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Dinuka Gunaratne, Trevor Johnson and Thomas Feth

There are many reasons students choose to pursue graduate education. Some pursue advanced degrees as an avenue for cultivating their curiosity, interests and gaining knowledge. There are also those with a clear sense of direction who view graduate school as a means to success in a particular career. Others enter graduate school to find this direction.

However, students without clear goals are still expected to achieve, accomplish and produce as much as possible to compete with their peers. For this reason, success in academia quickly becomes the measure of success for a great number of students. Maintaining high grades, publishing research, and receiving scholarships and funding are all measures one could use to determine if they are succeeding. This degree-first (or credential-first) mindset is most often inadequate in assisting students once graduate school is over or nearing completion. The idea that there are specific “hoops” to jump through to complete a career – the same way that there are certain requirements when completing a degree – plagues the minds of many graduate students.

A more proactive way of viewing one’s career is understanding that a career is made up of opportunities and experiences and is not confined to a formula. One degree can branch off into many career options, all requiring different assortments of the skills and strengths used to complete a graduate degree. This type of mindset allows for more rapid acclimatization to change, uncertainty and disruption – terms that have become all too familiar in our current reality.

As a student, cultivating a positive outlook on one’s career can be energizing and give purpose to projects and tasks. This involves exploring mindsets through the lens of growth and development, in contrast to being fixed to the completion of standardized tasks (departmental seminars, candidacy exams, thesis defences, etc.). What many struggling graduate students need is support in cultivating a mindset that focuses on their career after graduate school in tandem with the completion of their degree program.

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Developing a career mindset to deal with challenges

When guiding graduate students through their career development, exploring mindsets can be a helpful first step. Connecting and unearthing where they currently are can give insights into whether a student is ready to take action and dive deeper into strategizing and planning for their future. With the complexities that come with academia, a student’s sense of self could conflict with the expectations around them. Many graduate students struggle with imposter syndrome and deep levels of anxiety around what it means to be successful.

One of the best ways to support these states of mind is to slowly introduce students to frameworks that situate and engage them in future possibilities. Design thinking mindsets introduced by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans at Stanford are examples of resources designed to encourage proactive thinking.

Cultivating curiosity

Curiosity is the building block of scholarship. Due to the very specific and niche nature of an academic investigation, students can lose perspective and the overall curiosity for their surroundings. We can remind students that it is their curiosity that probably got them into academia. This trait can be cultivated to encourage them to be more curious about career possibilities and help usher in connections, networks and career options.

Reframing the student mindset

When graduate students are faced with barriers, supporting them to reframe their thinking can help get them unstuck and move forward with confidence. For example, if a student is questioning their entry into graduate education, helping that student take part in a positive dialogue on the possibilities open to them can go a long way. Students have access to a variety of resources and support while in school. Simply being a student can be a powerful tool to connect with people as many professionals are open to supporting and connecting with students to help grow their network.

Taking action and working together

Taking the initiative to put things into practice is a core tenant of a design mindset. It is also incredibly useful when navigating the uncertainty that comes with graduate school and a career. Taking action to explore career possibilities while in graduate school can alleviate the sense of loss that is felt when thinking about what comes next. Students have many opportunities to take advantage of professional development programming, extracurricular and work-integrated learning opportunities offered by their departments, unit and university. Are they thinking about pursuing consulting as a career? Encourage their attendance at a student-run workshop connecting them to consultants. Do they want to build their communication and leadership skills? Maybe they can run for the board of a student group they are interested in. Taking advantage of active engagement opportunities is paramount to building skills that can last a lifetime.

Additionally, collaborative efforts often lead to better outcomes. Graduate education can be highly competitive and sometimes cause the dysfunctional belief that “I have to do everything on my own to be successful.” Exploring career next steps and connecting and collaborating with colleagues, peers, staff and faculty can lead to generating many options and opportunities for exploration. Collaboration also creates hope and alleviates the well-documented loneliness felt throughout many students’ graduate education.

