#TheWeekInCareers - Episode 87

Welcome to #TheWeekinCareers ! If you are a first-time reader (and congratulations if so, you are now part of a 4400+ strong community!), this newsletter is my attempt at summarising some of the key #Careers -related news from across the #Careersphere each week, along with some of the talking points I feel are worthy of further debate amongst the #Careers community! So, without further ado, on to the news!

It seems like Part 1 of #Futuregazing went down pretty well with you all last week, which has certainly made this week's follow-up much less awkward! ?? Whereas last week, the focus was very much on the 'big picture' (touching on the educational policy landscape, media reporting around Results Day and the future of HE/FE/Skills in England), Part 2 of #Futuregazing takes a much more individual perspective, considering what the 'modern careers professional' really looks like in 2024 (with a nod to Generative AI, Chartership, Regulation, 'Barry the Careers Adviser' and more...) and what this can tell us about whether the profession is ready for evolution, revolution or is already heading in the right direction...

We conclude the newsletter in typical fashion with a jam-packed #BestOfTheRest (it's always SO hard to pick what to include in this segment, with the volume of great work being undertaken by careers professionals across the sector) for you to peruse alongside your weekend coffee (or hot beverage of choice) - as always, I hope you enjoy the newsletter and please do share your thoughts, insights or suggestions related to any of this week's items in the comments thread at the bottom of the newsletter!

Thank you as always for continuing to subscribe, read, comment on and support #TheWeekInCareers! ??

Futuregazing: Part 2 ??

In case you missed it during a tactical summer withdrawal from social media, earlier in the month the career development sector was whipped into somewhat of a frenzy by the re-emergence of an existing BBC Bitesize video resource (which has since been removed from their website ), featuring 'Barry the Careers Adviser'. The video, which was apparently designed to highlight the difference between seeing a 'good' or 'bad' careers adviser, begins with the school's regular, qualified careers adviser off work, leading to less-than-stellar Barry stepping in and covering the 1:1 appointments for the day - what ensues is a greatest hits of how not to deliver a career guidance session (they really hit all the stereotypes here, from openly judging students' career aspirations to lazy 'job matching' language and a general lack of interest or empathy on display), which, if BBC Bitesize are to be believed, was kind of the point.

However, what you generally take away from having watched the video is a sense that you if you wanted to talk about your career while in school, you might be better off not speaking with a careers professional at all, which helps to explain the opprobrium from the careers community that greeted the video (as an aside, a teacher friend that I spoke with about the video noted that he would be 'raging' if a similar resource had been created regarding his profession, no matter how well-intentioned it might have been). Thanks to a number of careers professionals (such as Tariq Sadiq, MSc, RCDP , whose original post you can read below, Debbie Dymock RCDP, MIEP and others) and the direct advocacy of David Morgan and the Career Development Institute , BBC Bitesize got the message and removed the offending video from their website (offering both an explanation as to the intention of the resource and an apology regarding how it had landed) but for many careers professionals, it felt like deja vu in terms of how the profession is often stereotyped or portrayed by those outside the sector...

Who is the modern careers professional? ??

The saga of 'Barry the Careers Adviser' arguably reads as a cautionary tale for our profession - if we are not able to create a compelling vision of what the 'modern careers professional' looks like, someone may end up doing this for us (Ed: although granted, that wasn't the intention of the BBC Bitesize team...), and not necessarily in a way that we feel is a reflective of how we would want to be perceived by others. Which raises the question...

Who is the modern careers professional and how would we characterise ourselves when attempting to answer this question?

At the risk of making myself look foolish and in the knowledge that I will almost certainly skirt over some salient points, here is my starter for 10...

?? Big Picture People - Arguably, the ability to 'see the big picture' is the most crucial skill the modern careers professional needs to possess (in my view, anyway!) - this is very much about understanding both our place in the wider world of work (e.g. how career development work intersects with other professions, industries and stakeholders) and also being cognisant of how the world of work is changing and what this might mean for both ourselves and the career journeys of our clients.

Developing an ability to understand the big picture helps us not only position ourselves and the support we offer more clearly to individuals outside of the career development sector (e.g. if we can better explain the Return-on-Investment (ROI) of high-quality careers support, this not only helps us advocate for the importance of careers professionals but it also gives us the opportunity to command better pay for the services we provide) but it also helps us stay abreast of global trends that may impact the general world of work or specific industries over time. If you've not yet read the Career Development in 2040 report from CERIC (or watched the accompanying webinar, linked below), I can highly recommend checking it out as a really valuable dive into some of the macro factors that are redefining the world of work as we know it e.g.

