’ve enjoyed 20 years overseas doing maintenance and supply work, but where can I apply those skills in civilian life?

A seemingly disappointed college graduate:

Client: I’m not doing the kind of work I thought I would, and I don’t see any way out of the job I have. I don’t know what else I can do with only a major in journalism.

These four clients represent quite different life situations, although not necessarily different needs. The recently divorced woman who never thought she would have to work outside the home may be much like the college freshman just discovering the need to think about something other than medicine. Neither felt much need to think about alternatives until recently. But how each will deal with this recent need for information may make our responses to their requests quite different. Both seem to need information, but we do not immediately know what other needs may be confounding their situations. For example, is the recently divorced woman still dealing with the end of a long-term marriage so that she cannot look objectively at alternatives? Is the college freshman looking for an alternative to medicine only because she is disappointed at not being in what she thought would be some exciting classes the first year in college? Clearly, we need more clarity about their situations before we can assess their needs for information.

The naval officer who spent 20 years overseas may seem like a classic example of someone in need of information, given that he wants to move into another career. But we must be careful not to assume he is not coming to us with a fairly clear agenda and much information, only asking us to confirm his choice. Again, we will need more clarity about his situation before deciding if and when more information would be appropriate. Finally, the disappointed college graduate working at an entry-level job that does not meet her needs may really be more concerned with remedying the present situation than with looking for an attractive alternative. We clearly do not yet have enough information to be helpful in any of the cases presented.

A common theme in all of these cases is that it is difficult to judge the need for career information before we have assessed a client’s total situation. A request taken at face value in an opening session too often leads to the provision of career information either not needed or not valued at that time. Our diagnostic skills are important here: We are trying first to appropriately assess our clients’ situations, and only then can we decide whether, when, how, and what kind of career information is needed.

A further nuance of making a decision to respond to the need for career information is the professional judgment you must make regarding how the client will make use of that information. You can build a case for a client who has a simple need for information, and you will provide it. You can observe that it is helpful and that it is being incorporated appropriately into the client’s thought processes. Other times, however, you may provide information but observe that little use is being made of it or, worse yet, that it is being used inappropriately. A client is seemingly moving toward some new option but ignores the new information provided. These examples further argue for the need to adequately assess the need for information before providing it.

Career Information Needs From a Perceptual Point of View

In career counseling we are acutely aware of the importance of a perceptual frame of reference. So often the issue is not what reality is but what one perceives it to be. Our perceptions may tell us one thing, the client’s perceptions another. When we engage in deciding on whether, when, and how to provide career information, we may err in favor of seeing this as an objective process. We may perceive a need for particular information and then try to find and provide it, considering ourselves experts at doing so. But let us look at why that approach, from a perceptual point of view, may not serve our clients’ needs.

When a client comes to us with a perceived need for information, we accept this as an accurate perception. We provide the information, and then perceptions of career opportunities, for example, become more accurate. Encouraged by this, we provide more information but then begin to see that the additional information is not being used appropriately. For example, the client may ignore some of it or distort other bits of it. In our objectivity, we see the need to reinforce some ideas or correct others. The process becomes more complicated because the client filters what is said; only some parts are heard, and other parts heard are distorted. We begin to wonder if we are miscommunicating. The reality we see is not the reality the client sees. We can begin to understand that, like understanding the initial problem in counseling, we have a similar difficulty perceiving the need for the most appropriate time to provide career information and how it should or will be used.

It may appear that the simple process of the counselor providing career information is very complicated. We intend to present it that way. The process involves not simply drawing on resources from the library, computerized systems, or the Internet. It is a complicated process that demands the same care and attention we give all other parts of the counseling process. Because we need to be sensitive to the pervasive role of information at all phases of counseling, we must acquire an in-depth appreciation of not only what is available but also how, when, and in what form to provide it.

Looking at Our Own Needs for Information

Although we must examine carefully our clients’ needs for information, we should also consider our own needs for acquiring and making use of these expanding sources of information. The information explosion and changing notions about work, leisure, employment, and life roles mean we must constantly search for new resources if we are to keep ourselves current. To be creative in helping clients prepare for an ever-changing world, we must become comfortable and conversant with materials from a variety of sources. It would appear as though one form of media may become particularly good at providing some kinds of information, whereas another form of media may become the key source for other kinds of information. Although we may prefer one source more than another, we eventually will have to draw on all sources. We must become masters of information and current technology to remain informed and effective. This means maintaining some subscriptions to printed materials, using resources on video, accessing company home pages and chat rooms, communicating via teleconferencing, and a whole lot more. In-service programs and continuing education in new media forms are essential for us, because professional expectations are changing for us as well as for our clients.

At the same time we are encouraged to learn more about information available through technology, we need to keep a perspective on the more traditional ways many of our clients will continue to access career information. We can, for example, speculate on the influence of computerized information in much the same way that we can look back on the influence of television. Although the potential was enormous, it took time before television became the pervasive influence it is today. Over time it became a dominant influence in most homes, but, more important, significant numbers of people still do not have access to television today. Similarly, large numbers of people still do not have access to computers or technology in general. Although career information may come to us in technologically sophisticated ways, there will continue to be significant numbers of people—many of them our clients—who will access information in other ways. In fact, for some, important resources for information will continue to be limited to more personal, informal sources that do not receive much coverage in this book. These important sources include family, relatives, community members, elders, ministers, peers, teachers, and other people with whom we as counselors may never interact. Nonetheless, these people may exert more influence on our clients through word-of-mouth communication than any information we may find electronically.