Putting it into practice and acknowledging the time commitment

 To illustrate the aforementioned mindsets: imagine a student who is feeling lost as to what they can do after graduate school. They have lost their original excitement and energy for their area of study and are under pressure to complete the degree and figure out career next steps. They are also worried that being in graduate school has taken them too far away from the working world and that employers might think they are overqualified and under-experienced for work. Rekindling their curiosity, reframing their obstacles as opportunities, brainstorming and collaborating on actionable next steps could be transformative for this student. Grounding them through the process should help them navigate many of the uncertainties and challenges that will come along the way.

Every endeavour takes time and is a process. Acknowledging this can help reduce the levels of urgency and frustration of wanting immediate results. Helping a student to “trust the process” may take some time and effort, but when it becomes a part of the mindset, it allows you to know that failures along the way are not detrimental to progress. They can be powerful opportunities to learn and chart a new path forward.

Clair R, Gordon M, Kroon M, Reilly C. (2021 Jan 27) The effects of social isolation on well-being and life satisfaction during pandemic. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 8, 28. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00710-3.

Dinuka Gunaratne is the Director of the Centre for Graduate Professional Development (CGPD) at the University of Toronto. Over the past 14 years, he has worked at six post-secondary institutions across Canada in various roles including in student services, experiential and work-integrated learning, and graduate student career and professional development.

Trevor Johnson is a graduate student in environmental chemistry at the University of Alberta. He worked as a career educator at the University of Alberta Career Centre for over three years during his studies and has helped numerous students develop their personal profiles, job search and plan for their careers.

Thomas Feth is a law student at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. He previously worked for the University of Alberta Career Centre in career education and currently volunteers as a Youth Employment Mentor with Boys & Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton & Area.

Embedding world of work knowledge in the classroom can transform how students feel about their learning

Lucy Sattler

Education has many purposes, and one of those is to help young people prepare for their working lives. School should give them the skills and knowledge they need to set off on a grand career adventure, and part of this includes the development of a positive career mindset. Young people need to switch on to their careers and build the skills and knowledge they’ll use to find, secure and keep work in a field they love throughout their lives.

Children begin to form ideas about the type of work they want to do when they’re very young – even before school has started – and these ideas coalesce into a mindset that guides their choices throughout school and beyond. This mindset helps them make decisions about which subjects they take, how hard they work and what other activities they choose, all of which will affect the number of options they have to choose from at the end of their time at school. That’s why it is so important to guide students as they build their career mindset.

Teachers often lack the time, training and knowledge to help students cultivate a career mindset. Research shows that subject-area teachers are a significant influence on post-school decisions, yet many teachers have little experience of other occupations outside of teaching, and limited exposure to apprenticeship pathways. This limits their ability to offer impartial career guidance on a wide range of pathways – they simply don’t have the knowledge they need, and this affects students’ development of career mindsets. If we want to ensure students leave school with a positive career mindset, then we need to start in the classroom.

Embedding world of work knowledge within the curriculum can transform how students feel about their learning. When teachers help students understand why they are learning algebra or Shakespeare, they become more engaged with the content, which in turn leads to improved academic and well-being outcomes. They can see the point, which gets them thinking about the purpose of what they’re doing and connects their classroom learning with life once school is over. From the earliest days of school, students can begin to connect their interests, knowledge and skills with possible future career paths; they learn to develop an individual career mindset.

 The role of mindset in engagement (and disengagement)

Disengagement is a problem across the board; according to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workforce Report, four out of five adults don’t feel engaged at work. Disengaged individuals earn less, have poorer health outcomes and are less productive, which affects business and the economy. But disengagement isn’t confined to adults – a 2013 study of students in high-performing US high schools found that two-thirds of students are not regularly engaged in their learning.

These students don’t see the point of what they’re learning. The disengagement habits they form at school follow them into the workforce because they’re not acquiring the deep-learning, cognitive-engagement skills they need to build a productive career mindset.

Disengagement has three dimensions: behavioural, emotional and cognitive. While it is relatively easy to identify students who are behaviourally disengaged (attendance, in-class behaviour, etc.), it is much more difficult for educators to accurately identify students who are emotionally or cognitively disengaged. These students have an apathy toward school, which leads them to take the easy path; even gifted students settle for average marks and each day they simply “go through the motions.” This is a particular problem for students in their mid-teens, who are too far away from their final exams to find them motivating and are less likely to engage with standard school measures of achievement.

