Adults changing careers through university education: Making meaning of quantitative career assessment scores through an integrative structured interview

Abstract

Orientation: Career change in adulthood is becoming a norm and university education is a pathway to new careers. Career psychologists are well positioned to assist adult career changers. Contemporary approaches to diverse client groups and integrating career assessment with narrative career counselling are needed. Research purpose: This article reports on an innovative approach to assisting adult career changers through the complementarity of an integrative structured interview (ISI) and the self-directed search (SDS) career assessment questionnaire. Motivation for the study: The overall aim of this research was to explore the career transition experiences of adult university learners. The secondary aims were to investigate the complementarity of quantitative career assessment (i.e. the SDS) and narrative interviewing (i.e. the ISI) and how adult university learners engaged with the ISI. This article reports on the secondary aims by considering excerpts from case study interviews. Research design, approach and method: This qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, multiple case study research presents case studies of two adult university learners: an Australian male student and a South African female student. Participants completed the SDS prior to engaging in a four-part semi-structured interview that incorporated the ISI. Main findings: The findings revealed that the participants told rich stories that related past, present and future life and work experiences to their SDS three-letter codes. Their stories revealed how quantitative career assessment scores and narrative career counselling may be integrated through a structured interview. Practical and managerial implications: Adult career changers told meaningful stories about their quantitative SDS scores. The findings suggest that narrative career counselling may be useful for adult career changers and that the ISI could provide a model for career psychologists who support them. Implications of the findings suggest that managers and human resource personnel working in organisations may assist adult career changers by offering them access to psychological support that uses quantitative career assessment as a foundation for career story telling. Contribution or value-add: The research provides an innovative response to challenges in career psychology to develop contemporary responses to diverse client groups and to integrate career assessment with narrative career counselling.

Narrative potential and career counseling under quantity, quality, and mixed interventions: An emphasis on university students

“…The effectiveness of the ISI as a narrative interview in helping clients elicit rich narratives that complement initial scores from an interest questionnaire (i.e. the SDS) was also demonstrated in a study with adult career changers (McMahon et al, 2018). The findings suggested that narrative career counseling (through the use of ISI) may be useful for adult career changers and that the ISI could provide a model for career psychologists who support them.…”

“…Selected examples of Nadya's reflections were “It’s good, actually, because it makes you really think through in great detail and break it down into those categories,” (…) and “So I was thinking back to the past a bit, but also thinking forward.” The effectiveness of the ISI as a narrative interview in helping clients elicit rich narratives that complement initial scores from an interest questionnaire (i.e. the SDS) was also demonstrated in a study with adult career changers (McMahon et al, 2018). The findings suggested that narrative career counseling (through the use of ISI) may be useful for adult career changers and that the ISI could provide a model for career psychologists who support them.…”

Overcoming Barriers to Women's Career Transitions: A Systematic Review of Social Support Types and Providers

“…These difficulties can lead to decreases in self-efficacy, loss of identity, or feelings of failure, anxiety, and low self-esteem (Snyder, 2011;Park et al, 2012;Tshube and Feltz, 2015;Byrne and Theakston, 2016;Bergman and Herd, 2017;Pellegrino et al, 2018). A transition to a new profession may also be accompanied with lifestyle changes that affect the woman's whole family, such as relocating, reduction in income, or working greater or fewer hours than is optimal for the well-being of the whole family (Yakaboski, 2016;Greer, 2017;McMahon et al, 2018).…”

Relevance of the person-environment fit approach to career assessment in South Africa – A review

“…Some studies have conducted research using an integrated assessment approach (cf. Maree, 2014Maree, , 2018Maree, , 2019Maree, Gerryts, Fletcher & Olivier, 2019;McMahon, Watson, & Zietsman, 2018;Naidoo et al, 2019). While these show the promise of an integrated assessment approach to career counselling in the South African context, these studies are limited by the lack of longitudinal research, lack of translated instruments or use of translators with samples who are non-English first language speakers, use of a few specific quantitative and qualitative assessments, and lack of diverse samples.…”

“…The choice of quantitative assessments is no less important, as quantitative scores may determine the interpretation of the qualitative assessment results (cf. McMahon et al, 2018). If the quantitative assessment is psychometrically concerning in the South African context, this may problematically impact the interpretation and application of the integrated assessment results.…”