Whatever the sources, being able to know, retrieve, and access up-to-date information will become even more of a challenge. It is a task far beyond the reasonable efforts of any one individual. The journals of some of our professional organizations try to provide regular reviews of career-related materials, as do most publishers. Although initially these were almost exclusively reviews of print materials, you will increasingly find reviews of audio tapes, videos, films, CD-ROMs, and similar new sources of information.

Why We Provide Information

Beyond the fact that clients believe they have needs for information, providing information within the career counseling process serves numerous purposes. These purposes are either educational or motivational.

In the educational realm, we can hypothesize that information will inform thought, expand and extend it, or correct it. These are distinctly different purposes, and the ways in which we approach providing information in each of these categories are quite different. Informing the thought process is a far simpler task than correcting it.

To inform might be a straightforward process, whereas to correct may involve helping someone give up information that has served a seemingly useful purpose for some time. For example, a client may hold on to the distorted impression that she cannot go back to school because she did not complete high school or a college degree program years ago. By holding on to that information, she may not consider many attractive career alternatives, believing that she would not have access to them.

We may find it helpful to think of these differences as one would in advertising. Are we telling someone about the product, informing them of additional benefits of the product, or correcting their impressions of the product? If, for example, a person has a distorted impression of a product, we have a far different task than simply providing information.

In the motivational realm, we use information to stimulate, challenge, and confirm. Perhaps the biggest challenge in career counseling is learning to use information in a motivational way.

Some information by itself would not be motivating, but provided at the proper moment it may make all the difference in a career planning process. Some kinds of information can prove to be motivating before one makes a decision, and other kinds of information are more important after one makes a decision. Before making a decision clients may only hear the global or general information about a career possibility, but later, having made a decision to enter a particular field, they may be open to hearing more of the specifics about their choice.

When you consider the millions of dollars advertisers spend to motivate us to use their products, you have a perspective on our task. Counselors must stimulate or challenge clients with career information—a formidable task even for those with unlimited budgets. We must learn to do it with appreciation of what we refer to as teachable moments. These moments come when you have information to give your client that your client feels can be used at a particular time. This is another way we claim our professional identity: We are experts at knowing when to provide information.

When to Use Career Information in Counseling

Timing is everything. This adage is especially true in decisions about when to use career information. Given that making a career decision is an ongoing process, it is appropriate to find ways to provide information at all three phases of the process. In Phase 1 (Exploration), we may need to be assessing the clients’ needs for information as they begin a process of exploring a variety of concerns. The process may have us hypothesizing about the clients’ needs for information as well as their other needs. For example, a client might lack information and know it, or lack it and not know it; a client may have adequate information and be using it appropriately, or have adequate information and not be using it appropriately or be distorting it; or a client may have more than enough information and be coping with it, or he or she may be overwhelmed by it.

We can offer a 2 × 3 table as a way of conceptualizing where clients are initially: They come with too little information, about the right amount, or too much, and, on the other dimension, they either know it or do not know it (see Figure 16-1).

**Figure 16-1.** Client Status Versus Available Career Information

We could provide examples of clients who fit into each of these categories, and we could suggest hypotheses about when to provide information for each of them. The art and science of these hypotheses would not be that exact, but clearly clients with too little information should initially be treated in a manner different from ones who have too much information. And clients who know what they need are different from those who lack insight into what they need. Our diagnostic skills, as always, are taxed and honed in identifying just where our clients are as they begin the career counseling process. What makes it even more complicated but fascinating is that the initial categorization can change quickly; we may find that one who begins with too little information and knows it suddenly becomes confused by too much information. Or, vice versa, a client with too much information may sort it out quickly and need more information.

Phase 1 (Exploration) in a career decision-making model leads to Phase 2 (Understanding). In Phase 2, we can confirm any hypotheses we made in Phase 1 about our clients’ needs for information. If we thought they needed information and we provided it, we can observe in subsequent counseling sessions whether it has been incorporated and whether it has influenced their understanding. If not, we may need to try a different tactic. We know that sometimes clients do not understand the first time through, and this requires that we explore other ways. Because career counseling is an ongoing process, we can review and process again and again. We only hope to improve on our clients’ understanding before they reach Phase 3 (Action), when they act on information. This three-phase model is portrayed graphically in Figure 16-2. It emphasizes the ongoing nature of the process, the way in which we constantly depend on feedback from our clients to refine the process, and the clear need to make ongoing assessments about the timing of the provision of information. It is a far more complex and interesting process than first meets the eye. It is one more place where we can practice and refine our skills as counselors.

**Figure 16-2.** A Decision-Making Model Applied to Career Counseling

Helping Assess the Need for Information

If clients find it difficult to assess their needs for career information, we might want to enhance their judgments or our own by looking for clues in some of the assessment tools frequently used in career counseling. The My Vocational Situation presented in Chapter 13, for example, provides a quick indication of what clients might need at the time they present themselves for counseling. It provides a vocational identity score (1–18), with a low score suggesting that clients have an unclear picture of their career situation. This may be one indicator of a need for career information. In addition, Question 19 specifically asks clients about their needs for information in various areas. The Career Transitions Inventory, also discussed in Chapter 13, also helps both clients and counselors see particular needs. The Intake Scale or Hope Scale (Lopez, 2013) can suggest an apparent need to establish goals or find pathways for clients. In addition, clients with low or flat profiles on interest inventories may be ones who need more information. However, clients may be all too clear about their needs for information, or their initial presentation of a concern makes obvious their needs. We do not want to suggest that you not take their judgments seriously, but we do want to caution you to continually assess the need. It can be deceiving, because some clients believe the more information the better, and it can change quickly, leaving either the client or the counselor confused about the importance of providing information. Barry Schwartz’s (2005) book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less effectively makes the point that having more information does not make making decisions easier.