Expectancy-Value Theory links student beliefs about the value of their learning to their motivation and effort; students who see value in what they’re learning relative to their lives become more engaged. One solution to the disengagement problem could be to link what students are learning in class with their future careers and use this to build a positive career mindset.

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Fostering relevance in the classroom

Teachers who foster relevance between lesson content and the student’s interests and aspirations have the power to transform how students approach their learning.

To foster relevance, a teacher needs to understand how the content they deliver relates to jobs that exist in the labour market, and this requires a deep understanding of the world of work.

Teachers also need to connect the content in a way that helps students make decisions about how it relates to their lives. For example, a mathematics teacher may explain that engineers use trigonometry to build strong bridges, and that if a student becomes a builder, engineer or carpenter, they may also use trigonometry in this way. Teachers can go further and explain that students who find trigonometry interesting may want to explore careers where they get to work with spatial design at a range of levels, from product designers through to landscapers.

Students lack the world-of-work experience to be able to make these mental links without support, but the evidence base for fostering relevance as an intervention to improve student engagement is strong. With the right support, schools can implement programs to embed career learning with the curriculum.

An integrated approach

A school-wide approach is needed if students are to develop a positive career mindset during their time at school. Rather than sidelining career education to one class, or limiting exposure to specific year levels, a holistic and inclusive career education program creates a culture of career readiness and gives students the opportunity to learn about their career and reflect on a regular basis.

More schools are already moving towards this model; they are integrating innovation and entrepreneurship education, setting up ‘soft skill’ development programs, and offering peer mentoring to give students the non-academic skills they need to thrive. Collaborative programs, such as the University of Melbourne’s New Metrics for Success and the global Big Picture Learning movement, are seeking to engage with “forward-thinking” schools to revisit everything we value in education.

“… a holistic and inclusive career education program creates a culture of career readiness and gives students the opportunity to learn about their career and reflect on a regular basis.”

In some places, schools are now required to deliver career education to a set standard. For example, the UK introduced the Gatsby Benchmarks to mandate career education standards in schools. Shifting the school culture toward one that actively prepares students for their lives requires a change of focus and the introduction of career education into every aspect of school life.

Embedding career education content does not have to mean a complete rethink of our education system, as small steps can increase the number of touchpoints students have with career education on a regular basis. This may be as simple as introducing a ‘life prep’ section into the weekly assembly, and then reinforcing these skills in homeroom or student mentoring programs, which, over time, should lead to cultural change and a school-wide focus on life preparation and career management skills. Within the curriculum, inserting short videos and talking points that connect the current unit of work with particular jobs, or hanging posters that link learning areas with their associated careers, should help students assess the relevance of the content to their lives. Teachers should also be provided with the professional development and resources they need to connect their content with a range of career pathways at the start of each unit, with the support of the school career professional.

Through small actions, schools can begin to build a culture where a career mindset is valued.

Lucy Sattler is a career education professional with a passion for helping young people make informed choices about life once school is over. She is the CEO and Founder of Study Work Grow, and through her work she supports hundreds of schools and tens of thousands of students with engaging, evidence-based career development resources.

The negative stories clients tell themselves can prevent them from engaging in impactful job search activities like networking

Michelle Schafer

As I embarked on my morning run one day, I was struck by how beautiful the sky was, with the sun starting to peek through the network of clouds. We all have our own network – people who surround us from all aspects of our lives. Family, friends, co-workers, fellow parents at our kids’ schools and activities, people we met while taking a course or volunteering. For your clients looking for their next fulfilling job, now is the time to lean on this network of support. As we know, building (and tapping into) relationships with others is the most impactful job search activity, and the one to devote the most energy to.

Cognitively, clients will tell me they understand the return on their investment of time is the greatest with networking activities, and yet just thinking of engaging with others creates anxiety. Some clients will lean heavily on limiting beliefs – stories they create for themselves that are founded on assumptions, self-judgments and past experiences. These negative “stories” cause them to believe they can’t network, or won’t be successful at it, so they don’t even try. And in this pandemic, this narrative has taken centre stage.

