Career self-management: A framework for guidance of employed adults

Abstract

It has been suggested that the aims of career counselling should be extended to include helping adults learn how to 'self-manage' their careers throughout the course of their working lives. This paper proposes a prescriptive framework upon which such guidance about career self-management could be based, which takes into account important aspects of the client's immediate social context, and the political nature of decisions about careers. It is argued that career self-management should be a recursive and dynamic process, consisting of charting the political landscape of the organisation, identifying key decision-makers with influence over career outcomes, selecting strategies with which to influence those decision-makers, and evaluating outcomes. By helping clients focus on the various elements within this process, career counsellors can help people negotiate the political and economic realities of the contexts in which they work.