Establishing How Much Information Is Helpful

Nothing is more helpful in refining a process than feedback. We can ask clients for feedback, but sometimes it is not easy for them to provide it. We can suggest they look up something as homework, or we can ask that they try a computerized career information system like SIGI (System of Interactive Guidance and Information) or one of many such systems, or we can suggest they look at some information available on the Internet and then inquire in the next session as to how helpful it was. We can ask them to bring career information to the session for further discussion. If we make use of it within the counseling process, we can observe immediately how it is being used or incorporated into our clients’ thinking. We then have one more clue as to the need and the effectiveness of the information being provided.

Feedback is important both during and after the counseling process. Too often we can be left wondering if the information provided was actually used and, if so, whether it was as useful as we thought. Without some kind of feedback from former clients, we miss the opportunity to improve our own use of career information. Encourage clients to stay in touch or drop a note after a reasonable time to let you know what was helpful. Some counselors or agencies routinely send form letters to clients several weeks after termination and request feedback. This practice encourages both reflection and evaluation that can be useful to both you and your clients.

Sources of Career Information

There are many good sources of career information. Some texts are particularly good at describing and defining the information available (D. Brown, 2012; Zunker, 2006). But there has been an explosion of new information and sources as well. More information is available on video, in computerized systems, and, most recently, on the World Wide Web. Clients are not apt to have equal access to all these sources, and yet, because “information is power,” one of our roles is to help our clients grasp that power. To do so, we need to be comfortable with all of these sources ourselves.

We cannot overstate the impact of technology in making information available to people, including our clients. As we write this, we see many of our standard career informational references available on the World Wide Web. The Occupational Outlook Handbook (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013/2014), for example, is easily accessed complete with pictures on the Web. This is one of many resources promoted through the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Employment Opportunities and Job Resources on the Internet, commonly known as the Riley Guide, provides users with immediate access to resources previously available only to a select few. The U.S. Department of Labor collects information on all major jobs and provides it in a database called the Occupational Information Network, or O*NET (http://onetonline.org). It also now includes a career interest inventory and a career values inventory. See the Appendix that appears at the end of this chapter for ways to access these resources online. Most companies maintain sites on the Web where users can access extensive, up-to-date information that may be of help in job searches. Home pages allow users to send information about themselves to prospective employers. Résumés can be constructed and sent via the Internet. CD-ROM technology and Web technology have merged to make available unlimited information with links to Web sites that can provide constant updates. Peterson’s guides to both undergraduate and graduate schools are available on the Web. Virtual career centers are on the Web, as are career assessments. In short, whatever was available in print is now available electronically at competitive prices. We are probably at a point when various media—print, computer, video, and other sources—will merge in creative ways. In the meantime, we can expect a continued explosion of ever-changing career information.

Using the Internet to complement your sources of career information and other career planning resources is essential. However, it is not yet a science but more of an art. New sites appear almost daily. Sites you start to rely on one day are gone the next. It may, however, be useful to bookmark particularly good sites for your personal use. Find ones in those areas where you most need information on a routine basis. The Appendix to this chapter presents a representative (not exhaustive) sampling of current sites on the Web that may be helpful to both career counselors and clients. We list ones our staff members in a college career center have found to be particularly useful. As these invariably change, log on to the University of Missouri Career Center home page (http://career.missouri.edu) for updates. Even though some links will have changed by the time you read this, by accessing them you will learn of links to other career-related sites. Bookmark those you find to be most useful in working with clients. Whether information is on the Web or in print form, on CD-ROM or on audio tape, our basic skills as counselors are further challenged by helping clients find this career information and use it to their advantage.

Some Less Obvious Sources of Career Information

Increasingly, we are counseling clients who either do not have access to the many sources of career information just described or, equally important, do have access and yet continue to rely on other sources. For many clients of different ethnic, religious, or cultural backgrounds the family, elders in the church or tribe, or a prophet, sage, or some other authority may be the ultimate source of information. We do not shape or influence these sources in the same way that we shape and describe the use of computerized systems, but we must learn to appreciate and understand the importance of these influences. This is another important reason why we need to listen for feedback from our clients. We cannot assume they will find our sources as useful as the ones they are already using. We need to listen for subtle clues about what the really meaningful sources of information are for our clients. Too often these are not brought into the conversation, significantly diminishing the impact of our time together with clients. The importance of understanding another’s background in an increasingly global world is a fascinating and essential perspective for career counselors. We must try to weave together a variety of sources and recognize that the ultimate decisions made in career counseling are not ones we necessarily need to explain in any objective fashion. This may be one way to view the process, but clearly it is not the preferred way for many of our clients. The more you work with clients from different backgrounds, the more you learn that your way is only one of many ways.

Methods of gathering, sorting, evaluating, and deciding whether to use information and whether to act on it may be dependent on ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, cultural or socioeconomic background, and a host of other variables. We can only learn so much about these differences from our textbooks. Much will always depend on listening well to our clients. In preparation for that, when assigned a client from a different racial or ethnic background, you might want first to inventory your own experience with such differences. Ward and Bingham (1993) created the Multicultural Career Counseling Checklist for Counselors (see Table 16-1), which is “designed to help you think more thoroughly about the racially or ethnically different client to whom you are . . . providing career counseling” (p. 250). You simply read and check the statements that apply. By doing so, you learn what you know and what you need to find out from your client.

**Table 16-1.** Multicultural Career Counseling Checklist for Counselors

Ward and Tate (1990) created the Career Counseling Checklist for Clients (see Table 16-2), later modified by Ward and Bingham (1993), which serves as a checklist for the client to tell you what he or she knows about the world of work and the influences of age, gender, disability, and socioeconomic background. It also includes questions regarding the role of the family in career decision making. When administered early or before counseling, it not only provides you with useful information from your client on important issues but also communicates that you are interested in making these issues part of career counseling. You may find you want to establish still other ways of ensuring that you remain open to learning about these differences.