“People are too busy / stressed in this pandemic to want to help, so they will probably say no.”

“Networking isn’t effective over video.”

“I don’t have much of a network, so I have no one to ask.”

How would you know one of your clients has a limiting belief that is preventing them from moving forward in their search? These observations may sound familiar:

• They have a pattern of making excuses when you follow up on networking progress
• They resist suggestions to pursue senior-level contacts and prefer to only reach out to contacts at a lower level in the organization
• They struggle with assembling a list of potential contacts who could help
• They have “catch-up” conversations with contacts with no “ask” for further assistance

The truth is, most people do want to help. They remember what it was like to look for work and they love talking about themselves. And, as we’ve found through the pandemic, it’s very possible to build good connections over video – and networking can even be easier in a virtual format. It takes courage to reach out, but if you don’t ask, you don’t receive!

While a positive mindset can help a client move forward in a job search, limiting beliefs will hold a client back, create anxiety or keep them “stuck.” These beliefs can wield a lot of power – and the more a client’s limiting beliefs are driving their job search, the more they will be challenged with articulating their achievements, seeing the possibilities (versus roadblocks) and reaching out for help.

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How can you help clients move past these beliefs, embrace a new mindset and create new “stories” that will lead to job search success?

• Remind your client of the importance of networking, and that it is an accepted (and expected) job search activity. This is especially true if they need to find new work quickly. Networking activities should comprise over 80% of a job search. A simple request to ask someone to get a resume into the hands of a decision-maker can be a “way in” to get an interview.
• Reframe the word “networking”: For some, just hearing the word is anxiety-inducing, and they may feel the idea of networking is challenging to navigate. Encourage the client to have “informational interviews” versus “networking conversations.” With these interviews, clients can explore possibilities and get curious about an organization and how their skills and experience fit.  A new name can make the activity less daunting and more accessible.
• Encourage clients to follow up with network contacts: Two weeks from the time of the first contact is a reasonable timeframe. A no response does not mean the person doesn’t want to help – they may just be busy with projects, away on vacation or immersed in other work. A “nudge” to let the person know you are still interested to meet may be a helpful reminder.
• Explore why the client struggles with asking for help: There may be underlying shame and fear from their job loss that lurks beneath their resistance to reach out. You can help them unpack these feelings and create a new narrative for themselves, or refer them to professional resources. Asking for help is a sign of strength and shows initiative.
• Help clients develop language for meeting requests so they get noticed: An email request can briefly capture who the client is and the value they can offer, how the person can help (e.g. information about a new career path, perspective on challenges and opportunities within a specific sector) and potential dates to meet make it easier for the client to get noticed and receive a response.
• Ask clients what would open up for them if they reached out to a senior-level resource, and what would they be closed off from if they did not. You can help your client see the possibilities, and what they won’t get a chance to experience if they decide not to try.

Reaching out has its benefits. In the past few months, two people from my network reached out to see if I had contacts at the companies they applied to. As newcomers to Canada, they may have experienced some discomfort as they worked to establish their networks in a new country. I was able to connect them with the respective hiring managers, and both candidates got interviews and were later hired.

Like the clouds we admire on a sunny day, these clients were surrounded by a supportive network. They knew people were close by to help and reached out to ask, even though it was uncomfortable to do so.  You can play a pivotal role to help your clients move past their limiting beliefs, embrace a new mindset and achieve job search success.

Michelle Schafer is an ICF-certified coach and facilitator, specializing in career transition and leadership. She is the owner of Michelle Schafer Coaching, empowering people to achieve career fulfillment, and was recognized as one of Ottawa’s Top 20 career coaches in 2020. Schafer works with clients at all levels within government, tech, not-for-profit, health care and financial services and offers coaching 1:1, in groups and with teams. She is an executive contributor on career development topics with Brainz Magazine.

