Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) experience unique challenges in the workplace. Career professionals can support these clients by providing effective career guidance and interventions. In the new CERIC literature search, LGBTQ and Career Development, we highlight emerging research and best practices to support LGBTQ clients to build inclusive work environments.
Topics covered in the literature search include:
Career development for LGBTQ populations
Barriers to career progression of LGBTQ individuals
Best practice in career interventions for LGBTQ employees
LGBTQ resources to build student career success
Career interventions for transgender individuals
Research on workplace equity policies for LGBTQ individuals
There are now 57 literature searches available, including Career Development Theory and Career Management Models, Economic Benefits of Career Guidance, Parental Involvement in Career Development, Labour Market Trends, Mental Health Issues in the Workplace, and more.
Featuring comprehensive listings of key research and articles in career development, literature searches highlight critical points of current knowledge. As a student, academic or practitioner in the field, literature searches are helpful if you are researching the latest thinking or proven best practices. They are also valuable if you are considering a submission to CERIC for project partnership funding in order to gain an overview of major work already done in your area of interest.
Client/student mental health predictably improves as a result of career development. In this one-hour webinar, the authors will summarize the broad ranging effects of career development and their associated mental health benefits. They will also review some of the mechanisms underlying career development’s role in mental health and describe how, by adjusting one’s intentions, these positive mental health outcomes can be achieved more effectively in your career development practice.
Redekopp is President of the Life-Role Development Group Ltd. and has been an avid champion of career development since 1988. He has received provincial and national awards in career development and is widely recognized in Canada as a thought leader in the field. Huston has been involved in the career development field as a counsellor, practitioner, trainer and counsellor educator since the early 1990s. He is a Registered Psychologist, Counsellor and Associate Professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
The book that the webinar is based on is available for purchase in print or for free download as a pdf at ceric.ca/cdmh. It launched in January at the Cannexus National Career Development Conference and has received endorsements for its ground-breaking perspective from global career development luminaries including Mark Savickas, David Blustein and H B Gelatt.
A record near 1,300 delegates from across the country and around the world gathered in Ottawa from Jan. 27-29, 2020 for the Cannexus National Career Development Conference to learn about and discuss the issues shaping work and well-being in Canada, including community social enterprise, youth empowerment, mental health, future skills and reconciliation.
Conference highlights included:
Three phenomenal keynote speakers: Social entrepreneur Zita Cobb shared her inspiring work to revive Fogo Island, NL with lessons for preserving small communities throughout rural Canada; UK researcher Tristram Hooley made a powerful case for why politicians should care about career development and set out the evidence for its social and economic impact; and Natan Obed, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, discussed improving the well-being of the 65,000 Inuit in Canada during a time of reconciliation.
Cannexus delegates got a look at the first results of the 2019 CERIC Survey of Career Service Professionals – a national survey that was completed by more than 1,350 career professionals across Canada last year. It includes a demographic snapshot, learning priorities and public perceptions of the career development field. A new section of the survey focusing on the regrets, anxieties and myths that career professionals are hearing about from students and clients generated considerable media interest.
This year’s Cannexus featured more than 150 education sessions, with some of the most-attended covering career development and mental health; enhancing economic activity through public, private & not-for profit collaboration; students’ perspectives on careers; identifying experiential learning outcomes; labour market trends in an age of disruption; preparing for the future of work; soft skills for employment retention; trauma-informed career practice; design thinking for career development; and the power of LinkedIn and social reciprocity.
Other programming included a Workforce Development Spotlight that examined newcomer integration, transforming workforce systems and students in a global workforce. The always-popular Spark! TED-style talks returned, a new World Cafe crowdsourced ideas around youth empowerment and the powerful KAIROS Blanket Exercise built understanding of Canada’s shared history among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
The latest programs, products and services were also showcased by 45 exhibitors in a sold-out exhibit hall in addition to special Zones focused on raising awareness of organizations doing work in Mental Health, Social Enterprise and Reconciliation.