**Table 16-2.** Career Counseling Checklist for Clients

Making effective use of career information, now available in a wide variety of forms, is a daunting challenge for career counselors. We now have all the information out there that we need; the challenge is to help our clients sort out what is needed, when it is needed, how and when it can best be used, and what the important sources are. Helping clients to put it all together for themselves can be a complicated but fascinating process that draws on many of our professional skills.

Developing Plans of Action

Seeing our clients take proactive steps with their career plans is one of the truly rewarding parts of the career counseling process. Helping them turn a dream into reality is validating and affirming for both the counselor and the client. How this happens is sometimes the result of a well-developed set of goals and a plan of action, and other times it happens in seemingly unsystematic and unexplainable ways. Career goals and a plan of action are best understood or explained when they follow a rational set of steps. We know other times the process seems quite intuitive, and, particularly for members of racial and ethnic minority groups and for women, the process of getting to where one wants to be can be nonlinear and perhaps even circular, with the process recycling through various layers of the decision. Either way, helping clients become clear about their career goals and establishing plans of action is another important step that deserves our attention as part of the career counseling process.

In this section, we begin by looking at the outcomes we can expect to emerge from career counseling. This leads us naturally to a closer examination of the process by which such outcomes or goals or plans come to be formulated. Finally, we conclude with a section on some techniques that will increase the chances that clients leave career counseling with the career plans and goals they envision for themselves.

What Clients Take From Career Counseling

When one looks carefully at the research evidence on outcomes from career counseling, it is easy to conclude that it is a valued and helpful process (Heppner & Hendricks, 1995; Phillips, 1992). In fact, the effects reported in a summative manner from a variety of studies of career interventions (S. D. Brown & Ryan Krane, 2000; Spokane, 1991; Spokane & Oliver, 1983) suggest that the outcomes may be even more impressive than what are reported as outcomes for psychotherapy. This should make us inquire as to what clients say happens for them in career counseling. What is it that they report as being so helpful?

For one thing, we often hear clients express a new or renewed sense of hope or determination about doing something they said they wanted to do. In terms we introduced earlier in the book, they may have a better sense of agency or hope (Lopez, 2013) and talk in clearer terms about the pathways to follow in pursuit of their goals. Their “goals” are not to be confused with our “goal” of creating a strong working alliance. In the working alliance, we reference goals to be achieved in the counseling relationship—goals important to our working together as counselor and client—whereas here we reference goals as some specifics to be worked on in creating a plan of action for the client.

Clients will attribute much to counseling and to the support, understanding, and encouragement they feel from their counselor and from the relationship they experienced (Fuller & Hill, 1985; Heppner & Hendricks, 1995). We should not overlook the importance of this relationship, and perhaps the process of career counseling will eventually prove to be far more important than has been reported. It may, however, be more difficult to collect evidence of its importance than of the more objective changes one can observe.

We will often hear about new discoveries or insights from career counseling; these can be clients’ learnings or insights about themselves or about opportunities for themselves. Reports of changes in the way clients see themselves or their opportunities are common in the research on outcomes of career counseling (Holland, Magoon, & Spokane, 1981).

We should be encouraged by the evidence of all that can be attributed to career counseling, but we do not want to overlook what happens within the process. Clients come to new understandings and insights and see new opportunities for themselves, but how does this happen? How do they put things together for themselves? How do their goals and a career plan of action emerge, and what do we do to encourage such planning?

In a comprehensive review of 62 recent studies of career counseling (S. D. Brown & Ryan Krane, 2000), there emerged considerable support for the idea that positive outcomes are related to the inclusion of five critical ingredients. Although any one of them is important, the combination of the five seems the most powerful. The five, in no particular order, are written exercises, individualized interpretations and feedback, information on the world of work, vicarious learning experiences such as exposure to models who have attained success in the career exploration process, and attention to building support for one’s career choices. We suggest a few ways of incorporating each of these into career counseling and encourage you to think of other creative ways of doing so. If each is important, and a combination of all is more important, we need to attend to creatively incorporating all of them into our interventions. We also refer you to the chapter by S. D. Brown and Ryan Krane (2000) for a more thorough description of their important findings.

The first ingredient is the incorporation of written exercises. We might include a simple intake form that requires the clients to write briefly about themselves. We might ask them to complete a series of incomplete sentences about their career plans. Completing the Occupational Dreams Inventory, for example, may make clients focus on past, present, and future career plans.

The second ingredient to include in counseling is individualized interpretations and feedback. These may be comments on written papers or exercises, comments made about career plans in counseling sessions, or interpretations of tests or inventories. The usefulness of such feedback depends on providing it in the context of a strong working alliance. Only in that context will it be seen as important and meaningful to the client.

Third, we provide information on the world of work. We may assume our clients know and can use information and do not need help finding it. However, we devoted the larger part of this chapter to stressing not being too quick to assume what our clients’ needs and understandings are regarding career information.

S. D. Brown and Ryan Krane (2001) added an interesting observation of their own a year later, after reviewing their earlier findings: “Studies that have asked clients to rate how helpful different aspects of the interventions were to them consistently [report] the most helpful activities [were] those designed to help clients search for and use occupational information” (p. 6). Specifically, the use of career information within counseling sessions was highlighted as opposed to the more common practice of giving a client homework to locate and examine career information.

Fourth, we provide vicarious learning experiences. We can expose our clients to role models who have attained success in their chosen fields of study. On the college campus, that may mean finding peers, faculty and staff members, community members, and alumni who are open to being interviewed about their work.

