How Does a Career Practitioner Work in a Conflict Zone?
How Does Your Career Contribute to a Sustainable Future?
How Does Your Career Contribute to a Sustainable Future?
How Did I Get into Career Development?
- Featuring: Raza Abbas- Multi Award-Winning Cross Cultural Career Specialist
- Five Wonderful Years with APCDA! by Emily Rose L. Lizada
- by Prof. Dr. N.K. Chadha
- by Sing Chee Wong, APCDA Past President
- By LÊ TUẤN ANH, Career Consultant & Educator
- by Felicity Brown, Maia Careers & Training, APCDA Life Member
Recorded Panel Discussion
This session is part of an APCDA research initiative aimed at finding
effective ways to support career practitioners and career development
activities in the toughest environments. By sharing these stories, APCDA
hopes to foster a deeper understanding and develop strong support
systems for those dedicated to career development, no matter the
circumstances. The discussion highlights the critical need for career
development practitioners in all situations, emphasizing their role in
providing stability and guidance even in the most turbulent times.
Watch Video (https://youtu.be/41yZ5URczgY)
3rd Story Hub Theme:
How has Our Work in Career Development Changed in Response to Changes in the Workplace?
By Tam Nguyen and Carla Siojo, News Co-Chairs
Though remote work practice varies greatly among low and high-income countries, today 32% of Canadian employees spend their working hours at home and the number in the US is 41%. Compare this to only 7.9% of the global workforce working remotely before Covid 19. We must all be tired of the words “The Great Resignation” or “Quiet Quitting” but such catchy titles and data reveal many changes happening in the world of work within just 2 years. So much so that The World Economic Forum suggested the name “The Great Reset,” where “companies will have to balance the great dichotomy of employees seeking certainty and stability with the organizations themselves pursuing flexibility and agility.”
Mental health, employees’ sense of purpose, hybrid model… have become more of a focus in recent years as organizations find ways to swim through unprecedented times. UN Sustainable Goal number 3 has therefore never been more essential to our career development practice as “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being” is of utmost importance to achieve new ideals of work-life balance and cultivate resilience.
Generational Divide
Gen Z appears to be more tech-savvy, yet they seem less comfortable working from home compared to their elders. In addition to that, what they consider as important to be fulfilled at work has changed. Salary, even though still important at some level, is being devalued by Gen Z. Their focus, instead, is on how to make a difference on social challenges such as sustainability, global warming or inequality.
That could explain why they are called the entrepreneurial generation – 72% say they want to start a business and entrepreneurship can contribute to social impacts.
Is Overemployment a Trend Now?
While working from home gives workers flexibility and freedom, it primes a growing trend called overemployment – where employees are juggling between a full-time job and freelancing, side hustle or even another full-time job.
The future of work will look far different than what we’re used to, considering the increase of remote work, superior technology integration and psychological impacts of disruption. Both Human Resources Professionals (HRP) and Career Development Professionals (CDP) are on the front lines to help workers manage new realities.
“The scaling up of career guidance will be key to helping adults navigate these changes in the labour market and to make them aware of available upskilling and reskilling opportunities” – OECD Policy Responses to Covid 19.
Story Hub 3rd Theme: How has Our Work in Career Development Changed in Response to Changes in the Workplace?
For the months of September and October we invite you to please share your thoughts by writing an article for the APCDA News Blog. Some suggested ideas:
- What is the biggest challenge career development faces in your country in helping clients through this uncertainty?
- What shifts do you need to make to engage, energize and unleash your clients’ potential in the unknown post-pandemic world?
- How can HRPs and CDPs collaborate to address workforce challenges in the post-pandemic world?
You may submit your articles of at least 350-600 words anytime between now and Nov 30, 2022. There’s no limit on how many articles an individual can submit.
Please send your article to: News@AsiaPacificCDA.org. Our news committee, upon receiving and reviewing your stories, will publish them.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts and welcome you to our upcoming webinar “Career Trends Observed by HR Managers” on October 6/7, where our panel will help us reflect on our adaptation to the changes.
How do Career Development Professionals (CDPs) Help Clients to Build a Career in Sustainability?
By An Lee
Explore career choices in sustainability
A common misconception among many clients is they have to become an environmental engineer or earn a degree in science if they want a career in sustainability. CDPs can help by reminding clients that solutions to sustainability are expanding to all sectors and inclusive to all career interests.
