Exploring the future career autobiography with young Australian undergraduate students: autobiographical opportunities for career storytelling and narrative change

ABSTRACT

This study examined the Future Career Autobiography (FCA) with six Australian undergraduate students. The study aimed to explore: (1) the FCA as a qualitative career assessment instrument that facilitates career storytelling and reflexivity on future career plans and (2) the implications of narrative career assessment procedures that reflexively and systemically engage young students in career research. The findings confirmed some narrative changes in the participants’ FCA paragraphs. These changes were more substantial for participants with less certain career plans. The findings extended the evidence base for the FCA beyond its role in qualitatively measuring narrative change, as an instrument that promotes autobiographicity and facilitates reflexivity. By introducing the exit interview questions, this research substantiated FCA’s applications in practice and research.

KEYWORDS:

• Future career autobiography
• Australian undergraduates
• Qualitative career assessment
• Career development
• Career counselling

The Australian labour market, similar to many other economically developed countries, has been remarkably impacted by forces such as globalisation, technological advances, automation and digitisation and the unstable employment conditions that have been further exacerbated by the health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2020). Young workers who aim to enter the workforce in these times are among the groups who are more at risk of vulnerable work conditions, resulting in further instability and uncertainty about career development (International Labour Organization, 2021).

Many young Australian workers have been disproportionately hurt by the socioeconomic and geopolitical instability of the twenty-first-century world of work and are facing a period of increased uncertainty and unprecedented career challenges (Pennington & Stanford, 2019; Victorian Government, 2020). Career uncertainty has become the norm in such a way that young people are overrepresented in “career-less jobs” (Standing, 2011, p. 12) such as “app-based gig work” (Abkhezr & McMahon, 2022, p. 1) shaping the new precarious workforce (Victorian Government, 2020). App-based gig work is a form of electronically mediated employment in which workers are connected to on-demand tasks through a mobile app, and upon completion of the task receive a portion of the fees that were paid by the customer. Rideshare driving and food delivery companies such as Uber, Uber Eats, DiDi and Deliveroo are examples of companies that offer app-based gig work arrangements. Since app-based gig work mostly disrupts young people’s career development opportunities, they are often considered a career-less work engagement (Abkhezr & McMahon, 2022).

Three key trends that contribute to the unstable conditions of the Australian labour market, even for youth with a higher education qualification, challenge the career development of young Australian undergraduate students. Many employers claim that majority of the skills learned through undergraduate degrees are not being used in the twenty-first-century workplace, while many other important skills are not emphasised enough for learning at university (e.g. recognising and dealing constructively with conflict or navigating change and ambiguity; Crawford & Fink, 2020). Pre-COVID labour market trends predicted that less than 30% of the skills required in the twenty-first-century workplace are taught at undergraduate university studies (Jackson & Wilton, 2017; Mavromaras et al., 2013). Additionally, an increased likelihood of numerous lifelong career transitions means that children who enter the education system in the early 2020s are expected to change careers up to five times on average and hold over fourteen different jobs throughout their working lives (World Bank, 2019). Finally, young graduates are now more likely to be underemployed than ever or to hold part-time, casual or app-based gig work employment, both during their studies and even after graduation (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2021). These findings present a concerning outlook for the career development of young Australian undergraduate students and confirm that they are particularly vulnerable in making the transition from school to further education or the labour market of the twenty-first century.

In such unstable and uncertain times when disorientation is the new norm, career guidance and counselling have a major role to play in assisting young people with their career development. In their work with clients, career counsellors use a variety of career assessment instruments to facilitate a process of self-reflection, exploration and assessment for their clients who are making new plans or decisions. However, a re-focusing and re-purposing of traditional career assessment instruments are essential to keep up with the needs and demands of a rapidly changing labour market (Savickas, 2012). Qualitative career assessment instruments that may act either on their own or synergistically with quantitative instruments are relevant for meeting the changing needs of twenty-first-century clients (McMahon, 2018).

Qualitative career assessment instruments

Qualitative career assessment instruments are defined as “real-life stimuli that evoke responses from clients based on their experiences, on their real-life circumstances and situations” (Gysbers, 2006, p. 97). Qualitative career assessment instruments’ dynamic, reflective and dialogical nature provides the opportunity for people to make fluid, adaptable, personally and contextually informed choices that may be more relevant for the current labour market that is characterised by uncertainties and rapid transformations. The greater emphasis of qualitative career assessment instruments on storytelling positions them as instruments that can assist clients in making sense of their career-life stories towards developing a greater sense of agency for informed action. Informed by constructivist and social constructionist epistemologies (McMahon & Watson, 2015), qualitative career assessment instruments remain integral to narrative practice. Narrative practice aim to engage people in a reflective process, facilitating a re-authoring of some of their narratives and stories, to ultimately construct new life-career stories. By doing this, people develop new realisations or discoveries about their career values, interests, beliefs, and the background that shaped such qualities, and therefore, are equipped better for making new career plans and decisions (McMahon et al., 2012). Career practitioners using qualitative career assessment instruments facilitate the process of life story exploration and construction for clients by inviting them to reflect on themes, patterns, or plots that could inform future planning and decision making. As such qualitative career assessment instruments promote individual self-advocacy, dynamic change and self-discovery (Hartung & Vess, 2016).