Fifth, we build support for clients’ career choices. This may mean emotional or social support. It may mean helping clients make connections with people in our network or other ways of helping them expand on their own networks of professional contacts. We may promote rehearsals and immediate reinforcement of career plans that are brought up in counseling sessions.

Earlier in this chapter, we presented career decision making as a three-part process. The first phase was Exploration, the second Understanding, and the third Action. It is a continuous process, with one phase leading to the next and so forth. As you learn more about yourself, you may see a need for more information about the work world before taking action. This may be a good representation of the process as followed by some clients, and we believe it is probably close to the way a systematic person would proceed. It is a crude representation at best, but it does accurately represent three phases that are continually changing in an equation. It may be more difficult to represent the way other, less systematic clients proceed. We know, for example, that an intuitive and nonlinear process may be equally effective for some clients (Gelatt & Gelatt, 2003). We explore in Chapter 2 how a theory of planned happenstance and a personal career theory (Holland, 1997) might be equally effective processes. In short, we must be careful not to impose one process when another would better serve a client. By using one model or a combination of models, however, we try to help clients move toward some plan of action.

Whichever model proves most helpful to your thinking about the process, know that you should place an emphasis on eventually taking some action. It may be short-term or long-term action, within the time frame of counseling or well after it, but career counseling should provide a framework for good planning. And although clients may talk about other outcomes of counseling, some of those do not require you to do anything in particular. A good goal or plan of action usually requires discussion, refinement, rehearsal, modifications, and a whole lot more before being successfully implemented. Clients need help with these steps, and there are a variety of things we can do to improve the chances that they will eventually act on them.

Defining Career Goals and Plans of Action

To be logical, we want to have a plan before we take action. This may not always be true, but that is the order we give it—plan, then act. We often speak of our goals, for example, and then, with help from others, set about trying to devise a plan of action for achieving them. This plan can be simple or complex, short or long term, individual or group, specific or general, but it always involves some goal(s) that should be understandable and achievable. In career counseling, we help the client put together an understandable scheme for achieving particular goals that becomes the plan of action. It is true that most of us do not set goals or make plans on a regular basis, but we admire the few who do. Career plans usually emerge from a process of setting goals. Once goals are identified, we look for ways to achieve them.

The Basics of Planning

Like career counseling, a career plan needs to be seen as an ever-evolving process. Although we can characterize the planning part or action phase as the last part of the three-part process, the whole is more accurately a continuous process or loop in which one may be working simultaneously on all three parts—exploring and understanding about self, exploring and understanding about one’s environment, and, equally important, exploring and understanding how to act on these insights or learnings.

Out of career counseling, then, should come plans of action, concrete objective steps for doing something differently from the way one did it before. What do we know about making plans that would be helpful to clients who may have had little experience with the process? There are a number of things to impart to clients during the process of counseling. Most important, recognize that counselors can set the stage for developing goals and making plans as early as the first session. In fact, it should be communicated early on that goals and plans of action are expected outcomes of career counseling. Clients may need to be instructed on this early and often. We can easily become comfortable with simply talking about a plan and never actually making one. That is why sometimes you hear clients with high praise for counseling and no mention of actions taken as a result of such efforts. It may be necessary to illustrate in concrete terms what you mean by an action plan. For example, early on in counseling a counselor might make a statement like this:

Counselor: You may learn a lot about yourself and some new career options you hadn’t thought of before, but, equally important, I hope you’ll be able to be clear as to a course of action that you could follow. Could you see yourself, for example, with a goal of taking a new job in another field by the end of this year? I’d like you to be thinking about that and what specific plan of action that might require. I’d like to think I could be of some help to you as you develop that or a similar plan of action for yourself.

This statement emphasizes both the need for a plan and the need for a timeline. These are two concrete ideas to suggest early in the process. They may need to be reemphasized throughout career counseling, as clients often resist efforts to move toward action. In fact, often that is what brought them to career counseling—not being able to set a goal or establish a plan of action for themselves.

Keep in mind that a client’s early attempt at stating a plan of action may only be a statement of an immediate need. It may come before he or she has engaged in any Exploration. What ensues may eventually change the Action that seems appropriate. It may not represent a long-term plan of action. Some clients come to counseling not knowing they need more information about themselves or their options before being able to state a plan of action. They come to counseling only expressing their immediate needs. Let us look at some examples of statements made in opening interviews that should illustrate our point:

Client: I must choose a major by tomorrow so I can preregister for next semester.
Client: I want to quit my job and go into something where there are fewer hassles.
Client: I’ve been fired again, and I need help finding a new job.

These statements may be good clues as to why a client came for counseling, but they do not provide all the information necessary for establishing an eventual plan of action. Choosing a major may be a long-term goal, but chances are that a client will need more time and probably some specific information about himself or herself or careers before setting it as the immediate goal of counseling. Quitting a job because one wants something with fewer hassles may or may not make sense, but clearly we need more information before agreeing to work with that as a goal or endorsing it as a plan of action. Likewise, in the third example, we see that helping a client find another job is an appropriate long-term plan of action, but we want the client to give serious consideration to what has gone wrong in previous jobs before seeking another job.

Two points can be made from these examples. First, it is important to make a distinction between what is offered as an immediate goal or plan and the eventual goal or plan. Second, we need to view the creation of goals and action plans as an ongoing process. This last point should not negate the initial statement of a goal and a plan of action, because it is that statement that brought the client to career counseling. It may well be a good indication of what may need to be clarified and refined in counseling. It is usually an accurate indication of where we must begin as we help clients establish a goal and develop a plan of action.