In a post-conference survey, a total of 95.9% of respondents rated Cannexus as good to excellent. The majority of delegates indicated that they plan to either use what they learned at work right away or incorporate it over time, with 95.6% stating they plan to share what they learned with their colleagues to impact change broadly. Comments included:
“Cannexus20 was very interesting, motivating and inspirational. The presenters are amazing and knowledgeable. All of the aspects of this conference are beneficial and educational. I strongly recommend it to everyone who is either in career development or career counselling.”
– Michèle Elliott, Indigenous Navigator, Indigenous Services Canada
“Cannexus offers a national conversation on what’s current – and what’s coming – for career development. It’s a dialogue you won’t find anywhere else. Thank you for building a conference that is an important part of professional growth for our team.”
– Kim Kiloh, Director, Centre for Student Involvement & Careers, University of British Columbia
“Cannexus20 was a great event packed with informative presentations and it allowed for meaningful connections with colleagues in the career development field. It was an energetic and engaging event. Looking forward to Cannexus21.”
– Karen Mulrooney, Program Co-ordinator, Job Connect NL
If you’re a career professional in Canada, chances are you identify as female (a whopping 82.6% of you do), have a Bachelor’s degree, and are between 45 and 54 years of age. You are most interested in learning that helps you support adults in career transition, you need research related to mental health more than in the past and the biggest issue you anticipate affecting your practice is government funding. This snapshot of the field comes from the newly released results of the 2019 CERIC Survey of Career Service Professionals.
This latest CERIC Survey of Career Service Professionals is a national survey that was completed by 1,350 career professionals across Canada from November 1-29, 2019 – making it the largest response yet. The findings help CERIC, and the field at large, to better understand interests and challenges among career professionals, as well as priorities for professional development. This comprehensive survey is only done once every four years. It was previously run in 2011 and 2015 and provides rich data on the state of the career services community in Canada and how it has changed over time.
Education, salary and career progression
Survey results underscore the diversity of the career development field in Canada when it comes to educational background. For 21.4% of respondents, career development itself was the main focus of their highest level of applicable post-secondary studies, followed by 17.6% who had a background in education, and 12.2% who cited counselling, guidance or educational psychology. A total of 79.9% of career professionals hold a Bachelor’s degree while a further 35.3% have a Master’s.
Consistent in both 2019 and 2015, the top two services career professionals are engaged in are: career counselling and coaching, and employment advising and job coaching, followed by program planning/program delivery in this year’s survey. Career professionals reported that the top elements affecting their ability to effectively deliver their services are (respondents could check all that apply):
Heavy workload (49.4%)
Insufficient time to spend with clients/students (40.1%)
Inadequate financial resources (38.0%)
Limited support from institutional/organizational leadership (26.1%)
Limited access to appropriate resources (23.7%)
Levels of experience in the field are fairly evenly spread out with just under half of career professionals (47.6%) having 10 or fewer years of experience and just over half (50.4%) having more than 10 years of experience. Salaries reported among career professionals continue to be modest, though increase with experience. Those with 10 or fewer years’ experience report on average making $40,001-$55,000 a year; those with 11-20 years’ experience earn $55,001 to $70,000; and those with more than 20 years’ experience typically make up to $85,000.
Looking ahead to their own career progression, most career professionals see themselves remaining with their current employers. Over the next five years, one-third (33.5%) plan to stay in a similar role within the same organization, while 19.3% expect to move into a more senior role in the same organization, and 18.6% of career professionals anticipate a jump to a different employer. Just over 1 in 10 career professionals (11.6%) intend to be retired by 2025.
On the flip side, career professionals report multiple challenges with hiring for open roles in the field with the number one issue (20.9%) finding candidates with direct education or training in career development, followed by insufficient career development skills (18.5%) and limited experience in the field (15.1%). Specific comments included:
“There are not enough people with appropriate skills.”
“Most candidates have limited counselling skills for working with marginalized, multi-barriered clients.”
“Difficult to attract qualified and experienced people with the compensation package offered.”