A wide range of qualitative career assessment instruments, mostly developed within the twenty-first-century, exist. These instruments often focus on narrative and collaborative engagement to facilitate storytelling that supports self-exploration and self-reflection (McMahon & Watson, 2015; Savickas, 2012). Concomitant with the “narrative turn” (Hartung, 2013, p. 30; Sarbin, 1986) that informs the twenty-first-century career practice, and the “more favourable theoretical and practice climate in career development” (McMahon et al., 2019, p. 421), qualitative career assessment instruments have recently gained more prominence. In such a context, qualitative career assessment instruments should be an essential component of every practitioner’s toolkit when they work with clients whose career development is a narrative project in making. As such, when constructing new stories about self, in which telling stories of skills, strengths, values and interests is a requirement of being able to adapt to multiple transitions in our disorienting times (Savickas, 2011), autobiographicity becomes more important.

Autobiographicity

Autobiographicity is “the ability to draw on one’s own stories to deal with change” (Maree, 2015, p. 5). In an age of uncertainty and constant local and global transformations, young people need to make sense of their life-career stories when relating to and preparing for the constantly changing world of work. Autobiographicity contributes to the construction of Autobiographical narratives, which are “the stories we tell about our lives” (Bruner, 1987, p. 697). The act of telling and writing autobiographies is considered a form of self-reflection (Savickas, 2016), and could potentially assist people in clarifying their preferences, gaining awareness of their values, skills and interests, planning for future transitions and ultimately might inform future decisions. In telling a wide range of career stories, young people make sense of their past experiences and future possibilities (Bujold, 2004). Telling stories of transitions and past experiences help young people reflect on the continuity of their lives, its various plots and chapters. The storying of previous life chapters, patterns or themes facilitates reflection on career development (Pouyaud & Bourne, 2017). An invitation to autobiographical storytelling could often include inquiring about stories of obstacles, challenges and complexities people have overcome, as well as stories of experiences and events that have contributed to the formation of interests, abilities, skills, values or hopes. Another possibility is inquiring about potential future plans and decisions. In any form, such autobiographical storytelling is an act of reconstruction for an imaginative desired future towards which the storyteller moves. Autobiographical narratives are always susceptible to the influence of broader social and cultural factors. As such, one outcome of getting engaged in such acts (projects) of storytelling for today’s young people could be the reconstruction of a preferred future career story in a new style (e.g. with a new overarching theme, or a new plot or chapter) that hasn’t been yet fully envisioned. Autobiographies’ instability and their susceptibility to change make them of particular interest to narrative researchers and practitioners, including career development researchers. Most qualitative career assessment instruments are structured in such a way to facilitate the process of working with storytellers (McMahon, 2016). Developing preferred future autobiographies and constructing new stories of possibilities that could contribute to the emergence of new career plans and decisions, have been the focus of contemporary career practice and inform different qualitative career assessment instruments. One such qualitative career assessment instrument that specifically focuses on autobiographies is the Future Career Autobiography (FCA) (Rehfuss, 2009).

Future career autobiography

The FCA is a “measure of narrative change” (Rehfuss & Di Fabio, 2012, p. 452). It sits in a unique place within the battery of current qualitative career assessment instruments, as it is both considered as a research instrument exploring how other assessment instruments or interventions could result in some form of narrative change, and also as a flexible narrative, literary and reflective instrument that can be used in career practice (Rehfuss, 2015). The FCA presents a concise, focused and adaptable way to promote autobiographicity and at the same time study narrative change by asking people to reflect on and briefly write about their future hopes and aspirations (Rehfuss, 2009). To qualitatively explore narrative change, the FCA is used at least once before and once after an intervention (Rehfuss, 2009). Each individual would then have two FCA paragraphs, providing a focused pair of future autobiographical narratives that can be carefully considered to explore the “nature of narrative change” (Abkhezr et al., 2020, p. 328). This could involve comparing any minor changes or emerging and disappearing themes or plots, and even changes in the length of the FCA paragraph (Rehfuss & Di Fabio, 2012). The FCA is a unique and curious assessment instrument that encourages people to engage in an act of autobiographical storytelling while wondering about an imagined and preferred future, irrespective of the directions from a counsellor, researcher or the formalities of an interview setting (Rehfuss, 2015). As such, considering that the FCA was designed to promote autobiographicity (Rehfuss, 2009), engagement with the FCA process itself can also facilitate storytelling and incite reflexivity. The independent process of having time and space to focus on writing a brief future autobiography provides a valuable opportunity for additional insight directly from the participant that has not been guided or disrupted by others and might even be the first time a young person is engaged in such narrative performance (Rehfuss & Di Fabio, 2012). The FCA can be widely adapted to a variety of research and practice settings, and as such further research on the application of FCA will not only aid its use in career practice, but could also help elevate the trustworthiness of analyses in other career development research, and further expand its application in diverse research contexts and disciplines (Abkhezr et al., 2020), as well as operating as a bridge between quantitative and qualitative assessment to promote the integration of modern and postmodern approaches to career assessment (Sampson et al., 2015). Since its development in 2009, the FCA has been researched with American university students (Rehfuss, 2009), Italian female entrepreneurs (Rehfuss & Di Fabio, 2012), American Midwest high school students (Storlie et al., 2019a), young African people with refugee backgrounds in Australia (Abkhezr et al., 2020), and African American female college students (Storlie et al., 2018). Reflecting on the extent of FCA research shows that similar to many other qualitative career assessment instruments the evidence base for their widespread application in different contexts and with different populations remains to be strengthened (McMahon & Watson, 2015; Stead & Davis, 2015). Despite the recent popularity and prominence of qualitative career assessment instruments and the strong consensus on their relevance for the everchanging context of the twenty-first century, more research is needed to explore various qualitative career assessment instruments’ relevance, including the FCA, for various populations and in different contexts.