As society becomes more educated, more people ask for sustainable products and packaging. Businesses are reacting to the market demands by creating new roles focused on developing ESG (environmental, social, governance) friendly practices in every function.
If you search “sustainability” on OnetOnline.org, you may be surprised when seeing job roles such as Marketing Manager or Logistics Analyst. As a CDP, have you ever told your client who is passionate about media and communication that they can become an Environmental PR Specialist?
A great source of inspiration is the 17 Sustainability Goals from the United Nations. You will see that a teacher can contribute to at least three aspects: Quality Education, Gender Equality, Good Health and Well-being. Ask your client to pay attention to which sustainability goals resonate with them and which role they could play in addressing the problems.
Choose the right organization
Once your client gets clear on what kind of jobs they want to pursue and which skills they need to build, the last but crucial step is finding an organization whose values align with those of your client.
Ask your client to look at the company’s website to see if they commit to contributing to a sustainable developement. It might be tricky because not every companies include sustainability as a part of their mission statement. However, it is not neccesarily means they do not takes into consideration their carbon footprint, social impact and ethical corporate governance. Your client might need to reach out to the HR department to dig deeper before deciding if they want to work for this company.
Knowit, a Nordic consultancy firm in digital transformation, clearly states on its website that they “work to actively contribute to the UN Agenda 2030 and the development of society”. They also have an annual sustainability report to prove their contribution to a more sustainable future.
Một, a local Vietnamese shoe brand, does not say anything about sustainability. Yet when you look further, Một uses sustainable materials – 100% cotton canvas, genuine leather, natural linen, and bamboo fiber; which supports to Goal 12 of SDGs: Responsible Consumption and Production.
In 2019, there was a 10% growth in job postings on LinkedIn for sustainability-related roles (GreenBiz Group, 2020). It is no longer a world where only job roles with keywords like “Sustainability” or “Environmental” can bring positive effects to the environment, quality of living, and upcoming generations. As CDPs, encourage your client to think out of the box, polish green skills and apply for the right company, so that they do not just look for a job, but find one that could have a long-lasting impact (Gonçalves, 2019).
An Le
Is a career and admission counselor based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She helps K-12 Vietnamese students with career orientation and university admission, mainly those who aim to study abroad. She is also interested in the area of wellness and mental health for youngsters.
Career Development’s Role in Contributing to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals
By Le Tuan Anh
Among the 17 sustainable development goals of the UN, my career guidance work contributes to 3 main goals: “Good Health & Wellbeing”, “Quality Education” and “Decent Work & Economic Growth”. Let’s discuss these contributions in detail.
Goal #3: Good Health & Wellbeing
Sustainable development goal number 3 of the UN is “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”, this is also a goal I recommend clients achieve when seeking career counselling. Physical health, mental health and career development are closely related. A person with good physical and mental health is one who has more time and energy to develop better at work. For a person who is not in good health physically and mentally, it is very difficult to solve the problem of career choice.
In some of the career counselling sessions with clients who are not yet physically and mentally healthy, I often recommend that clients do one of the things below to improve.
- Read, and learn more about emotions, and psychology.
- Practice meditation, gratitude and journaling.
- Build a daily schedule and incorporate good habits.
- Get physically active for at least 30 minutes a day of any sport.
Goal #4: Quality Education
UN aspiration is “Ensure inclusive and quality for all education and promote lifelong learning opportunities”. With the above goal, I often integrate through 2 points of view with the client when consulting career guidance. The first point of view is that career guidance is a lifelong journey, at each time there is a different problem to solve. For example, when you are a high school student, you need to deal with what major to choose, and which school. As a university student, you need to be equipped with skills to find suitable jobs. Employees need to have workplace integration skills and leadership skills to advance. Therefore, each person must always be in a constant state of learning and opening up when new things appear.
The second view is that each person can become a ‘mentor’ for the following person. Whether you are a very successful person in society or simply an ordinary working person, the experiences you have had in life are very valuable to share with your followers. Therefore, each person should not hesitate to share their own success and failure stories through forms such as speaking and writing.
Goal #8: Decent Work & Economic Growth
In this goal, the UN aspires to “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.” As career counsellors, we are contributing to the development of each individual to be the most productive and productive employee. To achieve this, each individual needs to find out and understand his/her own interests, strengths, passions and work values. After that, each individual spends time developing job-seeking skills such as writing a CV, understanding the labour market, and building a personal brand to best promote their strengths. A team with good individuals is a team that has the potential to be more productive in today’s society.