We need to be sure that clients give equal time to both short- and long-range plans of action. Some clients see only immediate goals; others see only the long-term ones and need help focusing on the necessary short-term goals. Whatever the case, we can help clients make plans according to criteria that better ensure them of success in meeting their goals.

Criteria for Career Goals and Action Plans

Goals and eventual plans of action should be formulated to meet objective criteria. This takes practice, but it makes it easier to later observe progress toward meeting the goals or recognizing the steps still to be taken. Krumboltz and others (Blocher, Heppner, & Johnston, 2001; Gysbers & Moore, 1987; Krumboltz, 1966) have presented particularly helpful criteria to use in establishing a goal and eventually a plan of action. In brief, goals should be specific, observable, time specific, and achievable. To help our clients with plans that meet these criteria, we need to provide some help. It is not simply doing what comes naturally.

Goals Should Be Specific

Attention to specificity is necessary to keep a client from simply making vague statements like “What I need is a new job . . . more money . . . a new major” when it will be more helpful to have the client state the kind of job, the amount of money, or the specific major to pursue. Again, clients initially tend to be vague about goals, but with practice they can become quite specific. That is one of our roles: to see how goals or plans can be made more specific. It is hard to lay out a plan of action without first being specific about goals.

Goals Should Be Observable

A second criterion argues for goals to be observable. It helps when a client can see the goal: “I will enter graduate school,” “I will take a new job,” or “I will earn my diploma.” These are all specific and observable goals. You can see that the client either did or did not do what he or she intended to do. Both the client and the counselor can observe this. Again, a client may not be inclined to state goals in such a manner. The counselor may need to help frame goals this way.

Goals Should Be Time Specific

Mentioning the time needed to meet a goal is also important. Those observable goals just mentioned might better be stated with some mention of a reasonable timeline: “I will enter graduate school by September of this year,” “I will take a new job before the end of the year,” or “I will earn my diploma by June of next year.” These would all be specific, observable, and time-specific goals.

Goals Should Be Achievable

Finally, goals should be achievable. In the optimism of new learnings or the discovery of new possibilities, one can be overly optimistic or ambitious about goals. “I will enter graduate school by September and have my master’s degree in a year” is unrealistic when serious inquiry reveals that the program is a 2-year program. Again, the counselor’s role is to help the client set reasonable and attainable goals without dampening his or her enthusiasm for undertaking something new.

The goal-setting stage may be an important place to help minority clients or men and women who are taking nontraditional life paths plan and strategize for the probable environmental barriers that may stand in the way of reaching their desired goals. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and ageism all may influence societal and institutional willingness to support the goals of your clients. This may also be a time when counselor advocacy is important in helping clients actively overcome barriers that are standing in the way of their attaining their dreams.

Goals May Need to Be in Writing

It sometimes helps to have goals in writing. Some people relate positively to written reminders of what they intend to do; others find it unnecessary to put what they see as obvious in writing. Here we believe a counselor needs to attend to whatever is reinforcing for a particular client. After all, the intent is primarily to help clients find reinforcement for doing what they say they want to do. The career counselor should do whatever is helpful in documenting changes in counseling.

Goals Should Be Articulated

Another point to emphasize is the importance of articulating the plan. Although we may think a plan of action should be obvious, the client may not see it that way. We should encourage the client to work at verbalizing a plan throughout counseling. This promotes planning as an ongoing process and allows you to contribute to the refinement of the plan. It also gives you feedback on what is being heard in counseling. Often a client will verbalize a global or overly ambitious plan, much to your surprise. Because a good plan may take input from both of you, you need to hear it as it is being put together. Only a well thought out and articulated plan will ever be put into action.

Techniques That May Help to Establish Career Plans

There is no one way to establish a goal or goals for oneself. A plan of action may also be quite individualistic, but we should work to establish a repertoire of techniques and interventions that aid the process. Some of these are listed below, but be vigilant in adding to the list as you learn from your own experience.

Establish early and often the expectation and need for goals and a plan of action. Let clients know what they can realistically expect as outcomes.
Make goals and plans of action reasonable. Clients may need help seeing what is reasonable. Too often their prior experience has not helped them with either goal setting or organizing a plan of action, or they are seeking counseling because they have not been able to establish goals or make plans. Teach the process, if necessary. Provide time in counseling for clients to learn and practice the process, review goals and plans, critique them, rehearse them, and help refine them. Provide support and nurturing for these new skills.
See that goals and plans are built and can be evaluated according to meaningful and objective criteria. The client, as well as the counselor, should be able to observe and document progress.
Reinforce in as many ways as possible the means to effective goals and plans of action. It is far easier to create a goal or a plan than to act on it. Provide opportunities for clients to talk through their goals and plans, to write them out, to rehearse them, and to visualize themselves achieving them. Push clients to openly share these ideas with significant others. Consider establishing a routine during career counseling for formulating and reviewing progress toward setting goals and developing plans of action. Help clients adjust their goals and plans as appropriate, and help them recognize and celebrate any progress toward achieving their goals or implementing any part of the plan of action. These reinforcements are essential to clients’ ultimate success. And because reinforcement is often hard to provide to clients who are unclear about goals or plans, this may be another reason clients value so much their time in career counseling.
Individualize the process according to the needs and preferred style of each client. What seems helpful for one client may be counterproductive for another. Structure, for example, may enhance one’s ability to act, or it may be a hindrance. Teaching a client to focus may be helpful, or it may be unnecessary. Visualizing a plan, writing out a plan, and rehearsing the plan may be a help for one and only a meaningless exercise for another.
Do not be hard on a client or yourself when things do not go according to plan. There are a myriad of very good reasons why goals are not achieved and plans are not followed. Expect successful approximations from some; failure from others; and delay tactics, excuses, and unexplained inactivity from others. Complex and often demanding actions are being considered. Sometimes we may only know a fraction of the reasons why a client does or does not act. We often find that we can learn from one client how to better help another client.