The current study

To date, FCA research has not focused on young Australian undergraduate students and this research is the first to use the FCA with this demographic. Since young undergraduates are often still developing their career plans, the FCA could be of particular use in their context while it operates as a reflective invitation to career storytelling. This article contributes to the evidence base of qualitative career assessment instruments, and FCA in particular, by reporting relevant FCA findings from a larger research project. The larger research project engaged young undergraduate Australian university students in narrative career exploration processes by applying three different qualitative career assessment instruments, including the Career Construction Interview (CCI; Savickas, 2020), Influences on Career Decisions (ICD; McMahon & Patton, 2015), and the Future Career Autobiography (Rehfuss, 2009, 2015). The first two qualitative career assessment instruments (CCI and ICD) are examples of processes that highlight a narrative approach to career explorations. It is important to acknowledge that the focus of this research is not on these two qualitative career assessment instruments (even though more details about them will be provided in the method section). Rather, this current article focuses on the application of FCA in this research as both a qualitative career assessment instrument and a measure of narrative change emergent from career explorations. FCA was used to initiate career storytelling and reflexivity, and also to assess the impact of narrative ways of engaging young people in exploratory and reflective career conversations, to evaluate the possibility of autobiographical narrative changes as a result of such engagements. This must be considered in light of recent attention to the implications of participating in qualitative research that employs narrative methodologies of data generation and how it might potentially overlap with career interventions (Abkhezr et al., 2020; De Haene, 2010; Dickson-Swift et al., 2006). FCA’s role in promoting autobiographicity could potentially converge boundaries with certain aspects of narrative career counselling (Abkhezr et al., 2020; McMahon et al., 2012). After outlining the aims of this research, the methodology that was employed in this qualitative research for collecting and analysing FCA data will be outlined. Then, the findings of the research and how each participant engaged with the FCA will be reported, followed by a discussion, and some implications for career practice and research.

Research aims

The primary aim of this research was to explore the FCA as a qualitative career assessment instrument that facilitates young Australian undergraduate students’ career storytelling and reflexivity on future career plans. This will help progress the application of FCA, as a facilitator of storytelling, which has so far been mostly promoted as a measure of narrative change resultant from engaging in different forms of interventions (Rehfuss, 2009). The second aim of this research was then to explore the implications of narrative career assessment procedures that reflexively and systemically engage young Australian undergraduate students. This second aim was partially achieved through seeking direct feedback from participants about their participation experience, in addition to the comparison of emerging and changing themes of the participants’ FCA paragraphs.

Method

Recruitment and participants

An exploratory case study design (Merriam, 2009) was chosen for this research to provide the opportunity for a more holistic, detailed and unique focus on each participant’s career development and narrative change exploration (Silva et al., 2020). As such, once ethical clearance to conduct the research was obtained from the Griffith University research committee, the research was advertised through the university’s research sign-up pool in the Health Group (consisting of several Schools such as Applied Psychology, Dentistry, Nursing, etc.), and six undergraduate students were recruited. The participants were students of different degrees studying a first-year psychology course as part of their programmes (see Table 1). All participants received course credits in exchange for their time and dedication to participate in this research in accordance with university ethics policy.

Table 1. Participants’ demographics.

Participant Pseudonym	Age	Gender	Programme of Study	Year of study in current degree	Number of Trimesters at University
Alex	19	M	Bachelor of Physiotherapy	Year 1	One Trimester
Maya	21	F	Bachelor of Psychological Science/Business	Year 1	Two Trimesters
Catherine	19	F	Bachelor of Psychology (Honours)	Year 1	Two Trimesters
Jacob	21	M	Bachelor of Occupational Therapy	Year 1	One Trimester
Jennifer	20	F	Bachelor of Psychology (Honours)	Year 2	Three Trimesters
Aspen	22	F	Bachelor of Psychological Science/Criminology	Year 1	Two Trimesters

Inclusion criteria comprised Australian citizens and permanent residents between the ages of 18 and 25 and not currently or previously working on a full-time basis. To target young undergraduate students who were potentially facing some indecision or uncertainty, we only recruited participants who were in their first or second year of studies. However, there was no restriction on their programme of study. This was to find a more diverse pool of participants with a variety of aspirations and influences in different fields. Potential participants who contacted us were provided with participant information sheets and their consent was taken before participating in the project.

Data collection instruments

Three qualitative career assessment instruments and one brief exit interview were used throughout the larger research project. The Future Career Autobiography (FCA), which is the focus of this article, was used two times with each participant before and after they engaged in a semi-structured interview which consisted of two qualitative career assessment instruments. First, a brief outline of the FCA will be provided, followed by the content of the semi-structured interviews while emphasising again that the focus of this research is not on the two qualitative career assessment instruments that were used during the interviews.

Future career autobiography

The FCA consists of the instruction to “write a brief paragraph about where you hope to be in life and what you hope to be doing occupationally five years from now” (Rehfuss, 2009, p. 83). Participants were told to write one short paragraph and to allow up to ten minutes to complete their FCA paragraph but were otherwise not given directions as to what they should write or what is expected.