Professional development and competency improvement
While those in the field value professional development, budgets provided by employers are limited. More than 1 in 4 career professionals (26.7%) indicate they do not have access to any professional development budget; 21.6% report that they receive less than $500 annually and 19.5% receive between $500 and $1,000. However, the overwhelming majority of career professionals (90.4%) would invest personally in their own professional development, with 52.0% willing to pay under $500 a year.
When it comes to formal learning approaches, career professionals show a preference for face-to-face interaction with half of survey respondents (50.7%) saying their top choice is to train through an in-person seminar or workshop. Rounding out their top three picks are online courses (37.0%) and conferences (36.1%). By contrast, in terms of informal learning, nearly two-thirds of career professionals (62.7%) turn to internet searches to keep up to date, with 48.5% watching video, and 45.8% reading online magazines and newsletters.
Asked which client groups they would prefer to focus their professional development on (and to check all that apply), the majority of career professionals in Canada are interested in strategies and tools that help them work with adult populations facing a variety of barriers:
Adults in career transition (57.6%)
People with mental health challenges (41.0%)
New Canadians/immigrants (39.8%)
People with low income (35.5%)
Unemployed (35.3%)
Post-secondary students (35.1%)
For more than half of career professionals surveyed, high or essential priority competencies to develop in the next year include: client relationship management (eg, case management, group facilitation and working with diverse groups) at 58.0%; personal/network development practices (eg, community-capacity building, stress management and leadership) at 55.3%; and career data competencies (labour market information, future of work) at 54.9%. The top three topics that career professionals would most like to see career development research focus on are: career counselling techniques, LMI such as employment trends – and mental health, which is up considerably from the No. 7 spot in the 2015 survey.
The future: Public perceptions and client concerns
With an eye to the future, career professionals anticipate the most significant changes in their practice over the next five years to be:
Change in government priorities, processes or funding
Impact of technology, AI or automation on jobs and job searching
Labour market shifts, a changing job market and the rise of the gig economy
Increased use of online services, tools, resources and social media
Shifting demographics
Working with more clients or students facing barriers
At the same time, career professionals believe gaps persist in the public perception of the value of career services in Canada compared with the reality:
Many respondents (43.3%) felt that the public either doesn’t know career services exist or do not understand the breadth and complexity of services: “I think that the public is mostly unaware of services that are provided by career service professionals.”
A smaller group of career professionals (17.7%) believe career services are viewed positively for their life-changing potential but that there is still some lack of clarity around how career services operate: “Invaluable resource, but (public) doesn’t know everything we can help with.”
A smaller number of respondents (10.7%) think the public would give mixed reviews to career services based on their range of personal experiences: “Some people perceive great value if they hit a wall and seek help, others don’t need us and therefore don’t see value.”
And, finally, a similar number (10.2%) think the predominant public perception is one that is misinformed about the nature of career services: “I think they perceive us as accessible only through college/university career centres for students or government low-income programs.”
For the first time, the CERIC Survey of Career Service Professionals also posed a series of questions related to the anxieties, regrets and myths that career professionals hear from their clients. Career professionals surveyed report that the students and adults they advise say they would go back and change their career choices if they could. Among their clients:
71.7% say “I wish I had understood myself better and chosen a career that is aligned with my values”
66.5% say “I wish I hadn’t been pressured into pursuing a career I didn’t want to pursue”
61% say “I wish I hadn’t played it safe and let fear prevent me from taking a different career direction”
58.8% say “I wished I hadn’t narrowed my options so soon and been able to explore other careers”
Career professionals indicated that Canadians want to balance their search for a career they are passionate about with economic realities. Their clients are evenly divided with 49.4% concerned about their ability to find decent-paying work and 45.3% anxious about making the “right” career decision. In Quebec, however, the number of clients seeking support with career decision-making jumps to 70.2%. Of note, only 3.2% of career professionals nationally report that their clients are fearful of AI/automation and what that means for their job prospects, which differs from would be expected given the level of public discussion around technology displacing workers.
Further exploration of survey results will continue this year with regional and sectoral analysis as well as comparisons with previous surveys.