Featuring: Raza Abbas- Multi Award-Winning Cross Cultural Career Specialist
Career Development has always been my passion. I started with a humble beginning of volunteering throughout my college experience at The University of Arizona, Career Services Center in the United States. It gave me immense purpose and joy to facilitate individual and group career development coaching sessions, assist in our annual university career fairs and facilitate career development workshops for domestic students and international students from 100+ countries on campus. It was truly an exceptional global experience!
This meaningful exposure laid the foundation for my cross-cultural career development work. Upon graduating, I returned to Pakistan in 2006 with curiosity and passion to learn about career development from global career: luminaries, scholars and practitioners as we had an acute need of career development interventions in our Asian context.
As a novice career practitioner and social entrepreneur, I started my career journey with a beginner’s mindset. I pro-actively identified premier global career development forums and was fortunate to get selected to present on meaningful inclusive career development interventions in South Asia at annual Career Development conferences & symposia i.e. IAEVG, UNESCO- Chair on Lifelong Guidance and Counseling, APCDA, ARACD, NCDA, ICCDPP, CANNEXUS, OECD across 6 continents.
In the process of continuous learning and client service, I contributed to and initiated many innovative career development interventions at schools, colleges, universities, vocational institutes, foundations, NGO’s, Business Incubation Centers and Government Ministries of Youth & Education and inspired countless lives in my country and globally. With humility and gratitude, I was blessed to be recognized by eminent global professional career development associations:
- NCDA – International Career Practitioner Award, 2019
- APCDA – Outstanding Career Practitioner Award, 2017
Nominated for Pride of Performance – Pakistan’s Highest Civil Award – 2014, 2020
Areas of Work
- Capacity development of teachers, counselors, and youth in career counseling & career development
- Fostering innovative career thinking dialogues with parents and children in grades 8-12
- Career coaching for students, recent graduates, entrepreneurs, employees
- Consulting in developing career development centers from inception to execution
- Evidence- based hope capacity development for teachers, students, parents, employees
- Collective advocacy for our global careers community, currently involved in a working committee to advocate for a UN – Careers & Livelihood Day.
Me and my clients: in delivering services, what are my approaches/interventions and results?
I am privileged to work with diverse clients locally and internationally. We have had intriguing coaching sessions on a wide range of topics i.e. employability, workplace readiness, career readiness, career mobility, career conversations with supervisors & employees, career management, leadership development, employee engagement, workplace wellness, pitch deck for aspiring entrepreneurs, identifying gig opportunities, career exploration and self-development.
While working with clients, I draw upon and apply a wide range of models: Grow, OSCAR, Action Centered Leadership, and Peer Coaching. Throughout my coaching experiences, I ensure clients are empowered and enabled to broaden their perspectives, continue to believe in themselves, and make a difference in the societies in which they live.
What my clients gain: Alignment of purpose, establishing trust, active listening skills, reframing people and challenges, importance of goals and future scenario development and understanding motivation.
My personal vision for career development
I believe we are at the crossroads of reigniting career development as a game-changer in these fragile times. Never before in the human era has career development been as critical as it is presently. We are on the bridge of human transformation. I practice and advocate in the notion that career development is a civic right for people from around the globe. Career development interventions must start early in schools to ensure they have a sustainable impact, and they must be integrated into the school curriculum. In universities and vocational institutes, career development is a rising need for students so it is vital to incorporate it as a required course. The role of social media and electronic media is key in educating and enlightening both citizens and policymakers about the increasing significance of career development to societies at large and how it contributes to employability, well-being, and job creation.
Over the years, we have quality evidence, reliable data, and best career development practices from career scholars and career practitioners globally that have significantly contributed to UN Sustainable Development Goals.
As a careers sector we are united to collectively advocate and take action for a UN Careers & Livelihood Day in collaboration with multi stakeholders around the globe promoting that ‘Career Development is the change we wish to see in the world’.
I passionately urge the careers sector to be Bold & Brave. Join us in the global careers movement by contributing to our blog for UN Careers & Livelihood Day: https://www.undcl.org/ . In closing, I want to share a valuable resource from the OECD on ‘Investing in Career Guidance’
https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/Investing in Career Guidance_en.pdf
Greater collective synergy, cooperation, and co-creation are “the need of the hour’ Let’s make the world better through championing career development in a world that sorely needs more of it!
