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One of the new directions in vocational psychology is the trend of integrating the emerging social constructivist worldview into research and practice. Narrative inquiry echoes this trend. The narrative approach facilitates the holistic construction of personal meanings within their particular life career contexts. It validates the importance of subjective career and human action in the career construction process. In elaborating the interrelationship between the notions of life, career and narrative, this paper discusses ways of conceptualising career narratives. It also proposes some guidelines for constructing life career narratives in vocational psychology and career development practice.

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In this article, we aim to examine and understand the career development experiences of foreign-trained immigrants from regulated professions (FTIRPs) in Canada. To provide some background on immigration in a Canadian context, we focus on a myriad of factors that affect the vocational well-being of FTIRPs. We apply key concepts from several major career development theories to FTIRPs, proposing some general helping strategies intended to empower this population in managing and developing their careers in a new world of work in their host country.

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Women transitioning back to work from motherhood face complex challenges, including changes in their self-concept, priorities, self-confidence, and career-related beliefs. To effectively support mothers contemplating workforce reentry, career counsellors must understand the unique interplay between their clients' home, community, and previous work lives and its impact on their career development. This article integrates relevant concepts from the career development theories of Super, Krumboltz, and Brown, Hackett, and Lent with current literature to inform career counselling interventions aimed at optimizing the reentry experiences of mothers returning to work.

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This study explored Canadian young women's experiences of having received pressure from one or both parents regarding their career choices and future, within the context of their career exploration. Using Charmaz' grounded theory approach, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 undergraduate female students who were experiencing or had experienced parental pressure. Analyses of participant narratives revealed several key themes. Career conversations with parents were described as one-sided and unhelpful. Participants described feeling frustrated, confused and inferior during and after these conversations and described feeling anxious in response to pressure. Nine felt that their feelings of control over their career environments were limited by parental pressure. Participants felt a desire to comply with parental career wishes and felt close to parents. These findings demonstrate that parental pressure could result in negative emotional responses and internal conflict in young adult women. This has negative consequences for their emotional well-being and career exploration processes. However, five felt that parental pressure increased their feelings of control over their career environment. More research is needed to clarify the role of parental pressure on young women's career exploration. These results have practical implications for career counsellors working with young women and counsellors working with parents, including providing education about the impact of parental pressure and ensuring that they are feeling heard during career conversations.

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Vocational and career wellbeing is of essential importance for the successful reintegration of ex-offenders back into civil society, becoming healthy and productive citizens who contribute to the common good of the general society in which they live. Within a Canadian context, this article intends to draw attention to the vocational wellbeing of adult ex-offenders who have served time in prison after a conviction. To this end, the article identifies the major career issues for ex-offenders, and then links theoretical knowledge and research evidence to career development interventions to counter career problems experienced by this population. It sheds light on the pertinence of utilizing career theories to inform and direct career counselling interventions that can improve and enhance the career wellness of this population.

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The career landscape for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees has significantly changed in recent decades. There is now an oversupply of PhD graduates in the science and engineering fields relative to the availability of academic positions, and jobs outside of academia have now become the norm. Doctoral training programmes have failed to keep pace with this change, and many trainees who are forced to rethink academic career aspirations feel unprepared for today's job market. Intertwined with this are challenges associated with life stage and school-to-work transition, which make the career development issues facing doctoral and postdoctoral trainees unique and complex. The aim of this article is to shed light on these issues and to examine them through the lens of career development theories. Social cognitive career theory offers insight into the factors that influence career development in doctoral and postdoctoral trainees, and narrative career counselling can serve as a valuable intervention for this population to help shape their future career, whether within or outside of academia.

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High school students in North America, namely, the United States and Canada, encounter the challenge of the school-to-school and school-to-work transition, and they need considerable help for career guidance and counselling. Yet, the guidance and counselling resources of the school system are often stretched to their limits. This article proposes an alternative for the career guidance initiative to reach out to a massive student population by establishing effective counsellor-teacher collaboration in the classroom setting. The background and rationale for this collaboration will be examined and the critical communication dynamics and process in forming this collaboration will be elaborated on. Finally, several collaboration strategies are offered that can work to enhance classroom-based career education and guidance initiatives.

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This chapter investigates the issue of role conflict in women’s life-career development experience. Specifically, it looks at the interaction between women’s work and family roles within the context of a traditional ‘dual-working’ family, that is where both partners are in paid work outside the home and share childcare and other household responsibilities. The key aspects of the role conflict are examined and, based on a clearer understanding of these aspects, several career counselling considerations are proposed that could help women to cope more effectively with this conflict.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/IRD 88.424. Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 96.330 to TD/TNC 96.363. Show less

The proportion of international students studying in post-secondary institutions in the United States and Canada is growing. These students are facing various career development issues that are unique to the population and may contribute to employment difficulties.

This article focuses on international students' career issues from three aspects: cultural barriers, help-seeking barriers, and visa restrictions. Career counselling interventions are reviewed and discussed from a theoretical perspective, including lifecareer theory and social cognitive career theory. The goal of this paper is to add to the literature on career counselling interventions for international students who experience specific career issues.

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Within the diverse population of working women, those who experience pregnancy for the first time may face some particular challenges when it comes to their career development needs and issues. These include discrimination in the workplace, responding to social expectations and pressures, negotiating life roles, and evolving personal identities. This article discusses the major career problems encountered by this target group, both structurally and socially, with a focus on individual strategies to access personal agentic functioning and empower women facing these challenges. These workers are often overlooked in the career literature; yet, there is a range of career theories to draw upon to assist them in their needs. The application of the life-span, life-space career theory, and the narrative therapy approaches are explored in relation to the helping process. These two theoretical orientations were chosen as they address the particular challenges faced by pregnant women in the workplace, especially around negotiating life roles and an evolving personal identity. There is a need for a stronger understanding of these challenges and opportunities to support pregnant women as they seek vocational wellbeing, and how to tailor suitable, well-established career counselling strategies to meet their unique needs.

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