This Winter 2020 issue of Careering magazine offers a crash course in many of the ethical dilemmas career professionals face today – what they are, the questions they raise and how to navigate them. Articles highlight the ethical codes available to career professionals, explore the implications of technology and look at ethics related to specific client populations, including newcomers, K-12 students and LGBTQ2+ jobseekers.
Careering magazine is Canada’s Magazine for Career Development Professionals and is the official publication of CERIC. It is published three times a year both in print and as an emagazine, including select content in French. Subscribe to receive your free copy. You can also access past issues for free online.
The next issue of Careering will be on the theme of “Rural Workforce Development” and will be a collaboration with the US-based National Career Development Association. Send your article pitches to Editor Lindsay Purchase, lindsay@ceric.ca, by Feb. 14.
If you are a full-time graduate student whose academic focus is career development or a faculty member working with full-time grad students in career counselling or a related field, then you want to know about the CERIC Graduate Student Engagement Program (GSEP). Applications for 2020 are due by Tuesday, March 31.
CERIC encourages engagement of Canada’s full-time graduate students (Master or PhD level) whose academic research is in career development or a related field. Research areas such as Education, Sociology, Social Work, Counselling Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Business with a focus on Human Resources or Organizational Behaviour are strongly encouraged to apply.
Through this program, graduate students will be introduced to CERIC and invited to:
Write for the CareerWise website, featuring the top career news and views, with a popular weekly newsletter curating the best of the site;
Submit to the peer-reviewed Canadian Journal of Career Development, the pre-eminent open access academic journal dedicated to multi-sectoral career development in Canada and around the world;
Interested in getting involved? Complete and submit this quick GSEP application form. If you are also interested in competing for the GSEP Award, please submit a one-page article on a career development-related topic of your choice (including a 60-word bio) to Marilyn Van Norman, Director, Research Initiatives, at marilyn@ceric.ca by the same March 31 deadline. To support you in sharing this opportunity with students and colleagues, GSEP information can be found at ceric.ca/grad_program and this printable GSEP handout.
After experiencing a devastating personal loss, a dissatisfied business consultant decides to take her happiness into her own hands – with the help of a career counsellor
In this Careering feature, jobseekers reflect on successes and struggles in their career development.
H.M.S. Power*
When we lose someone we love, to say our world gets turned upside-down is an understatement. I lost my beautiful mother almost a year ago from an aggressive cancer in a matter of six weeks. Losing your mother is like training for a grief marathon you never signed up for. There is no planned route or finish line. There is no seamless linear transition between the stages of grief. It is more a tangled ball of yarn, where you bounce erratically between stages, returning to some more often than others.
When you are confronted by tragedy and grief, it really puts things into perspective – including what you value in your career. Things that used to seem so important now are trivial. You learn to draw hard lines and say no as you realize your own mortality and become less willing to put up with situations and people that drain your happiness. My mom was only in her 50s when she passed, so I learned the hard way that life is short. Why spend a second of it doing anything other than what you love? I started to question where I was in life, the experiences I’d had, and what was and wasn’t making me happy.
Sifting through career dissatisfaction
My mom was a workaholic. I watched her through the years sacrificing all her energy and happiness in careers that made her miserable. I saw similarities in my own life. I hadn’t been happy at my current position for years, but always viewed it as temporary and never as a career that I would stick with. Much like the accounting degree I obtained, I sort of fell into the job.
My current position as a senior business consultant involves very little work-life balance. I’m required to travel to client sites from Monday to Thursday every week. My increased desire to be around my loved ones and familiar settings after my mother’s death has made me even more dissatisfied with my demanding travel schedule.
My lack of passion for the subject matter is also a challenge. The focus of my job is consulting with clients who are in finance and insurance, which doesn’t interest me. An integral part of my profession is constant learning and growth, as there are endless advancements in financial regulations and technology. Forcing myself to learn about topics that I viewed as tedious had me grasping at motivation and dedication I just didn’t possess any more.