Semi-structured interview instruments

The two qualitative career assessment instruments that were used in the semi-structured interviews included: Career Construction Interview (CCI; Savickas, 2020) and Influences on Career Decisions (ICD; McMahon & Patton, 2015). The Career Construction interview, informed by Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 1995, 2012), consists of five overarching questions that explore the participant’s role models, favourite books, magazines, TV shows, movies, as well as their favourite mottos, and some of their earliest recollections (Hartung, 2015). These questions are asked in a particular sequence, matched with a sense of curiosity that can promote a collaborative partnership between the counsellor and client, which is a central component of narrative career counselling (Abkhezr & McMahon, 2017). We followed the same protocols in the semi-structured interviews and aimed to facilitate a space for participants’ storytelling that was aligned with the intentions of narrative practice prioritising the client’s voice (Abkhezr et al., 2018).

Influences on Career Decisions (ICD) (McMahon & Patton, 2015) was the second qualitative career assessment instrument used in the interviews and could be considered a shorter version of the My System of Career Influences (McMahon, et al., 2015) as they are both informed by the Systems Theory Framework (STF) of Career Development (Patton & McMahon, 2021). ICD aims to “identify factors influencing career decision making” while exploring the systemic nature of the influences on career decision making (McMahon & Patton, 2015, p. 199). ICD involves providing participants with some explanations about the systemic nature of career decisions and various influences within our context that might affect these decisions. Following these, the participants are familiarised with the STF diagram and then invited to outline and reflect on their various systems of influence. Once all levels of influences from micro, meso, exo and macro systems are attended to and completed on the STF diagram, questions are asked to explore the nature of such influences, their importance, and whether the influences are deemed permanent or short-term by the participant (McMahon & Patton, 2015, p. 200). This facilitates further storytelling on career decisions and informs the final stage of this process which was the identification of at least one or two themes and patterns in their life to link their life story with their current situation.

Brief exit interview

Finally, at the end of the interview and once the two qualitative career assessment instruments were fully conducted, questions that inquired about the participants’ experiences of their research participation and what they have learned from start to finish, or what might have surprised them about their career development were asked from each participant (Abkhezr et al., 2020). Hereafter, these are referred to as the exit interview questions.

Data collection procedures

Potential participants were instructed to contact the research team to receive the study’s participation information sheet and informed consent forms through which instructions about the multiphasic nature of the study were provided. Those participants who met the inclusion criteria were recruited and instructed to first complete a brief online survey in which they provided some demographic data and wrote their first FCA paragraph. Upon receiving these online forms, they were contacted to arrange an online interview via Zoom in the next few days. The semi-structured interviews began by reaffirming each participant’s knowledge of the research procedures and their consent. Before closing the interview, and after both CCI and ICD processes were completed, each participant was presented with their first FCA paragraph and asked to reflect on their experience of participating in this research. The participant was assisted in exploring how their participation in the study might have potentially changed their original outlook as reflected in their FCA. Additionally, their feedback on the overall process was also sought, including what might have been useful, surprising or new to them in this process. This direct feedback facilitated a more contextualised understanding of the narrative changes that might have occurred between the two FCAs, why they might have occurred, and how much of that change was facilitated by participation in the study. After this, the participants were sent the second FCA form to end the data collection and were then granted credit for their time upon receiving their second FCA form. Interviews lasted between 60-70 minutes and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Table 2 provides a step-by-step clarification of the overall procedure with each participant.

Table 2. Data collection procedures.

FCA 1	Participants completed a brief online survey in which they provided some demographic data and wrote their first FCA paragraph.
Semi-Structured Interview (CCI and CDI, and the brief exit interview questions)	Approximately a week after collecting the first FCA, one semi-structured interview was conducted.
FCA 2	2–3 days after the interview, all participants completed another online form in which they wrote their second FCA paragraph.

Data analysis

Data from three separate data points were used for data analysis: The first FCA, the second FCA and the exit interview questions which asked participants to reflect on their research participation experiences. The first step of the analysis focused on the exploration of thematic narrative change between each participant’s two FCA paragraphs through comparative narrative analysis (Abkhezr et al., 2020). The purpose of using a comparative narrative analysis was to explore potential narrative changes that may have occurred to participants’ future career plans and to identify the nature of narrative change (i.e. degree of change). For this purpose, the two FCA paragraphs were positioned side by side and narrative themes were identified and juxtaposed in both paragraphs. Data analysis was primarily performed by a research assistant. However, the themes and subthemes that emerged as a result of the research assistant’s analysis were refined through the process of analyst triangulation as I carefully reviewed, discussed ambiguities, and made suggestions to improve the confirmability and credibility of the findings and analysis. Other measures such as using field notes and journaling were also employed throughout the data collection and analysis procedures to substantiate trustworthiness. While the analysis was informed by previous studies exploring FCAs, such former approaches like those by Rehfuss (2009), have often emphasised using existing content areas to categorise themes in all participants. For the sake of a more contextualised exploration of narrative change, themes were considered on a participant-to-participant basis and no pre-existing criteria were used to identify themes, allowing the researcher to undertake a wholly unique and “data-driven” process of narrative analysis with each participant (see Abkhezr et al., 2020).

