Theory in career development counselling provides a map that counsellors can use to understand and structure the career counselling process. It also provides a means to communicate this understanding and structuring to their clients as part of the counselling intervention. The chaos theory of careers draws attention to the complexity,…

This paper presents the implications of the Chaos Theory of Careers for career counselling in the form of Shiftwork. Shiftwork represents an expanded paradigm of career counselling based on complexity, change and uncertainty. Eleven paradigm shifts for careers counselling are outlined to incorporate into contemporary practice pattern making, an…

A sample of 45 women managers was surveyed in a qualitative study to explore their experiences of being unemployed. The sample was purposeful, and the data were collected on a website-based survey. The experience of unemployment for female managers was far different from what was previously presumed from research largely drawn from male …

The Systems Theory Framework (STF) is presented as an integrating and organising concept for the predominant theories of career. In order to test the integrative capacity of the STF, this research merges the STF's theoretical element of story with the Theory of Dialogical Self's model of personality. Implications for the practice of career…

This study investigated a qualitative career assessment and counselling procedure that was founded upon a constructivist, narrative approach to career counselling, "My Career Chapter: A Dialogical Autobiography" (McIlveen, 2006). Counsellors were trained in the use of the procedure and then applied it to themselves in an intensive workshop format.…

The voices of secondary school students describing their experiences of school-based career counselling services are reported and discussed. Arising from the students' narratives and school-based career counsellors' descriptions of their services, a continuum of service delivery is conceptualised that highlights features of career service…

Consistent with calls for a greater marketing emphasis to be included in career counselling practice, this study uses marketing concepts to explore the relationship between the expectations people in career transition have of a career counselling service and the perceptions career counselling service providers have of these expectations. The study…

The most fundamental challenge that career psychology faces is the construction of a new identity that will challenge the career theories and counselling practices that have occupied centre stage in evolving forms for over a century. As part of that challenge, career practitioners and career educators need to address the critical question of what…

Simple matching models of decision making are no longer sufficient as a basis for career counselling and education. The challenge for contemporary careers advisers is how to communicate some of the complexities of modern career development to their students; in particular, the apparently contradictory relationship between the need for planning and…

The chaos theory of careers emphasises continual change, the centrality and importance of chance events, the potential of minor events to have disproportionately large impacts on subsequent events, and the capacity for dramatic phase shifts in career behaviour. This approach challenges traditional approaches to career counselling, assumptions…

The number of international students attending Australian universities has increased markedly over the past five years and has resulted in a need for career services that adequately reflect the requirements of these students. One of Queensland University of Technology's responses to this has been the appointment of a full-time International Career…

High school students in North America, namely, the United States and Canada, encounter the challenge of the school-to-school and school-to-work transition, and they need considerable help for career guidance and counselling. Yet, the guidance and counselling resources of the school system are often stretched to their limits. This article proposes…

Underpinning the practice of career counsellors is a range of various theories and perspectives. The concept of self-esteem is a term frequently used by those in the helping professions and often with little regard for its limitations. This article argues that careers counsellors need to keep up-to-date with evolving theories that inform their…

With little or no effort to test underlying assumptions in the South African context, South African career counsellors have traditionally depended on "proven" assessment methods. Career counselling needs to move away from the almost sole use of psychometric tests to an approach that recognises an individual's social and historical background. Our…