Closing Thoughts

Making goals and plans work is the final and perhaps most difficult of the steps involved in career counseling. We need an equally varied repertoire of skills to make it a productive part of the entire process. To become good at it requires practice, follow-up, and feedback from our clients. With that kind of help, we become better at meeting the real needs of our clients.

References

Blocher, D. H., Heppner, M. J., & Johnston, J. A. (2001). Career planning for the 21st century. Denver, CO: Love.

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Brown, S. D., & Ryan Krane, N. E. (2000). Four (or five) sessions and a cloud of dust: Old assumptions and new observations about career counseling. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of counseling psychology (3rd ed., pp. 740–766). New York, NY: Wiley.

Brown, S. D., & Ryan Krane, N. E. (2001, August). Critical ingredients in career counseling: Some new data. Paper presented at the 109th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2013/2014). Occupational outlook handbook. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/
Fuller, R., & Hill, C. E. (1985). Career development status as a predictor of career intervention outcomes. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 29, 388–393.
Gelatt, H. B., & Gelatt, C. (2003). Creative decision making: Using positive uncertainty. Los Altos, CA: Crisp.
Gysbers, N. C., & Moore, E. J. (1987). Career counseling: Skills and techniques for practitioners. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Heppner, M. J., & Hendricks, F. (1995). A process and outcome study examining career indecision and indecisiveness. Journal of Counseling & Development, 73, 426–437.
Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Holland, J. L., Magoon, T. M., & Spokane, A. R. (1981). Counseling psychology: Career interventions, research, and theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 279–305.
Krumboltz, J. D. (1966). Behavioral goals for counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 13, 153–159.
Lopez, S. J. (2013). Making hope happen: Creating the future you want for yourself and others. New York, NY: Atria Books.
Phillips, S. D. (1992). Career counseling: Choice and implementation. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of counseling psychology (2nd ed., pp. 513–547). New York, NY: Wiley.
Schwartz, B. (2005). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Spokane, A. R. (1991). Career intervention. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Spokane, A. R., & Oliver, L. (1983). The outcomes of vocational intervention. In W. B. Walsh & S. H. Osipow (Eds.), Handbook of vocational psychology (pp. 99–136). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ward, C. M., & Bingham, R. P. (1993). Career assessment of ethnic minority women. Journal of Career Assessment, 1, 246–257.
Ward, C. M., & Tate, G. (1990). Career Counseling Checklist. Atlanta: Georgia State University, Counseling Center.
Zunker, V. G. (2006). Career counseling: A holistic approach (7th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Thompson Brooks/Cole.

Appendix. Additional Resources

General Career Guidance and Information
1. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/
2. http://www.rileyguide.com (Riley Guide, general guide for job seekers)
3. http://career.missouri.edu (University of Missouri Career Center)
4. http://www.chronicleguidance.com (Chronicle of Occupational Briefs)
Résumés, Cover Letters, and Interviewing
1. http://career.missouri.edu/resumes-interviews (University of Missouri Career Center)
Networking
1. http://www.rileyguide.com/nettips.html (Riley Guide)
Online Career Assessments
1. http://www.self-directed-search.com (Self-Directed Search Interest Inventory)
2. http://www.keirsey.com (Keirsey Temperament Sorter)
3. http://www.rileyguide.com (Riley Guide)
Internships
Job Searches
1. www.cool2serve.org (national service)
2. http://ww42.nationalservice.org/
3. http://www.idealist.org/info/nonprofits
4. http://www.escapeartist.com (international jobs)
Company Profiles
1. http://www.vault.com (Vault Reports)
2. https://www.wetfeet.com (independent directory for jobs and company profiles)
3. http://company.monster.com (Monster.com)
4. http://imdiversity.com (diversity perspective on jobs)
5. http://www.businessweek.com (BusinessWeek)
6. http://www.thestreet.com (TheStreet.com)
Graduate Schools
1. http://www.gradschools.com (general information)
2. http://www.princetonreview.com (Princeton Review)
3. http://www.petersons.com (Peterson’s Guide to Graduate Programs)
4. http://www.kaplan.com/

