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The concept of a ‘career’ has been a complex phenomenon within social science discourse. Described by Frank Parsons as a choice equal to that of a life partner, the interpretation of a career as a vocation composed of a single primary occupation is a notion maintained by the majority of Western societies and widely propagated by mainstream career counseling. Regardless, such an opaque constructivist approach may potentially pose an impediment to achieving professional prosperity by restricting individual perception and resilience upon confrontation with career challenges. Hence, to reimagine the word ‘career’, increasingly fluxional theories have been proposed, centered on a dynamic holism that incorporates the complete ‘sequence of life roles’, accommodating adaptive evolution instead of enforcing strict occupational boundaries, thus allowing for better management of vocational obstacles. However, the ability to cope with employment issues is not contingent solely upon the definable confines of the word ‘career’. Individual career choice and adaptability can be ‘constrained or motivated’ by different ‘categories of external factors’ including ‘life circumstances’, religious expectations, or gendered perspectives. This essay will explore the consequences of differing career interpretations on professional progression through both theory and a case study, in addition to the influence of external circumstances on vocational predispositions, in an attempt to acknowledge the nuanced difficulty of tackling career obstacles beyond just fundamental definitional variance.
Prominent Career Theories
The Trait and Factor Approach
In an attempt to diminish career uncertainty in the 20th century, Professor Frank Parsons composed a zeitgeist manuscript of professional guidance theories, now regarded as the pillars of modern vocational counseling and occupational decision-making. Detailed in the postmortem book ‘Choosing a Vocation’, Parsons introduced the trait and factor theory, delineating a logical system to psychometrically determine the single most suitable occupational fit for an individual’s personal attributes and preferences.
Today, this sentiment is reflected in conventional career advice within the media, with thousands of websites advocating for individuals to find jobs they are good at. Centered heavily on finding a ‘perfect career fit’ that corresponds to ideal pay and work environments, this modern application of Parsons’ ideology focuses on a profitable vocation, creating a clear distinction between one’s professional career and personal life, an attitude ubiquitous across Western societies. Former First Lady Hillary Clinton, in her convocation address at Howard University in 1998, echoed this attitude, counseling students not to confuse having a career with having a life, highlighting the Eurocentric notion of a strict work-life divide. This circumscribed outlook on career composition narrows perceived potential job opportunities, as individuals are falsely led to believe that their domestic and occupational lives are mutually exclusive, due to the impression that they must execute work that best capitalizes upon their personal skillset. Additionally, it may possibly create a negative connotation between unemployment and failure, as professional occupations are perceived as the only ‘career-worthy’ work, thus instilling within individuals a fervent fear of becoming jobless, leaving them psychologically ill-prepared for potential career shocks that could leave them homebound.
Unemployment phobia is a common consequence of the trait and factor methodology, as the theory assumes a certain degree of stability within the labor market by proposing a primary career prospect, which cannot always be maintained within the current industry. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is a prime example of such workplace volatility, as millions were dismissed and forced to reimagine their previous limitations of the constitution of work. As a result of mass occupational redundancy caused by the virus, many of those made jobless were forced to stay at home or undertake roles vastly different from their previous work which they might not have considered part of their career formerly, potentially culminating in personal distress and disappointment due to their perceived dissatisfaction of their vocational expectations.
Hinged upon the idea of a stable, primary occupation separate from domestic duties, the trait and factor theory exemplifies the conceptualization of a career determined by a single choice, no more important than a wife or husband. Consequently, Parsons’ method heavily emphasizes the idea of precise individual career congruence by implying there is a correct match for each person that can be obtained via meticulous scientific analysis, increasing demand upon workers to make the right choice. This exacerbated career pressure may result in decreased job satisfaction, as the average person will hold approximately 17 jobs across their lifetime, many of which may not be the most suitable occupation for them according to the trait and factory teaching. As such, no flexibility is afforded to those faced with occupational change, as the narrow definition of a career as a single lifelong vocation constricts professional evolution or deviation away from their assigned career match.
Embracing Uncertainty: The Chaos Theory and Planned Happenstance
The employment dilemma within the 21st century of job insecurity has forced many to accept the dynamic reality of modern careers and prepare for uncertainty. The traditional trait and factor theory is no longer applicable to the contemporary labor market and has thus been challenged by more holistic studies that embrace the process of careers, recognizing change, and evolution as key components of a lifelong profession.
Unlike Frank Parsons, career theorist John Krumboltz attempted to encourage individuals to accept career uncertainty instead of striving to eliminate it completely. Through his concept of ‘planned happenstance’, Krumboltz defends vocational indecision, citing unprecedented events as ‘desirable’ challenges for individuals to cultivate new skills and transform serendipity into ‘opportunity’. Emphasizing the inevitability of uncertainty in life, Krumboltz addresses the need for people to prepare for the unexpected and develop a flexible career mindset capable of navigating a rapidly evolving workforce. By expanding the definition of career to a constant progression of roles, Krumboltz’stheory provides individuals with the chance to broaden their perspective by encouraging optimism in the face of unpredictability, better equipping them to successfully maneuver vocational challenges.