Curiosity and courage helped these practitioners overcome many obstacles to getting started in the field

Mai To and Vanessa Doan

Finding a job in a new field isn’t easy – and it’s that much more challenging when you’re a newcomer to the country as well. That was the situation we both found ourselves in after moving to Canada and trying to find work in the employment services field. Now that we have both found jobs that we love, we had a chance to reflect on our job searching journeys and were amazed by how applying a career mindset had helped us both thus far.

While we did not know each other before we lived in Canada, we have since found that we have many things in common: We are both Vietnamese and new immigrants to the country since 2019; we both have  backgrounds in marketing and communications; and most importantly, we are motivated to help people land their dream jobs. Recently, we shared our jobseeking journeys with each other – especially how we applied career mindsets to overcome obstacles arising from the intersectionality of having different marginalized identities: new immigrants, Asian, women, speaking English as a second language.

We hope that sharing our stories may inspire those with similar backgrounds facing the uncertainty of the jobseeking process, by showing how practising career mindsets can help us to not only to survive but to thrive in our chosen career path.

The foundation: the willingness to explore ourselves and seize opportunities

This career mindset kept us childlike and curious, by being open to exploring possible opportunities, but still adultlike, by seriously defining meaning in every exploration.

In our first couple of years in Canada, we embarked on exploration journeys to try different opportunities with our eyes wide open, so that we could learn more about ourselves as well as the job market in Canada.

Mai: When I was in the Master of Education program at Brock University, I was excited about the many opportunities available; it was like an all-you-can-eat buffet of experiences. I mixed and matched different activities, developing new identities as a community volunteer, a peer mentor, a researcher, a higher education marketing officer and an instructional support assistant.

I engaged in everything I could – like a child, not afraid of losing anything, including time. While opening up to new activities, I wrote reflections frequently to gradually define a career path for myself. Life is a total paradox; while I was not afraid of losing time, I ended up saving more of it in the long run by finding a career that rooted deeply in my heart and purpose.

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Vanessa: At this stage, similar to Mai, I had many career choices in my mind. Should I become an employment counsellor? An early childhood educator? Should I continue to work in marketing and communication? I fell deeper into what felt like a hole that I could not get out of, which was draining and terrifying. That was when a great career mindset came in: Follow the joy! I spent lot of time reflecting, and realized how engaged and energized I was when communicating and working with adults and youth.

I also did research on Career Cruising and held informational interviews with people in the fields I was considering. I gained insightful knowledge of the fields and learned that being an employment counsellor would be a perfect fit for me based on my skills, interests and experience.

The connection: The courage to identify our own career path

This career mindset kept us moving ahead with both direction and flexibility.

After two years in Canada, we had collected different experiences and skillsets that we could bring to the table. However, the only problem was that they were not connected.

Mai: It took courage for me to tell myself and the universe who I wanted to be professionally, because I was afraid that I would look stupid in the eyes of experts in the field and that I would never be enough to work in that profession. However, I knew that I had to be brave to choose a direction. Luckily, I had my compass, which was working in the education field.

I created my Plan A (full-time permanent positions in education, especially work-integrated learning related roles) and Plan B (any jobs in the education field). After two months with 20 applications – and partly thanks to receiving the Work-Integrated Learning Student of the Year 2019 award from EWO – I got one interview in a co-op office at an Ontario university. Unfortunately, I was not the selected candidate.

In the following 12 months, while applying actively to any positions I could in the education field, I ended up with several part-time, temporary jobs in my Plan B. During that time, I had tailored resumes and cover letters for approximately 100 full-time jobs, and got 10 interview opportunities, but was not successful. One day in July 2021 (exactly one year after graduation), thanks to connecting with my current supervisor through LinkedIn, I got my first full-time permanent job as a Career Services Specialist in Toronto.

Vanessa: The hardest part for me was that I was doubting myself. As a new immigrant with several barriers to employment, a student, a wife and mother of a 4-year-old boy, I was constantly juggling different roles. I got turned down in 20 interviews, and at some points, I wondered if I could ever land a job.

However, the moment I realized that I could turn my disadvantages into assets, I felt empowered and my confidence rose. “English is not my mother tongue” was replaced with “I am bilingual and my accent is a sign of bravery.” “I am an immigrant” was replaced with “As an immigrant, I can relate with other immigrants in many ways, as I have been through the same challenges in my job search.” It took courage and hard work for me to look at my self-perceived disadvantages in a different light when applying for employment counselling jobs.