• Work Anywhere????
• AI & Automation????
• Living with Climate Change????
• Geopolitical Conflicts????
• Reconciling the Impacts of Colonialism????
• Economic Precarity????
• Globalization Under Pressure????
• Education, Disrupted????
• Declining Mental Health & Well-being????
• Generational Shifts

?? Tech 'Resilient' - In an excellent recent piece by Helen Beetham in her imperfect offerings Substack, she challenges the language and ethos behind trying to create 'AI-ready' graduates, arguing that this mindset is not only reductive in the sense of understanding the underpinning technology (AI is naturally much, much more than ChatGPT and other LLMs) but also as it implies that there are largely only positive gains to be made from engaging with AI and/or that because the tech is here, we should accept we have to interact with it (or as Helen puts it, the ‘they will have to use AI in the workplace, so they (we) had better get used to it’ argument):

Helen Beetham advocates for more of an 'AI Resilient' approach to educating students and early career professionals on the use of this technology, posing the following questions at the end of the article:

• How do they develop the expertise to critique and mediate the generative output, not just in class-based activities but in their own study and intellectual life?
• What skills and practices of production might help them to withstand future cycles of planned deskilling and automation?
• How can the promise of instant productivity and performance be mediated by other values and hopes, for their learning and for their working futures?

Although these questions are focused around students and their approach to learning / academic work, we can easily see parallels with our relationship with technology as careers professionals, in the sense that we are balancing the need to stay current when it comes to the topic of GenAI (both in terms of understanding how it is impacting the wider labour market and the different aspects of careers professionals' work - Google Interview Warmup, anyone?) while also being mindful of when and how we use this technology to inform our practice.

As careers professionals, we are often caught in the middle when it comes to emerging or developing technology, as we have a duty to our clients (in my opinion, anyway) to help them understand how tech trends like GenAI might impact their career development, while also being cognisant that how other stakeholders in the world of work (such as educators, employers, employees) choose to use this technology may not always be congruent with our own beliefs as professionals. An excellent example of this is the ongoing debate around the use of GenAI within the application and recruitment process (something Georgia Greer expands upon in the Prospects Luminate article below) - as Dan Doherty has expressed on LinkedIn on more than one occasion, there is still very much a 'wait and see' approach from many employers when it comes to formal/official policies on applicant AI use but of course, we know that both applicants and employers are already utilising AI tools in a variety of ways and that this topic is becoming more and more difficult to navigate, particularly for early career jobseekers:

GenAI is, of course, only one form of technology that careers professionals might have to be aware of across the course of their own career and so Helen Beetham's core message around 'resilience' to tech feels highly applicable for our own profession - how would we answer these adjusted reflective questions on GenAI, as a profession?

• How do we develop the expertise to critique and mediate the generative output, not just in career development related activities but in our own professional and personal life?
• What skills and practices of working with GenAI (or any emerging/developing technology) might help use to withstand potential deskilling and automation of parts of our practice?
• How can the promise of instant productivity and performance be mediated by other values and hopes (and codes of ethics), for our professional development and working futures?

?? Compelling Storytellers - Careers professionals love a good story (in fact, for many of us understanding people's stories and helping them write the life story they want is why we do what we do ) but for the modern careers professional, our ability to tell compelling stories is just as important as our ability to listen to the stories of others. As we saw from the example of Barry the Careers Adviser earlier in the newsletter, if we aren't able to create a positive image of a careers professional that is easily understood by a lay audience, that space will almost certainly be taken by the most readily available (and often highly inaccurate) stereotype.

This is why, for the modern careers professional, considering how we tell our story (e.g. the value proposition for the work that we do) is more important than ever. For private practitioners, it might be the difference between how many clients are on their books or the day rate they are able to command. For careers professionals employed in specific settings, it might help them take on more responsibility at work, generate greater credibility within an institution or get a project or initiative green-lit by management. For the profession itself, it could be what helps us move from a somewhat niche industry to the type of workforce that attracts talented individuals of all ages and backgrounds. Yes, we have clear evidence of the ROI of high-quality careers support and yes, we have campaigns on the go (and in the works ) to raise the profile of our sector, but unless we can distil these messages in a way that resonates with a lay audience (think the Made in the Royal Navy ads , as one example), it is always going to be tricky to convince those outside the profession of the value of what we do.