Similarly, the chaos theory of careers (CTC), as proposed by Bright and Pryor, acknowledges the complexity of change and chance in career development through the incorporation of instability within its career premise, labeling it an ‘inherent property of the world’. In determining professional ‘chaos’ as ‘inevitable’, CTC advocates for individuals to be adaptable and resilient, as occupational certainty is impossible. Although thorough vocational planning, as enabled by Parsons’ ideology, is effective in the short term, the quest for complete career control tends to fail in the long term as the occurrence life circumstances does not necessarily coordinate with the maintenance of strict career goals, typically resulting in disappointment for those entrapped by the illusion of career stability. Thus, CTC and ‘planned happenstance’ prove useful for those encountering unexpected occupational disturbances by championing opportunism during setbacks and challenges and accepting change as a common and intrinsic quality of life. This reconceptualization of a mutable career, unlike one composed of a single decision, favors open-mindedness and adaptability, improving the ability of people to manage professional obstacles.
Case Study
For three decades, Sri Lanka was haunted by the bloodshed and violence of a barbaric civil war, resulting from the political rancor between the Sinhalese-dominant Sri Lankan government and the Tamil insurgents. Labeled a terrorist group by the FBI, the guerrilla warfare tactics employed by the Tamils resulted in the national closure of government institutions, education centers, and workplaces, out of fear of becoming targets of suicide bombers. My mother, a second-year law student at the time, was promptly fired from her retail job and evicted from her tertiary studies as the economy was paralyzed and the island descended into a maelstrom of chaos. For many, this abrupt career shift may have been daunting and confusing, however growing up in an Eastern society with a heavily family-oriented culture, my mother was not disconcerted by the idea of staying at home to care for her elderly grandparents. It was not uncommon for females to undertake caretaker roles within Sri Lankan families, which they performed instead of pursuing paid occupations, thus my mother happily accepted such duties without hesitation, due to her looser perspective of a vocation that incorporated both professional and domestic positions.
After a year of being homebound, she was offered a flight attendant position with Air Lanka through a friend. Although this wasn’t a part of her original career plan to become a lawyer, she saw this as an invaluable opportunity to gain some work experience and generate income for her family. During one of her flights, she encountered a German passenger bound for Australia, who would later become her husband and persuade her to migrate to Melbourne herself, where she would go on to obtain a degree in economics and accounting from Monash University. Currently, she holds a position at an executive level at the Australian Taxation Office, a role she believes to be more enjoyable than her previous ambition of practicing law, which was only achieved due to the complex series of chance events in her early career. Consequently, my mother exemplifies the benefits of CTC and ‘planned happenstance’ as her flexible attitude to career and work allowed her to take advantage of an unplanned event by embracing uncertainty. Due to her adaptable perspective of an accommodating career that encompassed both personal and professional duties, she was able to navigate sudden occupational shocks with resilience and ease through her acceptance of the concept of a vicissitudinous career expanding multiple different roles.
External Influences on Career Definitions
Whilst my mother’s open-minded definition of a career enabled her to successfully pilot unexpected shocks and challenges, her vocational perspective was greatly influenced by her family values and the society she was raised. The ability to cope with employment issues is more complex than just shifting one’s definition of a career, as external factors can constrain and limit individual perspectives and abilities. Some may even attain flexible career attitudes but may never be able to enact them due to cultural norms or gender archetypes restricting the career definition they are willing to practice.
Most Western societies are extremely work-centred, as ‘strong moral pressures’ drive people to work in a derivative of their early Christian heritage. Martin Luther viewed professional work as the ‘single vocation’ people were ‘bound to take under God’, in parallel with other Christians who believed successful occupations to be ‘signs of salvation’. Today, this notion underpins modern capitalism and reinforces the concept of career as a single profitable occupation divided from domestic duties. The commonality of the perceived importance of sustaining a paid primary vocation creates difficulties for those facing career challenges or individuals attempting to deviate from the norm by embracing career changes or pursuing professional alternatives such as domestic positions or unpaid work. These people who do not align with the the constrained Western ideal of work face ridicule and embarrassment and hence may be more likely to struggle when faced with occupational difficulties that force them to challenge the career norm.
Paradoxically, women across the globe have long awarded the unpaid role of housewife and mother the status of a job inclusive within their career, as many contemporary women cycle between employment and motherhood duties. However, this is not a sentiment held in equal regard, especially within the Western paradigm, as men have traditionally held stations of power and thus been responsible for the creation and enforcement of societal standards. Due to the patriarchal archetype of women and the duties they perform as subordinates, voluntary caretaking, and household roles are not generally considered a part of the conventional concept of career. This is particularly problematic as the current labor market becomes increasingly unstable, forcing many individuals to transition between unemployment at home and employment at work – a frightening reality for those with the fixed idea that a career should encompass professional roles only.
Comparatively, despite my mother’s initial employment of the trait and factory method to identify an appropriate career path at university, her cultural upbringing in an Eastern country allowed her to reject the restrictive notion of having only a single suitable, professional career. The normalization of women in domestic duties being equal to their professional male counterparts allowed her to welcome the idea of a caretaker role, despite it not fully aligning with her personal characteristics, as she perceived her career as greater than just a paid position that psychometrically matched her disposition. Furthermore, despite having no particular expertise or interest favoring a job as a flight attendant, my mother embraced the role wholeheartedly as she acknowledged career as a composite sum of life roles, whether it be studying an occupation she was passionate about, caring for family at home, or undertaking a professional occupation outside her vocational ambitions.
Conclusion
To conclude, the challenges in achieving career goals are more complex to resolve than just being able to perceive them from a flexible career perspective. Although individuals may be more likely to be resilient and psychologically prepared for unexpected events with an adaptable mindset resulting from a looser concept of career, it does not guarantee the ability to cope with career stresses. Societal expectations and cultural norms can heavily influence perceived occupational potentials and prevent people from accepting and preparing for the inherent vicissitude of life, and thus their careers.
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