After the comparative narrative analysis was completed and a degree of narrative change was determined for each participant’s FCA paragraphs, each participant’s responses to the exit interview questions, which sought their feedback on the participation process, were considered carefully. Consideration of these responses provided a more contextualised understanding of the degree of narrative change, and also how the overall research process might have assisted the participants in their future career planning and decisions making. Finally, to further substantiate the trustworthiness of this research, in addition to implementing strategies outlined by Denzin and Lincoln (2018), the qualitative data generated through the brief exit interview and even some of the participants’ responses to ICD and CCI questions, provided an opportunity for data triangulation when the narrative changes within the two FCA paragraphs were being explored.

Findings

Aligned with the methodological design of the research, informed by qualitative case study research, this section presents the findings on a participant-to-participant basis. Three of the six participants’ FCA paragraphs did not reflect a high degree of narrative change and as such only one of their cases and FCA paragraphs are included here as length restrictions preclude the inclusion of all six participants. The next four sections outline each of the four participants’ cases including their backgrounds, career stories so far, and a narrative comparison of their two FCA paragraphs. The themes that emerged in each FCA paragraph will be highlighted by colour codes and discussed. This will be followed by a brief overview of the participants’ responses to the exit interview questions.

Alex

Alex was a first-year physiotherapy student in his first trimester at university. Alex is the oldest of three siblings and lives with his parents who are both accountants. During the interview, Alex noted that influenced by his parents’ careers, he previously aspired to study accounting, business or finance. This later changed to a plan for becoming a medical practitioner but seeing that as a “lofty expectation” to put on himself, he decided to pursue something else. The decision to study Physiotherapy (instead of Medicine) was as recent as his last year in high school. However, he still feels like he may want to transition to medical school at some point after graduation. Alex highlighted that he is inspired by his role models to do work that could “potentially make a difference in the world and change people’s lives”. He recognised that despite being at university, his career path is currently uncertain (Table 3).

Table 3. Alex’s FCA Paragraphs.

Alex’s primary theme was Increasing Certainty in Study Decisions. This was characterised by keyword changes such as from “hope to” to “would be”, and increasing confidence in his wording of the second FCA paragraph. The shortening of the paragraph and attending to more personal goals in the second FCA could also be reflective of such increasing confidence.

Career Specialisation was another major theme that in the first FCA was reflective of career uncertainties (specialising in physiotherapy, dental or medical). However, in the second FCA Alex became more specific and solidified his intention to study medicine. Alex also showed that Independence is a primary value for him. In his first FCA, he shared this by saying he had long-term plans to open a private practice working for himself. Although this was not mentioned in the second FCA, it was emphasised in his exit interview responses when he said: “I prefer working independently … certainly my long-term plan … is to own the private practice”. However, in both FCA paragraphs he acknowledged that his pathway to independence is through working in a hospital setting indicating a Primary Work Setting.

Another dimension of Alex’s career planning that emerged in both FCAs was related to his Social/Community and Personal Goals. In the first FCA, Alex demonstrated an orientation towards others and finding career fulfilment in helping others. In the second FCA, this social/community orientation undergoes a significant change as Alex focused on being ready to start a family, reflecting a narrative change toward more personal and relational motivations. The ending of Alex’s FCAs differed. The ending of the second FCA was linked with the personal and relational theme, while his initial FCA showed career orientation. It appears that Alex has developed a broader future career narrative that links to other aspects of his life rather than a sole focus on potential career pathways.

In response to the exit interview questions, Alex reflected again on his realisation that he strongly valued independent decision-making. This was remarkable as this was a notable theme missing from his second FCA. Alex identified that the interview and FCA process allowed him to become aware of the impact of the environment and people around him on his decision-making processes: “I’ve also realised that when it comes to decisions, I turn to a few people for help. I get a bunch of contradictory input from them, and it leaves you in a state of ambiguity and more confusion”.

By the end of the interview, he reflected on a major learning from the research process as planning to take further ownership of his decision-making and avoid unhelpful external advice, so he can prioritise his own values and desires with little confounding input:

I’ll start solely making decisions myself and try to negate that outside input in my life before I make a decision. Maybe first make a decision that isn’t affected by things around me and then see how that decision would be affected by things around me.

Maya

Maya was a first-year Bachelor of Psychology and Business double degree student who is currently living on campus far from her parents who are both educators. She was the third of four siblings and noted that one of her two older brothers has also become a teacher. She took a gap year in between her high school graduation and university studies and did an exchange year overseas. Maya began studying an Arts/Business double degree first but then decided to transition to Psychology/Business after her first trimester. Maya had firm plans already in place for her career path, displaying a strong interest in neuropsychology and wanting “to help people using the skills from her business degree” in a psychologically related vocation. Maya strongly valued the financial stability that came with relevant employment after graduation as it could facilitate her postgraduate studies (Table 4).

Table 4. Maya’s FCA Paragraphs.

The first themes identified in Maya’s FCA paragraphs were related to her Graduation and how it reflected a consistent desire for Using Skills she learned through her education in her Primary Work Setting. She further refines this theme to a psychology focus in her second FCA, where she says she would like to apply her psychology skills in a business context. This way, the second FCA becomes more practical and about the application of skills. In the second FCA, these themes become more specific as Maya identifies working in a “management or human resource management” position. Another theme is the desire for Financial Stability through employment that could facilitate further studies and explorations. This closely integrates into the next theme, which is Maya’s desire for Combining Employment and Further Studies. In her first FCA, Maya identified this as a possibility, but it is only in her second FCA, that she established it as a solid plan by dissolving the two themes of Financial Stability and Combining Employment and Further Studies into one theme through writing a more succinct and firmer biographical statement.