Five Wonderful Years with APCDA!
By Emily Rose L. Lizada
I started attending the APCDA Conference in Hawaii. This was my first time to meet theorists and authors of career development books. The first APCDA Conference I attended made me fall in love with my work as a Career Counselor and the Career Development field. The people who attended the conference were warm and welcoming. The second conference I attended was in Japan. It was a blessing because I really love Japan and plan to visit again someday. I met friends from the Hawaii conference. The place and food are amazing.
The Philippines represented by Ateneo De Manila University hosted the 2017 conference. I was designated to represent Ateneo as the host and to coordinate with Marilyn for all the conference details. I discovered my passion for events management during my first job in Iloilo where I organized 2 international conferences. I love meeting new people and coordinating the event details. I think it was the success of the Ateneo conference that made Marilyn and the officers decide to offer me a part time job for APCDA. I love my work in Ateneo doing Career Counseling and events management. When I was offered the part time job as Administrator for APCDA, I was so happy. My events management skills will level up to coordinating with international people from different countries. Also, it provides an opportunity to have a close encounter with theorists and authors of career development books.
The first APCDA conference that I organized as part of the team was in Beijing, China in 2018. It was the biggest conference and I learned a lot from that experience. Marilyn is the best mentor. I love meeting and coordinating with keynote speakers, local organizers, APCDA officers and board members. I need to be keen with details and comply with all the requirements from the host country. We visited the Great Wall of China after the conference. It was then I realized that I love doing this job, I am learning from the experts at the same time exploring new places. Our preparations for 2018 and 2019 overlapped but I was enjoying the work, so it was fun learning new things. Then, 2019 conference was in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. I love meeting old and new friends at the same time learning from the conference. After the conference we explored Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An, Vietnam. It was fun visiting new places. Then we went to Singapore to meet important people and do ocular visit the places for the 2021 conference. But we needed to cancel the in person 2020 conference in India because of COVID. It was another learning experience to run a virtual conference. 2020 required a lot of last-minute preparations but it was a good learning experience which prepared us for the 2021 and 2022 conferences. I am looking forward to a hybrid conference in 2023 in Kazakhstan. Working with different groups of people every year has been a different working and learning experience for me. Attending the annual APCDA Conference keeps me updated with the trends in career development that I can use in my work as a Career Development Professional at Ateneo.
APCDA is a big part of me as a Career Development Professional. To be part of the career development field and APCDA is happenstance – it was not planned. I just grabbed the opportunity offered to me and I have no regrets. I am grateful for this opportunity to be part of the team. I am learning from the experts in the career development field at the same time living my dream of exploring different places around the world.
My Journey into Career Coaching
By Prof. Dr. N.K. Chadha
I started teaching as a full time faculty member in the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, India in the year 1981. During my these years, I published large number of books/articles in psychology, conducted many training programs and was involved in development and conduction of a large number of psychological assessment tools used widely by the corporate sector for recruitment, selection and career planning for their employees.
In the year, 2006, I met Dr. David Reile during his visit to India through a network of my close associate Prof. Robert B Slaney, Chairman, Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, Penn State University, PA,USA. It was Prof. Slaney who introduced me to Dr. Reile and my journey started in the domain of career coaching.
I would like to share some thoughts on my journey in the domain of career coaching with my commitment to initiate the profession of career development in India and to make the presence of NCDA/APCDA visible in this part of the world. The profession of career development was also unknown to the educators in India as well as South Asian countries.
I am instrumental in the formation of the Indian Career Development Association (ICDA) and I am the founding president of ICDA. Before the formation of the ICDA, Dr. David Reile (NCDA Past President) presented workshops at the prestigious Delhi University to young professors and researchers to discuss the various dimensions of career development and planning. He conducted training/symposia sessions (May 2008 and January, 2010), which helped in the development of ICDA. Subsequent to that, ICDA organized its first International Career Development Conference “Colors of Career” in March 2013 under my leadership which was attended by over 300 participants from India and abroad along with several Indian government officials. David and his wife/business partner, Dr. Barbara Suddarth, funded much of this work personally, without thought for personal gain, but out of a genuine concern for helping the people of India and advancing the career development profession here.