For an excellent recent example of how to distil a complex and nuanced careers-related topic into a 6-minute talk, I highly recommend checking out Jake Richings ' recent TEDx appearance (see below) - whether you agree completely with Jake's message or not, it's undeniable that the way Jake presents it is clear, engaging and memorable; all the things we'd hope for as a profession when it comes to shouting about what we do...

?? Master Relationship Builders - Career development is chiefly a person-centred profession, so it is perhaps no surprise that I feel relationship building is an enduring trait that matters as much to the modern careers professional as it has to previous generations of practitioners. When it comes to relationship building for the modern careers professional, it's not just about the core guidance skills that we think of when it comes to establishing a safe, comfortable and friendly environment for clients (rapport building, active listening, empathy etc.) but also acknowledging the connections we need to make in order to enhance both our own practice and facilitate opportunities for the individuals that we work with (particularly in terms of filling our own knowledge gaps - careers professionals can't know everything!)

As careers professionals, we often act as researchers, connectors and advocates for our clients, so ensuring we can build a mutually beneficial network of valuable contacts (which could include local/combined authority officials, volunteering organisations, charities, employers, early careers professionals, government bodies, parents/carers, educators and more) in our locality, region, home country and/or around the world is arguably an indispensable skill for the modern careers professional, particularly in the age of social media and an ever-more-connected (and rapidly changing) world.

??♀???♂? Protectors of Quality - There are certain aspects of being a careers professional which should be enduring, and one of these (for me, anyway) is the idea of 'quality assurance' e.g. how we ensure that our careers practice and the quality of work we provide is consistent and accountable to the profession and/or professional body (or bodies) we may belong to. For career development professionals, we have frameworks and codes of ethics like the CDI Code of Ethics , AGCAS Professional Standards and EMCC Global Code of Ethics (for those in the coaching space) that help inform the way we provide the services we offer to clients, but there is also an onus on us as practitioners here to seek out our own CPD (whether via attending training, arranging supervision, peer review etc.) and hold ourselves accountable, however the career development landscape might change around us.

Of course, protecting the quality of our work is bigger than just one professional and as David Conway notes in his recent article for Wonkhe (see below), while careers professionals might disagree on how the profession should be quality assured (e.g. regulation vs chartership vs ?), it's clear that there is a general consensus about preventing the dilution or misrepresentation of career development work, particularly in an era where social media has afforded many individuals the opportunity to become a 'Career Coach', free from the scrutiny of professional bodies or codes of practice...

?? Innovators by Nature - Do careers professionals innovate enough, or is our innovation simply not talked about enough? (see: Compelling Storytellers!) As Lucy Sattler shared via a recent LinkedIn post (see below), when it comes to careers professionals who have taken their Career Clusters assessment , although the 'Linker' and 'Guardian' clusters are clearly the ones that careers professionals most closely associate themselves with, there are a significant number who are happy to identify as 'Innovators':

Innovator might not be a word that many individuals typically associate with careers professionals (see: Barry the Careers Adviser!) but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and we've certainly seen a significant number of careers professionals (and friends of the profession) around the world adopt new approaches for delivering careers support over the years, whether as a response to funding restrictions, the emergence of new technology or simply to reach new audiences (I'm looking at you, Naishadh Gadani , Maria Vitoratos , Mayuri Rajput , JP Michel , Antony Adams , Jamie Pywell , Chris Targett RCDP , Jessica Pieri RCDP , Laura Andrews , Sue Edwards , Jake Richings , Mae Yip , Samantha Hornsby , Raj Sidhu , Ben Robertson and many others).

For me, innovation takes on many forms but for modern careers professionals, the key IMO is in whether we stop to ask ourselves if what we are doing needs to be done that way (particularly if it's something that has been delivered the same way for a number of years) and what better might look like (based on our conversations with clients, other professionals and stakeholders outside the profession) - Laura Andrews ' (aka @theschoolcareerslady on TikTok) most recent LinkedIn post is a perfect example of why it's crucial that as careers professionals, we are willing to try new approaches, even if we have initial reservations:

If, on the other hand, you feel we aren't innovating enough as a profession, what might need to change to ensure we are more creative and experimental with our practice?