In her second FCA, a more ambitious theme emerges which is a Desire for International Experience. She states that she would like to participate in exchange studies during her degree. This might have been encouraged through the exploration of her career development stories throughout the interview that facilitated reflection. Finally, it is important to note a theme of Career Specialisation in Maya’s first FCA while she outlines a desire to specialise in neuropsychology. This is absent in her second FCA, although she expressed a desire to go into postgraduate education in both paragraphs. Overall, with the reduction in length, Maya’s second FCA paragraph reflected more certainty in some areas and yet less specific in some other areas.

In her responses to the exit interview questions, Maya reflected on her desire to influence others and that she was unaware of such a strong desire before participating in this research. Maya associated this realisation with the interview experience:

It [the participation experience] definitely pointed out to me the fact that I consider myself someone who wants to sort of push the boundaries and become something influential to other people. That’s something I wouldn’t have focused on as a major part of my character before.

This theme was not present in the FCAs but the emergence of such a new realisation may provide further context as to why some of the changes (particularly addition or removal of specificities) occurred between her FCA paragraphs.

Catherine

Catherine transitioned directly from school to university and was in her first year of a Bachelor of Psychology degree. Being the first child in her family and having witnessed her mother’s mental health improvements, she decided to study Psychology due to good experiences with psychologists. During her first trimester, she found a wide range of more specific potential career pathways such as clinical and forensic psychology or neuropsychology. Catherine noted that her main motivator was her passion for helping people and making a difference in their lives (Table 5).

Table 5. Catherine’s FCA Paragraphs.

It was certain for Catherine that five years from now, she will be studying the second year of a master’s programme. However, this narrowed to a Master of Forensic Psychology in the second FCA. In both FCAs Catherine Integrates Work During Study and emphasises her desire to work during postgraduate studies, however, this is broad and uncertain in the first FCA as she outlines a few different possibilities such as “case manager”, “work with primary school kids”, “wide range of fields”, “consultant for courts”, and ultimately says: “I’m not really certain”. Narrative change is visible in the second FCA as the uncertainties mostly fade away and Catherine achieves two major conclusions. The first one is related to the emergence of a rationale for working while studying: “ … perhaps doing work like that, so I'm more prepared when I enter that workforce”. As a result of this conclusion and a written trace of some reflections (e.g. “I’ve done a bit of research recently”, “I’ve also started to think”), Catherine’s second FCA demonstrated some Career Specialisation. She considered working as “a jury or police consultant” during her studies and “psychology research” after completing her postgraduate studies. Catherine’s second conclusion, which was also drawn from a visible sense of reflexivity, was an overarching theme of her second FCA, and was related to the construction of a new self-narrative that reflects her interests in “how things work or come to be”. This realisation aligned with her plans for a future research career in psychology.

Catherine specified that her experience of participating in this research allowed her to find out that she feels a strong connection exists between some of her interests (e.g. her favourite TV shows) and the specific psychology fields she was interested in. At the end of her interview, before writing her second FCA, she emphasised that “seeing how things fit together and how characters are interrelated” was a major factor that contributed to her decisions and plans. This was further unpacked when she explained:

I think it [the participation experience] triggered me to think a bit more, and even if the paragraph was a short amount of words, maybe I need to do more research into what I actually want to do. It made me want to look a little deeper in the options out there.

This reflection on the need for further exploration of interests that align with her values was also seen in the second FCA paragraph. It was the reflective nature of the research process and the FCAs that allowed Catherine to be more pensive about her career choices by facilitating curiosity about strengths and values she might not have been actively aware of in the past.

Jacob

Jacob was a first-year Bachelor of Occupational Therapy. He took a gap year after graduating high school and then moved from a rural background home to living on campus. His mother worked as a teacher and his father was a plumber. He demonstrated a strong interest in working as an occupational therapist and had a long-term goal of starting his practice. Jacob was interested in being able to practically apply his learned skills and make a difference in people’s lives this way. Jacob had the shortest FCA paragraphs among all six participants (Table 6).

Table 6. Jacob’s FCA Paragraphs.

There were two primary themes identified across Jacob’s FCA paragraphs: Career Stability and Application of Learned Skills in future work. However, most notable was the fact that very little changed between Jacob’s two FCA paragraphs. The key themes of both FCA paragraphs remained similar, with Jacob strongly prioritising the ability to attain stable employment, quickly entering the workforce, and being able to make use of skills learned during university studies. Such narrative stability was somewhat observed in the other two participants’ FCA paragraphs who were not included in the findings. However, their responses to the exit interview questions and their reflections on the experience of participating in this research varied.

Jacob stated that while the research had helped him “realise certain things” about himself, he did not predict any changes based on such knowledge. He explained: “Yes, I certainly found value in reflecting on my career plans”, and then outlined: “ … my plans are really there … solidly linked with my identity … I think I’m on track with what I’m doing, just think I’ve got to keep my head down and pass until I get to the end”.

Discussion

This research provides further evidence to the growing body of research that supports the application of qualitative career assessment instruments, and while giving career practitioners greater knowledge and awareness of possibilities for working with such instruments, advances the alignment between career research with contemporary career practice. This contributes to the much-needed advancement of career research on qualitative career assessment instruments, and particularly the FCA, as an effective way of working with young undergraduates coping with the unstable and uncertain world of work of the twenty-first century. The next two sections discuss the findings of this research concerning its two aims that were: (1) to explore the FCA as a qualitative career assessment instrument that facilitates young undergraduate students’ career storytelling and reflexivity on future career plans, and (2) to explore the implications of reflexively and systemically engaging these students with qualitative career assessments such as FCA.