During 2016, I along with David conducted career development sessions in different parts of the country to teachers, principals, and administrators to make them aware of the career development needs for school/college students. In 2017, I convinced Mindler India to initiate the International Certified Career Coach Program (ICCC)(www.mindler.com), where the motivating force was David Reile/Barbara Suddarth. We extended this program at the Pan India level as well as in Middle East. Today ICCC is a very popular and well-known program in the country as well as Middle East and has been featured in leading newspapers in India. This is three step program ICCC (Foundation: Two full days), ICCC (Advance Level: Three months online mode)) and ICCC (Master level: 3-4 months online). The ICCC master level is approved by the NCDA as CCSP. The course material has been developed with input from many leading career advisors across the globe and is highly in demand in India. Every month, a new cohort is started with 35-45 participants in each cohort. I also had the honor of taking the responsibility of President of Asia Pacific Career Development Association (2016). During my tenure as President, APCDA, I initiated the idea of starting with APCDA journal and published my first article in the first volume of the journal.
I have attended a number of NCDA annual conventions in the US and have developed network with leading academicians and practitioners in the area of career development. Seeing my efforts in shaping the landscape of career development in India and other part of the world. NCDA conferred me with Global Practitioner award of the year in 2015 and NCDA Presidential recognition award in the year 2017.Subsequently I was awarded with Life Time Achievement award in the year 2019 by Asia Pacific Career Development Award.
Prof. Dr. N.K. Chadha
- Past President (Asia Pacific Career Development Association)
- Founding President, Indian Career Development Association,
- Global Practitioner of the Year-2015 (NCDA)
- NCDA Presidential Recognition Awardee (2017)
- Former Professor and Head, Psychology Department, Delhi University
- Former Senior Consultant, UNDP
- Chief Psychometrician, Mindler India (www.mindler.com) Largest Career Development Platform in India
By Sing Chee Wong
My interest and involvement in career development may be described as “Happenstance.”
I was a Student Counselor at the Singapore Polytechnic in the 1990s when the then Polytechnic Principal asked me to set up a courses and careers guidance center for students. He had just returned from visiting several overseas polytechnics/universities and was impressed how the career centers they had to assist students on their choice of courses/majors and careers. Since I was a student counselor, he reckoned that I could be a “career counsellor” too. Neither he nor I had any information on what a “career counsellor” does, and the knowledge, skills and training required to perform this role. At that time, career coaching/counselling was almost unheard of in Singapore, and there were no career centers in any local institutes of higher learning that I could visit to learn about career services.
Fortunately, the Singapore Polytechnic was generous in sponsoring me to attend overseas conferences, ie. NCDA annual conferences to learn more about career development and to meet the “giants” in this field. Among the experts whom I met was Prof Norm Gysbers who later became my mentor. He also introduced me to several other experts in this field, ie. Dr Sunny Hansen who is known for her “Integrative Life Planning Theory.”
My interest in career development grew as I interacted with these experts. I also realized that there was so much more I needed to know if I wanted to become an effective and efficacious career professional in Singapore.
So, I packed my bags and headed for the University of Missouri (Columbia), USA, to pursue my graduate studies. I studied under the tutelage of Profs Gysbers and Mary Heppner. Whilst there, I had the privilege of meeting Dr John Holland who was a good friend of another professor, Prof Joe Johnston. Dr Holland was a regular visitor at the University (also known as Mizzou), and had donated his collection of career development materials to Mizzou. With such expert knowledge and rich materials surrounding me, my passion in career development grew!
And as the saying goes, “the rest is history….”
By LÊ TUẤN ANH, Career Consultant & Educator
I started working as a career consultant after graduating from RMIT University, majoring in Communication. After 4 years of studying Communication and experiencing jobs in this industry, I realized that the environment and the nature of the media industry did not match my personality. During my time in college, I participated in supporting career events for students and I really enjoyed this kind of support activity, so after graduating, I registered to become a trainee at the Career Department of RMIT University. During my 3-month internship, I got in contact with many excellent brothers and sisters such as Phoenix Ho, Michael Healy and Mita Das and experienced jobs such as one-on-one counselling, internship program organization, mentoring, and networking with enterprises. After finishing my internship, I decided to choose the path to becoming a career professional. From 2018 to 2020, I work and study at Song An Career under the guidance of Phoenix Ho. During these 2 years, I have learned a lot of knowledge about career theory, the practice of one-to-one counselling and codes of practice ethics. From 2021 until now, I have been working as a professional manager at TopCV Vietnam, a leading recruitment platform.
