Career assessment and creativity: potential complementarity or a contradiction in terms?

ABSTRACT

In this research we investigated whether creativity and career assessment are a contradiction in terms or whether, through creative thinking, their potential complementarity in career guidance and counselling can be realised. The research demonstrates the creative application of the systemic Integrative Structured Interview (ISI) for the Self-Directed Search (SDS) with a South African female mid-life career changer. Results indicated that the ISI positions clients as storytellers who create rich systemic stories about their quantitative SDS scores. The constructs of story telling are evident throughout an interview about quantitative scores; the scores become unifying themes across the stories. In sum, the ISI can assist mid-life career changers to make meaning of their career transition; and by embedding career assessment in a systemic story telling process creativity is evidenced as a multilayered process.

KEYWORDS:

• Career assessment
• story telling
• creativity
• integrative structured interview
• systemic thinking
• self-directed search

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Professor Mark Watson is a distinguished and emeritus professor at the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. He teaches, researches and practices in the field of career development, counselling and assessment. Mark is on the editorial board of several international career journals.

Dr Mary McMahon is an honorary senior lecturer in the School of Education at The University of Queensland, Australia. She researches and publishes in child and adolescent career development, narrative career counselling, and qualitative career assessment.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.