Before business consulting, I travelled down a variety of career paths, none of which had to do with my degree in accounting. They ranged from producing large-scale paintings for company lobbies, modelling and styling, working as an esthetician, owning my own cake business and, finally, to my current side gig as a musician. I realized my current career dissatisfaction stemmed from not embracing my creativity. My demanding work load was leaving me very little room to pursue creative endeavours. Because of this realization, I decided to consult with a career counsellor. I needed to weave passion and breathe life back into my career.
Finding the right fit
After much research on Toronto career counselling services, I landed at CareerCycles. Many of their counsellors had 10+ years in career coaching in addition to psychology backgrounds, which I thought would be beneficial, given my emotional state. I started with an introductory consultation with the Practice Leader and President, Mark Franklin. We chatted about my challenges, interests and goals. The next step was placing me with a counsellor who would fit with my personality, creative objectives and had experience in what I was searching for. I was placed with Kerri Brock, who was a perfect fit. We shared many beliefs and a love for creation, and she had experience in a variety of sectors she could draw on to help me explore my options.
Our sessions began with a clarification phase: asking vital questions on what possibilities would be a better fit, translating past experiences into new opportunities, and matching strengths and desires. I didn’t realize how many options I had available to me. I was concerned my degree in accounting and current employment experiences were going to hold me back from the creative options I was seeking. This wasn’t the case at all.
“I needed to weave passion and breathe life back into my career.”
In the next exploration phase, we examined possibilities that tied in with my desires. We talked about my passion for music and how I was writing and performing with my partner, Shane. Our band was ramping up and I had accomplished a lot to get us there. I designed and built our website, created our logo, developed a brand blueprint for consistent social media creation, and devised a release and business plan. After hearing how much I had enjoyed this process, Kerri suggested what seemed to be a perfect career option for me: artist branding and development.
Next steps
I am still with my employer, but I am job searching for placements directly in line with developing skills for artist branding and development (eg, content creation, social media management, website design, writing, etc.). I am also actively seeking clients to build up a portfolio. I have already connected with artists within my network who are interested in working with me and have a project on the go with a company that provides workshops for positive life changes in adolescents and adults. As for our band, we have released our first single on streaming platforms and our EP is scheduled to come out in January.
In an ideal situation, I would replace my current salary with one stemming from music. Musicians are entrepreneurs, but it’s a concept few of us embrace. At the moment, though, our band and artist brand are so new that it will take some time before I can fully transition into entrepreneurial work. However, the option of helping other artists with branding and development would intertwine my passion and creativity in a way that would produce a revenue stream. Career counselling helped me make that discovery.
H.M.S. Powerhas an eight-year consulting background in accounting and finance. Now a Toronto-based musician, she is leaving the world of banking and finance and actively pursuing a career in music along with artist branding and development. She has a passion for travel, photography and cooking.
*H.M.S. Power is a pseudonym used at the author’s request to allow her to speak candidly about her employment experiences.
A University of Alberta program is connecting professionals with students to share career experiences through an identity-related lens
Amy Roy Gratton
More post-secondary institutions are developing resources to support career questions from LGBTQ2+ students who feel the stakes are high as they prepare for their careers and sometimes their first entry into the workforce. LGBTQ2+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, queer, questioning, pansexual, intersex, asexual, non-binary, unlabelled) jobseekers can face discrimination in job search and at their places of work, which can lead to negative mental and physical health outcomes. Making sense of career information can be confusing, and not every well-meaning career advisor – even those who are strong allies – can adequately address the complexities of identity in the workplace and what it means to be LGBTQ2+. Often, it is those with lived experience who can offer the most insightful and honest guidance. Our job in career services then becomes helping students connect with the wisdom in the workplace.
The University of Alberta Career Centre’s job-shadow program is a vehicle through which students can connect with professionals from all industries. Professionals share their career stories and a day in the life of their work through workplace visits, career information interviews and hands-on work activities. We have found our job-shadow hosts are willing and eager to address how their personal lives intersect with career.
How the program works
Since its inception in 2010, this bi-annual program has connected over 2,000 students with professionals in the community who volunteer their time as job-shadow hosts. The host creates a profile and they are matched by Career Centre staff with a student who has submitted an application. Students are required to attend a mandatory training session to help make the most of their job shadow, and afterward, the job-shadow host and student complete evaluations.
