Career Advising in a VUCA Environment

Abstract

Recent developments in the knowledge-driven, postindustrial economy have radically affected college students' prospects for entering and completing successful careers. In this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, fewer organizations find profitability in hiring, training, and retaining workers. Over the last 20 years, traditional careers, with lifelong security and opportunities for financial success, have been systematically replaced by a contract with workers who maintain their own employability. In addition, college degrees no longer assure graduates of having marketable knowledge and skills, and so traditional career advising yields limited results in a VUCA environment. This is the first in a series of articles outlining a human capital approach to career advising that addresses the challenges of a VUCA environment.

Advising Students to Value and Develop Emotional Labor Skills for the Workplace

“…Bureaucratic or multinational companies must adapt to the greater risk that a global economy poses by adopting flexible relationships with suppliers and labor as well as continuously reengineering aspects of their own organizations to adapt to the new economic environment. We have argued that the global economy closely resembles the military conception of a VUCA environment (Shaffer & Zalewski, 2011a). In its original usage, the words in the acronym-volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous-refer to an environmental context, like a battlefield, in which strategic decision making is very challenging.…”

“…For example, many still think that they can plan a career path and that job progression is defined by a vertical ladder. We have argued that this is not usually the case and that today, in a VUCA environment, workers should conceive of careers as long-term employability (Shaffer & Zalewski, 2011a). One of the problems that academic and career advisors face, therefore, is getting Millennials to prepare both their skill sets and their mind sets for the probability of unexpected work situations and accidental careers.…”

“…We have identified important strategies that college students should apply to better leverage employability in professional labor markets (Shaffer & Zalewski, 2011a). Professionals most likely maintain employability when they offer employers special knowledge and skills, or human capital.…”

“…We describe its value as a portable, transferable skill in professions and toward building social networks and leveraging the career opportunities they tend to foster. This is especially pertinent in the labor markets of the 21st century, which exist in an economy we conceive as a VUCA environment (Shaffer & Zalewski, 2011a). Characteristics of the new economy-for example, ongoing technological changes, company reorganizations, the growth of contingent work, free agency, and accidental careers (Ryan, 2009;Zalewski, 2011)-all mandate that professionals today be flexible and adaptive.…”

A Human Capital Approach to Career Advising

“…In all probability, these jobs, as well as many of those currently recognizable, will not be associated with a traditional career ladder (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996;Bernstein, 2003;Lautsch, 2002;Lazarova & Taylor, 2009;Royal & Althauser, 2003;Waterman, Waterman, & Collard, 1994). In fact, the preponderance of evidence suggests that young workers entering the knowledge-driven economy should not expect traditional careers (Cooper, 2002;Hall, 1996aHall, , 1996bHall, , 1997Hall & Moss, 1998;Nash, 1994;O'Mahony & Bechky, 2006;Mihail, 2008;Shaffer & Zalewski, 2011). In this climate, the phrase career advising is, at least, a misnomer for the services that academic advisors should offer in the 21st century.…”