To help bridge my knowledge gap, I took courses for career development practitioners. Then came an opportunity to gain a Community Support Worker diploma. I was hesitant, as it is not directly related to employment services. However, the career mindset of “I won’t always know where I’m going, but I can always know whether I’m going in the right direction” encouraged me to seize the opportunity. I learned about mental health challenges, interpersonal communication and other areas that are valuable for my current job.

Looking back, I realize that I grabbed all the chances with excitement because I knew that they aligned with my future destination of working in employment services. A key takeaway for me was that the job search journey is not like having a Google map that shows each direction from A to B; it is more about having a compass so that I know I am on the right track and keep moving forward.

The continuity: The desire to keep exploring and thriving

This career mindset keeps us continue learning and exploring, because change is inevitable.

We felt the transformation in us, as we adapted different career mindsets throughout the most difficult time of searching for our very first jobs in Canada. Now, we both have jobs, but we understand that the uncertainty will always be there, and the job market is forever changing and evolving. That is why we believe that applying career mindset should be continuous in every profession and at every career stage. In other words, we need to shake hands with “career mindset” and become lifelong friends if we want to have a meaningful career.

Mai To is currently working as a Career Services Specialist at Herzing College, Toronto campus. She has developed expertise in employer relations, post-secondary student career coaching, as well as internship advising and supervising. She is a lifelong learner and is working to get certified as a career development practitioner in the near future.

Vanessa Doan works as an Employment Counsellor at MOSAIC in Vancouver, BC. She holds a Master’s in Marketing Sales and Services from Paris-Sorbonne University, and a community support worker diploma. Doan’s interest in becoming an employment counsellor stemmed from her desire to help jobseekers move forward in their job search, bridging the gap between where they are and where they want to be in their career.

Asking kids what they want to be can contribute to a fixed mindset that is misaligned with the current economic landscape

Fanie Zis

“I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. Still.”

This is what I heard from a distressed client who had two bachelor’s degrees, had just completed law school and had reported high levels of job dissatisfaction throughout her life, and now again in her new role as a lawyer in family law.

She was 43 years old.

Like many people, my client had been asked the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” repeatedly in her childhood. Our interaction inspired me to explore this question, which is often asked at a very early age and throughout adolescent development. I wanted to better understand its effect on our mindsets – a mental attitude or state of mind, a set of beliefs, values and attitudes about oneself and the world.

This article will explore the potential problems associated with this question and accompanying mindset. It will also look at how you as a career professional can help clients discover and nurture a different mindset – one that aligns with the outer world of work, yet holds true to the client’s values, thus increasing their chances to have a healthy career development journey.

The question and the mindset

Although the “what do you want to be?” question has good intentions – such as promoting goal setting, career exploration and planning – it can also contribute to the following potential problems:

• Does not align with the realities of the current economic landscape and labour market
• Assumes the person’s skillset, interests, values and motivators will stay the same
• If the “career for life” or established vocational identity has not been set, then there is something wrong with them
• The occupation a client selects as a child may no longer exist when they are “grown up” will have changed substantially or it may not exist yet
• The concept of grown up is subjective, unclear and fixed. It assumes that grown up is a universal life stage where certain “markers” need to be met
• Puts too much emphasis on defining self as what you do, not other areas of self-identity
• Can contribute to mental health issues, low levels of job satisfaction, poor sense of well-being

However, the problem is not so much the question but the mindset the question cultivates. As soon as we start asking the question, we create a foundation for a mindset that does not offer a supportive framework for career development.

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Mindsets can be classified as “fixed” or “growth,” a concept developed by psychologist Carol Dweck. A fixed mindset is one that is rigid and believes that intelligence, learning, personality and ability are fixed, with no room for development. A growth mindset is one where these factors can grow with time and experience. The concept of “not yet” is also introduced in Dweck’s theory. So, in response to someone asking, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, a growth mindset may respond, “I don’t know. Not yet.”