The time I made the choice to start a career was 2015, career guidance is still a new concept in the Vietnamese market. Up to now, in 2022, career guidance has become more popular and more people pay attention to it, however, ‘career consultant’ is still a new job and not many people do this full-time job. However, I believe that career guidance in Vietnam will grow stronger and more and more people can live fully in this profession.
My methods and target audience approach in career guidance
My focus is on high school and university students who are wondering about choosing a major, choosing a school and job seekers who are having difficulty in finding the right job to match their passion, do not know how to find effective jobs, or do not how to build outstanding job-hunting profiles.
I approach big to small groups. For the majority, I reach out through the creation of career-oriented content on social networking platforms. For example, I have the blog anhtuanle.com that where I write about career guidance with 4 million reads, the 130K Tiktok channel shares how to write CVs and methods of finding effective jobs, and the Podcast channel with 250K views about the development of sharing yourself in career guidance. These contents appear with a frequency of once a week. Next, I guide a Workshop on self-discovery, job-hunting methods, personal branding methods and CV writing methods, and interviews for people in need. These workshops are usually between 50 and 200 people in size, taking place every week. Finally, I provide one-to-one personal counselling services on personal discovery, choosing a school, choosing a major, changing majors and other career issues.
My approach in career direction is that everyone has their own strengths, finding strengths and knowing how to promote and spread those strengths at work is a way to help us become happier. For those who are wondering about choosing a major, or choosing a career, they do not have to find the best choice, just try to avoid choices with as many negatives as possible. Ultimately, each individual should take time to develop good habits, and meditating is a way for us to be happier in life and at work.
Future career goals
My first goal is to build a solid and systematic career guidance organization, to provide full and specialized career-related services, connecting career professionals across Vietnam.
My second goal is to actively participate in international vocational associations such as APCDA, NCDA, to learn from teachers as well as to bring the Vietnamese career image to more international friends.
by Felicity Brown, Maia Careers & Training, APCDA Life Member
I guess it was destiny. I have an aunt on each side who were career counsellors. But my journey to career development was full of twists and turns and took more than 20 years.
At high school, I didn’t receive much support in working out what I wanted to do with my working life. Instead, I spent hours at the local careers resource centre during school holidays researching prospective careers.
My top career choice at the end of school was Radio Journalism. It seemed like that door closed when I wasn’t accepted to my Communications degree of choice. I decided to take a break from study and work for a year while I reconsidered my options. During that year, I found another university offering a Mass Communications degree and I was accepted.
I spent A LOT of my university studies in the university careers office. Mostly it was to find casual jobs so I could feed myself while I was a student but also to work out what I was going to do after graduation. I had started to doubt that I could make it in the competitive world of media. I became interested in career guidance and enquired how one might get a job at the university careers centre. I was advised to go and get some work and life experience first. Taking this advice onboard, I moved into HR instead, in particular, recruiting. I loved promoting careers, interviewing candidates and selecting the right ones for the available positions. It was my first foray into career development.
Then three years after joining the corporate world, Australia experienced a severe economic recession, and my position was made redundant. I was devastated. Fortunately, my employer offered outplacement counselling. I jumped at the chance to work on my resume and interview skills and re-examine my career orientation. It really helped me to get back on my feet.
Being a practical Capricorn, I next opted for a secure job. I deftly pivoted (back in the days when pivots were best demonstrated on the netball court) towards my second career choice, Diplomat. I started off at the entry level with no expectations other than getting a regular pay check. Career development was not forgotten though. I researched available career development degrees in Australia and found these were only open to school teachers.
Twenty years later and having achieved my career goals of living and working internationally, I resigned and made a leap into the unknown. After spending 6 months or so exploring the options for my next career I was recommended the book, ‘A Career in Your Suitcase’ by Jo Parfitt. As I read the pages it dawned on me that this was what I wanted to do, help others develop career clarity and confidence and find work in line with their values, interests, skills and strengths.
Fortunately, by this time in 2011 there were Australian universities offering career development courses to non-teachers. I was accepted and found career-related work in a university. In the more than 10 years I have been working in career development, my client groups have expanded from university students to migrants, spouses of expats, people who experiencing redundancy, training career development students and coaching emerging and developing leaders, particularly women.
More than 20 years after receiving the advice to go and get some work and life experience, I finally realised my goal to work in career development!