As part of the registration process, job-shadow hosts list typical career information such as their job title and a description of their average day, and how to best prepare for the job shadow. In addition, hosts can indicate whether they are willing to discuss identity-related experiences with such statements as:
I am a minority in my workplace and I can talk about my experiences.
I am balancing child or elder care with work and I can talk about managing multiple priorities.
I am the first person in my family to go to university and I can talk about the challenges.
I am LGBTQ2+ and I can talk about careers with this lens.
For this Case Study of our job-shadowing program, I reached out to our hosts to ask them to reflect on what it meant for them to share their career experiences through an LGBTQ2+ lens.
Talking to “out” professionals can help students understand that they are not alone in their concerns or experiences and connect with advice on how to navigate challenges.
One professional, who works in the non-profit sector, shared their experience of coming out as a student and how that differed later in the workplace. “There’s a misconception that ‘coming out’ is a single event when in fact we’re ‘coming out’ over and over and over again,” they said. The host offers advice to students on how to navigate what can be “difficult conversations” in the workplace. “Initially I worried about how people would react when I shared my identity because I knew I had to see them day after day. My advice to [students] is don’t start with an apology. I am living a normal life of a professional person, and I have found a way to be comfortable with that and I encourage them to do the same.”
This host also acknowledged that the social aspects of work can be challenging. Colleagues may make unintentionally offensive remarks; learning how to positively challenge their language doesn’t have to create friction. The host advises students to develop resilience as a way to help navigate such conversations.
This host also advises jobseekers on how to identify workplaces that are safe spaces for LGBTQ2+ people; non-profits linked to social missions may have more inclusive environments, and larger organizations may have more formalized diversity and inclusion practices and programs.
“There’s a misconception that ‘coming out’ is a single event when in fact we’re ‘coming out’ over and over and over again.” – Job shadow host
Demonstrating leadership
Hosts are also able to serve as role models for students by demonstrating leadership.
One host from the City of Edmonton said he supports his job-shadow participants by “try[ing] to be as out as possible” at work with “moments of fabulous flamboyance.” He has also asked his supervisor to refer to his husband in casual conversation to help make their office a safe space and respect diversity.
Another job-shadow professional in the non-profit sector who is out at work said that as an introvert, he has found more conservative ways to advocate for the LGBTQ2+ community, such as joining the board of the Pride Centre of Edmonton.
Having examples of leadership among LGBTQ2+ professionals can help combat isolation. For instance, one host shared the hurdles she faced as a young woman working in the male-dominated science field. While people would discuss balancing family with work, she said, no one talked about being LGBTQ2+ in the workplace. “For me, the silence on this issue was deafening.” What helped was finding a mentor outside of her immediate area of study.
Feedback from students has reinforced the value of the program. In one student’s application, she described her fears that her identity would prevent her from forming relationships with co-workers. “It puts a big smile on my face to see people who are openly LGBTQ2S+ leading successful careers,” the student said. “Getting to see part of yourself in someone is an inspiring experience.”
Conclusions
Work search is more than just the logistics behind the work search process. Knowing how to navigate work culture, conventions and social environment is lacking in formal career education and we’re grateful to our hosts for sharing their perspectives and experiences from an LGBTQ2+ lens. Career advisors can be allies and should advocate for allyship in the workplace, but what we have found at the University of Alberta Career Centre is that hearing from professionals who can relate first-hand to the experiences of being LGBTQ2+ in the workplace is the most powerful way we can support students.
Amy Roy Grattonis a Career Education Co-ordinator working with students, alumni and postdoctoral fellows at the University of Alberta Career Centre. The Career Centre gratefully acknowledges the contributions made by their hosts to this article and to the job-shadow program.