Applying FCA with young Australian undergraduates: career storytelling through autobiographies

The findings confirmed the application of FCA as a qualitative career assessment instrument that facilitates self-reflection, promotes storytelling, and invites curiosity for those young undergraduate students who had less certain career plans. Previous research has identified the FCA as a versatile instrument that in combination with other instruments was highly adaptable (Abkhezr et al., 2020; Rehfuss & Di Fabio, 2012). The emergence of a range of both unique and shared themes across all participants in the present study confirmed such developments by emphasising that FCA is not only useful in measuring narrative change but could also act as an instrument through which undergraduate students reflect on their past, present and future developments in a unique way. This was actualised by providing a safe and reflective space through which the participants could construct prospective and tentative future-focused autobiographies that encompass succinct career stories, perhaps for the first time, and to enact such stories in ways that give them a sense of direction, planfulness and possibility (McMahon, 2016; Savickas, 2020).

Implications of engaging young undergraduates in qualitative career assessments

The implications of participating in qualitative research are attracting some attention (Abkhezr et al., 2020; De Haene, 2010; Dickson-Swift et al., 2006). As career counselling is making the narrative turn and narrative career counselling becomes more appealing for career practice in the twenty-first century (McMahon, 2018), qualitative career research that employs narrative methodologies of data generation might potentially overlap with career practice. With its strong emphasis on stories and storytelling, life themes, meaning-making, reflections, agency and connectedness, narrative career counselling potentially converges many boundaries with narrative career research (Abkhezr & McMahon, 2017; McMahon et al., 2012; Savickas, 2012).

The second aim of this research was precisely about the exploration of such implications for the participants of this research who engaged in acts of storytelling, meaning-making and reflections through two FCA paragraphs, two other qualitative career assessment instruments, and one brief exit interview. The findings revealed not only a degree of narrative change in half of the participants’ FCA paragraphs but also how the research process provided reflective opportunities for the participants and how they took advantage of such opportunities and in some cases developed their sense of agency for making changes in their lives and plans. Therefore, the FCA proved both helpful in operating as an analytical instrument that succinctly and yet explicitly accounted for the changes that occur to participants’ career narratives, and also as a stand-alone qualitative career assessment instrument that promotes reflectivity and agency even in research settings.

The introduction of the exit interview questions, not only added a new point of data collection that substantiated the confirmability and credibility of the findings through data triangulation (Tashakkori, 2003), but also allowed the participants to treat the overall research process as a continuous reflective career exploration process and develop an agentic and holistic view on the development of their career narratives (Young & Domene, 2011). While the exit interview conversations promoted a collaborative relationship between me and each participant, it also minimised bias during the analysis. The exit questions showed additional themes for each participant that might otherwise have been missed in the FCA paragraphs alone and gave additional insight into why certain narrative changes occurred between the two FCAs. This highlighted the value of adding an additional data collection point into FCA research and the necessity of accounting for what might happen in between administering the two FCAs (Abkhezr et al., 2020).

Implications for practice

With the narrative turn in career practice, career practitioners and their clients might be both curious about the usefulness of various qualitative career assessment instruments in informing career plans and choices (Hartung & Vess, 2016). This research expands the application of FCA with young undergraduate students, a crucial Australian demographic, who has not been extensively engaged with career practice that employs qualitative career assessment instruments.

This research expands the diversity and rigour of the evidence-base for using qualitative career assessment instruments such as the FCA in practice. It provides career practitioners with valuable insights into how the FCA can be used at the outset of working with university students who are uncertain about their career pathways and then again at other junctures when one or more career assessment instruments or interventions are completed. This could potentially result in further opportunities for reflections on the outcomes of the career conversations and activities that occur throughout their work. Students could be presented with the two or more FCA drafts that they have written over time to reflect on their narrative changes and consolidate their newly emerged plans.

Emphasising the value of client feedback on the counselling process, this research encourages career practitioners to be curious about clients’ feedback on both content and the directions that their collaborative work unfolds for the young client. Career practitioners encourage clients to remain curious about how the telling of career stories through qualitative career assessment instruments might have affected their decision-making and planning before another FCA is written. This way, potential narrative changes that might emerge in the FCAs can be further contextualised, knowing the impact of career assessment instruments that were used.

Finally, it is important to note that the participants of this research were not actual clients who seek career guidance and counselling. While the participants found the research participation process useful for their career planning in varying degrees, it was apparent that the participating experience was most useful to those who were less certain about a career pathway and didn’t have a solid career plan. To highlight this further, it is important to note that the participants who were not included in the findings, were those with the least degree of narrative change in their FCA paragraphs and were most certain about their career plans. As such, it is expected that such a reflective process facilitated through the FCA is more useful to those young people who seek career guidance and counselling as they are often less certain about a career path.

Implications for research

The FCA has been used as a versatile instrument in career research and is one of the few ways by which the outcomes of qualitative research that employs narrative ways of engaging participants and generating data can be assessed in an appropriate way (Rehfuss & Di Fabio, 2012). However, researchers need to develop strategies, such as the exit interview questions, to gather participants’ feedback, reducing potential narrative misinterpretations due to their subjective inferences and biases (Abkhezr et al., 2020).