This is very much my take on what I feel the 'modern careers professional' looks like (or should look like, in my mind) - but is it truly reflective of our profession in 2024? While mulling over this question, it occurred to me that I'd once again landed on a recurring issue relating to the career development sector - the fact that careers professional can often mean something quite different, depending on the setting or context we are referring to. As many of the comments responding to David Conway's article on regulation of the HE careers space (see above) rightly note, the career development sector is nothing if not a broad church, and there are myriad individuals working in a litany of careers-related roles who may justifiably see themselves as a careers professional, even if the nature of their work is distinctly different to another individual who defines themselves in this way.

To highlight a couple of examples:

• Person A is a Careers Information Assistant, working for a charitable organisation providing careers support for young people in a specific region in the UK. Their role is to produce engaging, informative careers resources informed by accurate, up-to-date labour market information (and other sources) which can then be shared via the organisation's website, social media channels and as physical resources, also utilised by the careers advisers and employment coaches that work for the charity. While Person A's version of 'quality assurance' and CPD may look different to someone in a different careers role (see Person B!), it is nonetheless a key facet of their role (e.g. ensuring the information they use and how they present it is ethical, transparent and accessible) and the other aspects of what makes a modern careers professional would certainly also apply to them IMO (e.g. innovation essential for considering more engaging ways to present careers information, awareness of the big picture in order to highlight how specific data is only one part of the equation when it comes to making career decisions...)
• Person B is a Career Consultant, working for a University in the UK (Ed: They do say 'write what you know', after all...??). Their role is to both deliver 1:1 and group guidance with a range of students and graduates, and support academic staff within the Business School to embed career development and employability related activity as a core part of the curriculum. As a 'Protector of Quality', Person B needs to not only consider their professional ethics in relation to their guidance practice (for the 1:1 and group guidance element of their role) but also how they might demonstrate credibility in relation to teaching and learning (e.g. possibly via achieving Fellowship status through Advance HE ). We can also see subtle differences in how the other traits of the modern careers professional might impact on their work - for example, their big picture might relate to understanding how their work impacts the wider strategy of the University (including potentially pushing back on institutional initiatives they feel are contrary to the ethics of their profession, where appropriate) while their relationship building might span a wider range of stakeholders than Person A, including employers, academics, professional services staff, Students' Union officers, alumni and local/combined authority contacts.

[Of course, these are just two examples - there are many, many more I could have used, including those related to private practitioners, where certain aspects of the modern careers professional, such as needing to be a compelling storyteller and master relationship builder are arguably even more vital!]

With this in mind, it occurred to me again that the evolution that may be required within our sector is not simply from an individual practitioner perspective (something germane to professionals in any industry) but more crucially, as a profession - a number of individuals (myself included! ) have written previously about how complex the career development space can seem to outsiders and the lack of a clear 'map' to explain the different roles (and sub-sectors) that are encompassed within the 'career development industry' means it is totally understandable that we often struggle to communicate what we do to a lay audience. Imagine if we had something akin to the Tasty Careers map (see below) which laid out all of the different professions/sectors that an individual could engage with or expect to encounter when thinking about their career development? This could allow us to include reference to HR professionals, Recruitment, Early Careers / Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, Coaching, Careers Education, Guidance, IAG, Data/Information specialists and create a much more dynamic (and accurate!) picture of what the career development space looks like in reality, including clear explanations of the differences between these professions (particularly in terms of qualifications/regulation) and how they can interact/overlap:

Of course, in the age of GenAI, these sort of 'thinking out loud' activities are much quicker and easier to translate from your brain to a working prototype (of sorts). I'll finish this week's newsletter with just two examples of the sort of resources I'd love to see realised in the career development space moving forward - the first is a diagram demonstrating just some of the many hats I feel the modern careers professional often needs to wear in our day-to-day work, and the second is my attempt at creating a very basic picture of the wider career development space, based on my musings above (both generated by Claude). Let me know what you think of my starter/s for 10 and naturally, I'd highly encourage you to have a go at this sort of exercise yourself (using Claude, ChatGPT, Canva or simply sketching out a draft on paper) if you feel you can do better! (I can already envisage another version that breaks down the different settings and contexts that careers professionals operate in e.g. Education, Charity Sector, Government Bodies, Private Sector etc.)