When encouraging client self-advocacy or advocating on a client’s behalf, it is vital that career professionals be aware of ethical considerations such as informed consent
Andrew Bassingthwaighte
While career development practitioners (CDPs) help clients navigate their career journeys, often we are also called upon to help these individuals deal with other issues that may impede them on their path. These issues can range from housing to immigration support to discrimination, to name a few; in each case, there is often a desire either from within us or from the client to act as an advocate.
Advocacy is a long-recognized concept in career development, and many professionals are aware of the value of this process, especially when the goal is to help clients access supports and resources that will further their economic and social well-being. Many of us engage daily in promoting self-advocacy – or the ability of our clients to make choices and decisions that affect their lives. Sometimes, though, there is a need to engage in further advocacy work on behalf of a specific client or community.
No matter the type of advocacy that we engage in, it is essential for CDPs to recognize two issues when engaging in this type of work. The first is to respect the dignity of clients with whom we work. The second is to be aware of any ethical considerations that could affect our work or profession.
Forms of advocacy
Advocacy looks different depending on the client or community that we are supporting. There are four main types of advocacy that could intersect with career practitioners’ work:
Self-advocacy: This involves empowering the clients with whom we work to make choices and decisions that affect their lives. Self-advocacy is regarded as an ideal form of advocacy as well as one that CDPs are most trained to engage in (Cadenas, 2018). Supporting clients in this type of advocacy requires establishing trust between the career practitioner and the client. This approach should incorporate cultural humility and sensitivity (Anderson et al., 2012, Cadenas, 2018).
Professional advocacy: Career practitioners serve as a bridge between their client and those in positions of power – such as people working in housing organizations or disability services – to make them aware of the client’s needs. It is essential when engaging in this type of advocacy to recognize that we are working with the client and give them space to speak and be heard (Mitcham et al., 2012).
Citizenship advocacy: Career practitioners expand their roles beyond the services they offer and act as a resource to communities that may face marginalization or discrimination within different sectors. The goal of this advocacy is to be a resource to those in the community and support their efforts. Community organizations such as immigration employment councils can support this work.
Public advocacy: In what is seen as the final level of advocacy (Cadenas, 2018), career practitioners work with both institutions and groups to draft public statements and inform policy processes. CERIC, for example, seeks to catalyze conversations around the economic and social impact of career development at a national level.
What all these advocacy models have in common is that they encourage practitioners to go beyond their typical daily tasks and engage in the process of challenging social justice issues that many of their clients face daily.
For those wanting to engage in advocacy efforts, the Canadian Standards & Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners – Code of Ethics highlights several areas that practitioners should be aware of in their work. Chief among these is the notion of informed consent.
Informed consent
The Code of Ethics framework (CCCD, 2004) prioritizes informed consent in several areas concerning how information is collected and used, but also with respect to the individual and their rights. At all times within our advocacy efforts, we need to ensure that we are putting the rights of the client first and taking the time to engage them in the process to identify their level of comfort with any steps taken.
However, there are times when, despite a client’s insistence on confidentiality, action is required (for example, where there is evidence of imminent danger to the client or others) (CCCD, 2004). In a CERIC blog on “The Ethics of Advocacy,” Roberta Neault (2012) gives a compelling overview of the debate that practitioners face when dealing with these concerns, which I encourage all practitioners to review.
Your comfort level
Further to recognizing the client’s comfort level when engaging in advocacy, as practitioners, we need to be comfortable in our abilities to do this type of work. The national Code of Ethics (CCCD, 2004) is clear that we must recognize the boundaries of our competencies, especially when dealing with issues that involve legal or other advice that may be outside of our areas of expertise. Alongside this, though, are personal competencies and boundaries. In becoming involved in advocacy work, we need to recognize our capacity and resilience when dealing with potentially stressful or traumatic issues.
Conflicts of interest
Our efforts may come into conflict with the agencies, organizations or funders that we work with each day. In some cases, this can be beneficial, as our advocacy work might identify opportunities to fill gaps or provide tailored services to individuals or groups. In other cases, though, our work may come in direct conflict with organizational policies or the practitioner’s personal beliefs or value systems.
