This longitudinal panel study investigated predictors and outcomes of active engagement in career preparation among 349 Swiss adolescents from the beginning to the end of eighth grade. Latent variable structural equation modeling was applied. The results showed that engagement in terms of self‐ and environmental‐exploration and active career planning related positively to interindividual increases in career decidedness and choice congruence. More perceived social support, early goal decidedness, and particular personality traits predicted more engagement. Support and personality impacted outcomes only mediated through engagement. Early decidedness and congruence were significant predictors of their respective later levels. Implications for practice are presented.

In this article, the author describes an innovative approach for conceptualizing and managing career development tasks in the 21st century. Theoretical foundations and key concepts related to career flow theory are discussed.Career Flow: A Hope-Centered Model of Career Development (HCMCD; Niles, Amundson, & Neault, 2011) represents an innovative model for career adaptability in the 21st century. The model identifies the challenges that workers encounter daily and provides strategies for addressing these challenges effectively. Moreover, the model describes an approach for career coping and decision making that reflects the current career context, which requires high levels of self-awareness, creative visioning, and adaptability. CAREER FLOWCareer flow is a metaphor describing the various work situations all workers encounter. Just as a river has many currents that flow at different rates, work presents different demands at different rates to each worker. A river has white-water rapids, still waters, steady currents, and twists and bends. Depending on the currents and the person's resources, navigating them can be easy, challenging, overwhelming, or boring. Similarly, each person's work situation has moments when work demands are overwhelming (i.e., white-water career flow), low (still water), or occur at an enjoyable rate (optimal career flow), and so on.The career flow metaphor helps workers think in new ways about challenges they encounter and strategies to manage their career development. For instance, during work-related "white water" experiences, demands are high and often push the workers' skills to their limits. In these moments, there are specific strategies workers can use to navigate successfully (e.g., communicate their needs to others, identify useful resources, focus on the most important and doable tasks first, maintain a sense of perspective, and use time and stress management skills). Likewise, each career flow experience presents distinct challenges and requires specific responses. Thus, the term career flow is used in a broader way than what is typically thought of as flow in the psychological literature. Career flow is a creative framework to help people manage their work experiences more effectively. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONSWorkers have varying degrees of readiness for coping with career flow challenges. Having a realistic attitude toward work and possessing the requisite skills for handling workrelated challenges are skills that underlie career adaptability. Adaptability refers to the capacity to respond effectively to new information about oneself and/or one's situation and to demonstrate the ability to effectively integrate new information into one's career behavior (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2009). Adaptability is a key component of the HCMCD.Demonstrating career adaptability, on the part of the individual, requires self-knowledge. Super (1990) proposed that occupational choices reflect the implementation of a person's self-concept in an occupational role. Super further contended that the se...

This study examined how background and high school variables affected participants in either realizing their potential by completing a bachelor's degree or experiencing lost talent by not completing a bachelor's degree. A sample of participants who had demonstrated above average cognitive ability and had high postsecondary educational goals when in 8th grade was selected from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (national longitudinal data from 1988 to 2000; National Education, 2002). Several background and high school variables had strong effects on degree completion. Results were used to develop the Realized Potential or Lost Talent model. Implications for helping young people in their educational‐career development are included.

Career-Development Assessment and Counseling (C-DAC) systematically bridges career theory and practice. Integrating differential, developmental, and phenomenological methods, the C-DAC model uses a comprehensive career assessment battery to help clients explore their roles, developmental stages and tasks, career attitudes and knowledge, values, and interests within their unique life contexts. The authors recommend elaborating the C-DAC model to formally appraise cultural identity in step one of the model and to consider cultural identity concerns throughout the C-DAC process. This should help counselors more clearly understand how cultural factors influence people's career development and vocational behavior.Recent years have seen many efforts to address the applicability of existing career theory constructs to individuals representing groups other than the White, male middle class. These efforts have produced textbooks (e.

In this article, recent research using the Work Importance Study (WIS) instruments in English‐speaking countries is reviewed. Research results indicate several consistent trends. First, that life‐role salience and values must be viewed within specific developmental and cultural contexts. Second, in diverse settings and with different groups, there are sex differences related to the relative importance of life roles and values. Third, career counselors need consider the client's values and life‐role salience to facilitate personal development. Recommendations for future research are offered.