What did you think of #Futuregazing Part 2? Have I done a serviceable job of capturing the 'modern careers professional' or did you feel it was an incomplete picture? And is it even possible to encapsulate CDPs in this way, given the variation between many of the roles that careers professionals hold? Answers, as always, on a #TheWeekInCareers postcard! ?? (or more accurately, via the comments thread at the bottom of the newsletter...)

The Best of the Rest: My Hot Picks from the wider?#Careersphere???

?? Our jobs aren’t a horse race, so stop trying to pick a winner - Up first this week, an excellent piece by Jim Bright in The Sydney Morning Herald which returns to a topic that Jim has written about at length previously - the fallacy of assuming we can predict the future. In this article, Jim references a 2020 study that indicates the relatively weak evidence correlating measured vocational interests (such as the ones you might get back from a careers quiz) and job satisfaction, and explains why the 'illusion of certainty' associated with being advised on 'what path to take' rarely moves us any closer towards the sort of life we might be happy with. It's a timely reminder for careers professionals (and those using our services) that our work is about equipping individuals with the mindset and skillset to explore career pathways and opportunities independently, rather than acting as the expert with all the answers.

?? Why Gen Z Wants Better Career Exploration In High School - Up next, it's over to Mark C. Perna, writing in Forbes , who has penned an article that has been getting plenty of airtime amongst the career development community over the past few days, focusing as it does on the gratifying news that Gen Z students are increasingly viewing earlier career exploration as a priority in their lives. Although the article (and the survey of Gen Z students referenced within) have an American focus, the trends being identified (such as many young people wanting their parents to take an active role in supporting their career exploration, increased scepticism regarding higher education) will resonate with many careers professionals working with young people in the UK market, and the overarching message around Gen Z being more career-focused is a heartening one, even if some of the language being used is a cause for concern (see: picking the 'right path', a lack of confidence in making career decisions without specific information...)

? Anyone fancy a virtual coffee? - #TheWeekInCareers has been keeping tabs on The Careers Circle (a network for careers professionals primarily working in education settings, the brainchild of Jessica Pieri RCDP ) for some time now, so it was great to see that the dates for their weekly 'virtual coffee' session are now live on The Careers Circle events page ! If you are a careers professional who is somewhat isolated in your role, or simply want to make more connections and chat about all-things-careers, the weekly catch-ups start from Monday 9th September (10:00-10:30) - visit The Careers Circle event page for more information regarding all of their upcoming FREE events, including the session on 10th October concerning supporting students for whom mental health is a barrier.

?? Job descriptions are holding your organisation back - Next up, it's a piece I found myself nodding along with furiously, given how much time I spend griping about the quality of job descriptions on a day-to-day basis; the article in question, from HR Magazine , explores whether the traditional job description (often fixed, rigid, somewhat reductive) still has a place in the modern world of work/hiring, particularly in rapidly changing job markets where an individual may have a much more multi-faceted, project-based role than can be accurately captured in a condensed summary of duties/responsibilities. The proposed solution of organisations using a more flexible 'job canvas' is an interesting one (both in terms of acknowledging the nuance and complexity of the roles employees hold and in regard to how we recruit prospective employees) and it would be brilliant to hear from any early career/recruitment/HR contacts in my network regarding your thoughts on the feasibility of this proposal and any counterpoints in relation to the core messages around job descriptions raised in the article!

?? Post-Results Day Resources? Give me strengths... - We finish this week's newsletter with a cracking resource from Trudy Bateman and the team at Cappfinity , who are giving away a FREE Introductory Strengths Profile and career guide for every 16-19 year old up until Monday 2nd September - having used the Strengths Profile (and accompanying cards) in quite a bit of my individual and group guidance/coaching in the past, I can definitely recommend giving them a look and sharing with any 16-19 year-olds you are working with (or know) who might need additional support in exploring their strengths/skills as they look ahead to life after mainstream education...

I'm always keen to hear what people think of this weekly newsletter format (e.g. Is it helpful? Does it add value to what is already out there on LinkedIn? What might make it better/more digestible?) so please do drop me a DM if you have any thoughts!

See you in the #Careersphere next week for?Episode 88! ??