This question can contribute to a fixed, outdated mindset, which is not in line with the current growth-based economic landscape. There is thus a mismatch in mindsets. To better illustrate this, here is what this might look like if these mindsets could talk:

Fixed mindset

• “I have to figure out what I am going to be when I grow up.”
• “I am not considered grown up until I find a career and stick with it.”
• “The career I choose in high school must and will be the one I have for the rest of my working life.”
• “If I don’t like my career when I am grown up, there is something wrong with me”
• “Grown up is a destination.”

Growth mindset

• “What I want to be now may change later on and that’s okay.”
• “What I choose now may cease to exist in the future.”
• “I am in control of my career development.”
• “I will need to continuously learn new skills even though my job title may stay the same.”
• “Grown up is not a destination, it’s about the ongoing process of growing.”

At the same time, the economic landscape and labour market would be saying things like, “I’m here today, gone tomorrow”; “Provide your own job security”; and “Ongoing learning and development are a necessity.”

The growth mindset responds to that reality, whereas the fixed mindset might be unprepared for changes in the economic landscape.

3 ways to help clients cultivate a career mindset shift

Your client cannot control the world around them, but they can choose their mindset. These strategies can help clients move past the binary thinking of the “what do you want to be when you grow up?” question and toward a more fulfilling exploration of career.

1. Evoke awareness: Help your client understand their own mindset. What are some of their values, beliefs and attitudes about career development? How is their mindset shaped by societal, cultural and familial influences? How is this mindset helping them/not helping them?
2. Challenge their current mindset: To change a mindset, you need to challenge it. Strategies could include:

a. Learning about career development theories, such as Dr. Jim Bright’s Chaos Theory and John Krumboltz’s’ Planned Happenstance, to introduce the client to new ideas.

b. Connecting with others to learn about their career pathways through informational interviews. What are some of the client’s findings? What can the client learn and draw from this experience?

c. Changing the question. Instead of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” try:

• In what ways would you like to grow?
• If you could create any job you wanted, what would this look like?
• What roles would you like to take on?
• Who do you want to be?
• After you’ve reached “grown up,” what will you have accomplished and where will you be?

3. Help them get out of their comfort zone

Having a particular mindset, especially one that is fixed, can feel comfortable, even if it is not the most effective mindset for a particular situation. You can help your client step out of their comfortable, fixed mindset by encouraging them to embrace fear, facilitate learning and thus enter a growth zone, which could lead to a new mindset. What is comfortable/uncomfortable is subjective and can include anything the client is willing to do that helps them face their fear and discover new territory. Suggested strategies will vary but some ideas may include: trying something new (task, course, hobby), implementing one change in their daily routine, identifying a fear and taking one step toward facing it.

 These strategies offer a starting point for career professionals to help clients let go of current attitudes and beliefs that are not serving them. We can support them to explore what it is like to live life through a different mindset – one that involves accepting a constant state of learning, understanding and living out their values.

And please, let’s help prepare the next generation for a successful career and do away with asking “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Growth never stops, and by cultivating a mindset that accepts constant change, we can learn to sit in the unknown and to keep exploring.

Coming from a background in psychology, counselling and career development, Fanie Zis is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Zis works as a Life Smart Coach for Homewood Health’s EFAP program and as a freelance life and career coach, working with clients by supporting them through personal and professional development and life enhancement processes.

The accommodations to support workers after an illness or injury are often best practices for all employees

Tracey Kibble

In 2021, the phrase “return to work” has taken on a new meaning.

Before the pandemic, this phrase described and contextualized a worker’s reintegration into their place of employment following recovery from an accident, illness or injury. Workplaces, insurers and compensation boards had identified strategies to address the protocols of supporting workers to return to their work environments with potential modifications, accommodations and supports.

