Career Services Model

A difficult task facing career counselors concerns applying abstract career theories to concrete problems presented by clients. Over the years, counselor educators have voiced concern about their trainees' ability to accurately assess client problems and make sound clinical decisions. In practice, novice career counselors also become perplexed by the multitude of career methods and materials available to them. Conceptualizing a client's career problem requires a map to guide the selection of appropriate career services, and vocational scholars have proposed diagnostic classifications of career problems. A recent theory-based classification by Savickas was designed as a matrix to strengthen the connection between theory and practice as well as to ease the transaction between researchers and counselors. This model, summarized here, elaborates upon the Savickas model for career services and offers a practical schema useful for counselors who provide career counseling services. This taxonomie model has two conceptual domains, interpersonal and intrapersonal, that each encompasses three developmental levels. These domains and levels constitute six career service areas: career guidance, career placement, career education, career counseling, career life-development, and career adjustment.

Career problem assessment begins by locating a career problem in one of two conceptual domains for further exploration. Within the interpersonal domain, there is active negotiation with the environment or a high degree of contact with other persons. The implicit problem in career guidance involves making a career choice. The counselor often explores whether the client wishes to begin a new job or change an existing position. The objective is to assist clients in learning how to explore matches between their clarified self-concept and jobs. The implicit problem in career placement involves starting a career. The counselor is concerned with how clients attain their chosen positions. The objective is to assist a client after he or she has made an occupational choice: preparing and refining self-presentation behavior. The implicit problem in career education involves developing one's career. The counselor focuses on the individual's dispositions and problem-solving abilities.

The intrapersonal domain is growth seeking and discomfort reducing. It involves contact with one's feelings, emotions, and cognitions. The implicit problem in career counseling involves one's self-conception. The counselor explores the client's self-concept, approach to meaning making, and cognitive structure. The objective is to prepare a client to articulate and develop his or her vocational self-concepts and public identities and to develop career decision-making skills. The implicit problem in career development involves managing and coping with work. The counselor explores how the client has been and is adapting to multiple life roles in the context of work. A primary objective is to prepare a client to anticipate, become aware of, and cope with concerns arising within the stages of the career life span. The implicit problem in career adjustment involves adaptation to a career. The counselor explores how the client is adapting to thwarting conditions. The objective is to help a client adjust to unanticipated and unique events within his or her work position by developing coping skills and resilience.

Assessment begins with a focus on how a client experiences his or her career problems and aids in determining the experiential level of the presenting problems. Level A problems involve choosing an occupation (i.e., career guidance and career counseling). Level B problems involve preparing to enter a chosen occupation (i.e., career placement and career development), and Level C problems involve coping with a career (i.e., career education and career adjustment).

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