If you have a client of a different ethnicity/race than yours, you may wish to use this checklist as you begin to do the career assessment with your client.
The following statements are designed to help you think more thoroughly about the racially or ethnically different client to whom you are about to provide career counseling. Check all the statements that apply.
My racial/ethnic identity ____________________________
My client’s racial/ethnic identity ______________________
I.	Counselor Preparation
	1.	I am familiar with minimum cross-cultural counseling competencies.
	2.	I am aware of my client’s cultural identification.
	3.	I understand and respect my client’s culture.
	4.	I am aware of my own world view and how it was shaped.
	5.	I am aware of how my socioeconomic status (SES) influences my ability to empathize with this client.
	6.	I am aware of how my political views influence my counseling with a client from this ethnic group.
	7.	I have had counseling or other life experiences with different racial/ethnic groups.
	8.	I have information about this client’s ethnic group’s history, local sociopolitical issues, and her attitudes toward seeking help.
	9.	I know many of the strengths of this client’s ethnic group.
	10.	I know where I am in my racial identity development.
	11.	I know the general stereotypes held about my client’s ethnic group.
	12.	I am comfortable confronting ethnic minority clients.
	13.	I am aware of the importance that the interaction of gender and race/ethnicity has in my client’s life.
II.	Exploration and Assessment
	1.	I understand this client’s career questions.
	2.	I understand how the client’s career questions may be complicated with issues of finance, family, and academics.
	3.	The client is presenting racial and/or cultural information with the career questions.
	4.	I am aware of the career limitations or obstacles the client associates with her race or culture.
	5.	I understand what the client’s perceived limitations are.
	6.	I know the client’s perception of her family’s ethnocultural identification.
	7.	I am aware of the client’s perception of her family’s support for her career.
	8.	I know which career the client believes her family wants her to pursue.
	9.	I know whether the client’s family’s support is important to her.
	10.	I believe that familial obligations are dictating the client’s career choices.
	11.	I know the extent of exposure to career information and role models the client had in high school and beyond.
	12.	I understand the impact that high school experiences (positive or negative) have had on the client’s confidence.
	13.	I am aware of the client’s perception of her competence, ability, and self-efficacy.
	14.	I believe the client avoids certain work environments because of fears of sexism or racism.
	15.	I know the client’s stage of racial identity development.
III.	Negotiation and Working Consensus
	1.	I understand the type of career counseling help the client is seeking (career choice, supplement of family income, professional career, etc.).
	2.	The client and I have agreed on the goals for career counseling.
	3.	I know how this client’s role as a woman in family influences her career choices.
	4.	I am aware of the client’s perception of the woman’s work role in her family and in her culture.
	5.	I am aware of the client’s understanding of the role of children in her career plans.
	6.	I am aware of the extent of exposure to a variety of career role models the client has had.
	7.	I understand the culturally based career conflicts that are generated by exposure to more careers and role models.
	8.	I know the client’s career aspirations.
	9.	I am aware of the level of confidence the client has in her ability to obtain her aspirations.
	10.	I know the client understands the relationship between type of work and educational level.
	11.	I am aware of the negative and/or self-defeating thoughts that are obstacles to the client’s aspirations and expectations.
	12.	I know if the client and I need to renegotiate her goals as appropriate after exploring cultural and family issues.
	13.	I know the client understands the career exploration process.
	14.	I am aware of the client’s expectations about the career counseling process.
	15.	I know when it is appropriate to use a traditional career assessment instrument with a client from this ethnic group.
	16.	I know which instrument to use with this client.
	17.	I am aware of the research support for using the selected instrument with clients of this ethnicity.
	18.	I am aware of nontraditional instruments that might be more appropriate for use with clients from this ethnic group.
	19.	I am aware of nontraditional approaches to using traditional instruments with clients from this ethnic group.
	20.	I am aware of the career strengths the client associates with her race or culture.
Note. From “Career Assessment of Ethnic Minority Women” by C. M. Ward and R. P. Bingham, 1993, Journal of Career Assessment, 1, pp. 246–257. Copyright 1993 by Sage Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission from Sage Publications, Inc.

The following statements are designed to help you think more thoroughly about your career concerns and to help your assessment counselor understand you better. Please try to answer them as honestly as possible. Check all of the items that are true for you.
	1.	I feel obligated to do what others want me to do, and these expectations conflict with my own desires.
	2.	I have lots of interests, but I do not know how to narrow them down.
	3.	I am afraid of making a serious mistake with my career choice.
	4.	I do not feel confident that I know in which areas my true interests lie.
	5.	I feel uneasy with the responsibility for making a good career choice.
	6.	I lack information about my skills, interests, needs, and values with regard to my career choice.
	7.	My physical ability may greatly influence my career choice.
	8.	I lack knowledge about the world of work and what it has to offer me.
	9.	I know what I want my career to be, but it doesn’t feel like a realistic goal.
	10.	I feel I am the only one who does not have a career plan.
	11.	I lack knowledge about myself and what I have to offer the world of work.
	12.	I do not really know what is required from a career for me to feel satisfied.
	13.	I feel that problems in my personal life are hindering me from making a good career decision.
	14.	My ethnicity may influence my career choice.
	15.	No matter how much information I have about a career, I keep going back and forth and cannot make up my mind.
	16.	I tend to be a person who gives up easily.
	17.	I believe that I am largely to blame for the lack of success I feel in making a career decision.
	18.	I have great difficulty making most decisions about my life.
	19.	My age may influence my career choice.
	20.	I expect my career decision to take care of most of the boredom and emptiness that I feel.
	21.	I have difficulty making commitments.
	22.	I don’t have any idea of what I want in life, who I am, or what’s important to me.
	23.	I have difficulty completing things.
	24.	I am afraid of making mistakes.
	25.	Religious values may greatly influence my career choice.
	26.	At this point, I am thinking more about finding a job than about choosing a career.
	27.	Family responsibilities will probably limit my career ambitions.
	28.	My orientation to career is very different from that of the members of my family.
	29.	I have worked on a job that taught me some things about what I want or do not want in a career, but I still feel lost.
	30.	Some classes in school are much easier for me than others, but I don’t know how to use this information.
	31.	My race may greatly influence my career choice.
	32.	My long-term goals are more firm than my short-term goals.
	33.	I have some career-related daydreams that I do not share with many people.
	34.	I have been unable to see a connection between my college work and a possible career.
	35.	I have made a career choice with which I am comfortable, but I need specific assistance in finding a job.
	36.	My gender may influence my career choice.
	37.	I have undergone a change in my life, which necessitates a change in my career plans.
	38.	My fantasy is that there is one perfect job for me, if I can find it.
	39.	I have been out of the world of work for a period of time and I need to redefine my career choice.
	40.	Making a great deal of money is an important career goal for me, but I am unsure as to how I might reach it.
	41.	My immigration status may influence my career choice.
Note. From “Career Assessment of Ethnic Minority Women” by C. M. Ward and R. P. Bingham, 1993, Journal of Career Assessment, 1, pp. 246–257. Copyright 1993 by Sage Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission from Sage Publications, Inc.