Vocational rehabilitation professionals were acutely aware of the inherent challenges associated with the return-to-work process. Research strongly confirmed the reality that many workers perceived or experienced discrimination, prejudice and decreased social value in the context of being identified as an injured or ill worker. As noted by Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, “Many individuals report being treated differently (and) stigmatized” upon re-entry to the workforce. Stigma for returning employees was often more significant for those who had been away from work recovering from acute or episodic mental health difficulties or other invisible conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a paradigm shift in mindsets around the phrase “return to work.” Over time, language, policies, legislation and societal perspectives change. What was previously acceptable and commonplace becomes obsolete, inappropriate, offensive or even illegal as cultural norms and practices are reconstructed. Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, was transformative in coining the concept of “paradigm shift” – defined as an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way. These epic mindset shifts occur perhaps once in a generation – for instance, the Great Depression or the 1969 moon landing. This global pandemic has created a paradigm shift that has affected all aspects of our society, including our mindset about how, when and where we work.

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Now, “return to work” has much broader connotations. Many people who began remote work during the pandemic face a return to in-person work for the first time since March 2020. The commonalities between the previous approaches for “return to work” in a traditional vocational rehabilitation context and the new normal being navigated by employers and employees may bring about a more thoughtful and adaptable landscape in the world of work.

Long before this pandemic, in 2011, the Government of Canada outlined key recommendations for what was traditionally called “return-to-work” planning, which included the following:

1. The workplace has a strong commitment to health and safety, which is demonstrated by the workplace parties.
2. The employer makes an offer of modified work (that is, work accommodation) to injured and ill workers so that they can return in a safe and timely manner to work activities that are suitable for their abilities.
3. Return-to-work planners ensure that their plans support returning workers.
4. Managers are trained in work disability prevention and included in return-to-work planning.
5. The employer makes a timely and considerate contact with injured and ill workers.
6. Someone has the responsibility to co-ordinate an employee’s return to work.
7. With the worker’s consent, employers and health care providers communicate with each other about workplace demands as needed.

Previously, it was not uncommon for these return-to-work processes to be wrought with challenging negotiations and complex planning activities. As vocational rehabilitation professionals, we were frequently gatekeepers and co-ordinators in these systems, supporting both workers and employers to facilitate a successful return to work. However, over the past 18 months, discussions around health (both physical and psychological) and the workplace have become increasingly mainstream.

The pandemic and resulting changes and restrictions in our communities and workplaces have significantly negatively impacted many individuals’ well-being. Over 1.7 million Canadians have been diagnosed with COVID. Often the accommodations (whether addressing physical accessibility, the benefits of remote work, ergonomics, communication of medical information, modified scheduling, modification of tasks, job carving) that were previously recommended for returning workers following an accident, injury or illness are in fact best practices that could potentially benefit all employees. We already knew this.

In October 2021, the Canadian government recommended protocols for employers’ return-to-work practices that include open communication about policies and procedures, and encouragement for employees to take care of their physical and mental health. The Chartered Professional Accountants’ association has released guidelines highlighting workplace safety, employee rights, accommodations for medical conditions and flexible employment terms with the realization that employers need to acknowledge individual situations, manage expectations and focus on the immediate realities in return-to-work practices.

There are numerous parallels between the 2011 guidelines and the 2021 recommendations. What was previously specific to returning workers following an injury, illness or accident has, in many ways, become universal best practice in all employment settings, as employers have begun to re-group. A simple online search of the phrase “return to work” no longer yields results relating to ill or injured workers; instead, the process of “return to work” has become a commonplace phenomenon across all industries and work environments.

A mindset shift?

Will this new normal facilitate a more understanding and flexible world of work? Will many seemingly previously insurmountable obstacles shift to create more supportive work environments? Just maybe one positive outcome of the COVID-19 global pandemic has been a blurring of the boundaries between work and health, and a greater appreciation of our wellness – both physical and psychological. Time will tell if an acknowledged global need for more individualized expectations in the workplace will enable a conceptual mindset shift toward workplace practices that will benefit all and, as a result, reduce stigma for those who are re-entering the workforce after a non-COVID related absence.

Tracey Kibble, MEd (CRDS), RRP, RTWDM, CVRP, has been employed in the realm of social services, health care, education and return to work for the past 30 years. She is currently a Vocational Rehabilitation Services Manager with Metrics Vocational Services, a national provider of diverse and comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services across Canada. She is also the current president of the Vocational Rehabilitation Association (VRA) of Canada.