The present study expanded FCA research through the addition of a data collection point (the exit interview questions) that elucidated the participant’s reflections on their career stories and future plans. This expanded the applicability of the FCA and made it a more “data-driven” instrument that encourages researchers to interact with qualitative data that the participant has provided at different stages of their collaborative work. When combined with the exit interview questions, the FCA becomes a potentially effective bookend to any kind of career assessment instrument that may enhance the participants’ reflexivity in career research. This extends the application of the FCA as a bridge between career practice and research (Barclay & Stoltz, 2016; Rehfuss, 2015; Sampson et al., 2015), but also offers potential for integration of qualitative and quantitative career assessment instruments (McMahon et al., 2020; Sampson, 2009).

Limitations and future research

While this research expanded the application of FCA as both a research and practice instrument, its limitations must also be considered. Before discussing some of the limitations of this research and its directions for future research, it is important to highlight that this research did not intend to develop a reductionist claim about the sort of FCA paragraphs that are desired as a result of reflective career explorations. The intention here was only to demonstrate a case-by-case application of the FCA as a qualitative measure of narrative change and a qualitative career assessment instrument that promotes reflexivity while celebrating and acknowledging the uniqueness of each participant and their career stories, and the diversity of influences that can shape their future career stories. As such, generalisability was not an intention of this qualitative case study research.

First, the two FCAs were collected roughly between 9 and 10 days apart. This was mostly due to the interruptions that emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioning to online interviews. Many events occur in the lives of young people in that timeframe that could have inevitably impacted their career narratives, plans, and their perception of the research process. Also, as the participants engaged with two qualitative career assessments during the interviews, it is not evident whether one or both contributed to the change. As a solution, future research could administer both FCAs on the same day or within a shorter timeframe. Another strategy to deal with this is to ask participants to keep a reflective journal throughout the research process or to provide them with a brief daily questionnaire that explores their career plans between the two FCAs.

Second, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FCA paragraphs were gathered through online forms. While the participants were initially informed about the research process through a participant information sheet, they knew that they must write two FCA paragraphs at two different times. Since half of the participants’ two FCA paragraphs were almost identical, some participants might have saved their initial FCA paragraph and referred to it when writing the second FCA. Writing the FCAs before and after in-person interviews could deal with this possibility. Similarly, the interviews were also conducted online. It is currently unknown what effect digital interactions might have on narrative inquiry processes (Silva et al., 2020), however, the online nature of interviews could potentially reduce the richness of the stories that are being told since the collaborative nature of narrative inquiry may not be fully actualised in the online environment. Furthermore, previous research has focused almost exclusively on face-to-face career assessments. However, this is not necessarily a limitation, as digitally mediated assessments and consultations are becoming increasingly commonplace in practice (Silva et al., 2020), particularly when interacting with young people, and this study might help to begin building some evidence for digitally mediated career assessments.

Finally, although young undergraduates are some of the most common clients of career practitioners, as stated previously, trustworthy qualitative research depends on a wealth of diverse research that investigates many different cohorts to understand the implications of practice and research among a rich diversity of people. The population of higher education is incredibly diverse with a variety of life-career paths that have led to varying and unique career motivations (Hughes et al., 2013; Obi, 2015). Therefore, research (and particularly qualitative research) must adapt to be as diverse and multifaceted as the populations that it studies (Abkhezr et al., 2020). Further research on students could focus on international students, students who have not completed high school traditionally, students in tertiary vocational study or apprenticeships, students from rural backgrounds who are the first in their family to attend tertiary study, mature-aged students, students with disabilities or students who have left the full-time workforce for tertiary study.

Future FCA research could also focus on exploring the applicability of FCA in conjunction with other career assessment instruments, such as quantitative career assessment instruments or a combination of qualitative and quantitative instruments. Finally, the long-term administration of FCA (e.g. over a year) rather than just at the beginning and end of one intervention is also a task of future research.

Conclusion

The expansion of career assessment instruments such as the FCA could be instrumental in assisting the demographic of young undergraduate students to make more meaningful career choices at a time when the rapidly changing world of work of the twenty-first century is posing many complex challenges for the young workforce. The present study facilitated further exploration of the FCA as a qualitative career assessment instrument that not only provides an opportunity for young undergraduates’ autobiographical performances but also acts as a reflective point when other career assessment instruments are involved. The exit interview questions created a greater opportunity for participants to engage and reflect on their narratives and allowed researchers to work more collaboratively with participants. Findings confirmed some narrative changes, that were potentially an outcome of research participation, more specifically for those participants who had less certain career plans. As such, this research substantiated both practice and research applications of FCA as a qualitative career assessment instrument that facilitates reflexivity by promoting autobiographicity and providing a meaningful strategy for qualitatively measuring narrative change.

Acknowledgements

I’m thankful to Mr. Camilo Campuzano (Griffith University) whose research assistance was very helpful in completing this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Some data available within the article or its supplementary materials, and some data available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peyman Abkhezr

Peyman Abkhezr is a Lecturer at Griffith University, School of Applied Psychology. He has the experience of working as a mental health counsellor for asylum seekers and refugees, and a career counsellor for a diverse range of university students. Passionate about a social justice approach to career development, Peyman’s primary research area is the career development of disadvantaged populations such as refugees and migrants.