It is vital that practitioners inform clients up front about the limitations of our services, alongside disclosing any potential conflicts of interest that might arise. In instances where a conflict arises and we need to step aside from the process, it is imperative to work with the client on what happens next (ie, referral to another organization), so the client is not left struggling with a lack of agency.
Conclusion
Engaging in advocacy is a critical but also enjoyable element of a career practitioner’s work. While there are several ethical considerations to bear in mind when engaging in this work, we need to understand that we are not alone. Not only are there groups and organizations that can help support the clients we work with, but as practitioners, we can also access these groups to learn from them, the issues that they face, and how we can support and walk alongside them as allies.
Andrew Bassingthwaighte is a Talent Development Specialist and Master of Arts – Social Justice and Equity Studies candidate at Brock University in St Catharines, ON. Having worked for almost 20 years in the UK and Canada providing employment counselling, training and mentoring to individuals from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, he now has the privilege of serving on Brock University’s President’s Advisory Committee on Human Rights, Equity and Decolonization (PACHRED).
References
Cadenas, G. (2018). Advocacy in career development with immigrants. Career Planning & Adult Development Journal, 34(4), 7–20.
Mitcham, M., Greenidge, W., Bradham-Cousar, M., Figliozzi, J., & Thompson, M. A. (2012). Increasing career self-efficacy through group work with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Journal of School Counseling, 10(22).
Anderson, S. K., Peila-Shuster, J. J., & Aragon, A. (2012). Cross cultural career counseling: Ethical issues to consider. Career Planning & Adult Development Journal, 28(1), 127–139.
Zita Cobb is Innkeeper of Newfoundland’s Fogo Island Inn and Founder and CEO of Shorefast, a registered Canadian charity with the mandate to promote cultural and economic resiliency for Fogo Island. She previously worked with JDS Fitel, subsequently JDS Uniphase, where she contributed to building the company into one of the most successful high-tech innovators in history. She firmly believes the success achieved by Shorefast illustrates that reviving small communities is possible: there is inherent value in rural places that can be reclaimed and made relevant for 21st-century life.
Cobb will be delivering the opening keynote address at CERIC’s Cannexus conference on Jan. 27, 2020. Cannexus is a bilingual, national career development that explores innovative approaches in the areas of career counselling and career and workforce development.
In a sentence or two, describe why career development matters.
It is always important to be present and playing an active role in one’s life and the world; this includes your career.
Which book are you reading right now and why did you choose it?
I just finished The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. I chose it because it’s important for us human beings to understand what is going on with our emotions, and what is going on with our brains. It’s about cultivating awareness in support of cultivating a balance between reason and emotion in our own minds.
What was your first-ever job and what did you learn from it?
My first “real” job was at the IGA grocery store on Elgin Street in Ottawa, where I moved for university after graduating high school on Fogo Island. Every walk of life was represented among the customers there … it was an interesting way to get insight into these different lives. There was something affirming about seeing humanity represented in this way.
What do you do to relax and how does it help you?
I enjoy hiking and being by the sea. Nature knows everything … there is comfort in that.
What is the one thing you wouldn’t be able to work without? Why?
I couldn’t work without physical notebooks. I still really prefer to write things down.
What is the most unusual interview question you’ve ever been asked and how did you respond?
I always find it strange when people ask me about risk. They ask me questions such as, “Wasn’t it risky to spend all that money on building the Fogo Island Inn?” But I don’t see it as risky. Money is just a thing; it has no inherent value. What was much more daunting was the idea that we might lose our community and our culture by doing nothing. That’s a real risk.
What’s something you want to do in the next year that you’ve never done before?
I want to start a community economics institute as the next phase of our Shorefast work.
Who would you like to work with most and why?
Elinor Ostrom … she was tenacious and logical in disproving the notion of the “tragedy of the commons.” I like working with people like that who don’t accept things at face value.
Which talent or superpower would you like to have and how would you use it?
I’d like to be able to take the time from one person and give it to others. There are so many people in the world doing good things who don’t have enough time to do those good things – and many others who aren’t using their time in service of the best things.
What do you consider your greatest achievement and why?
Everything Shorefast has done on Fogo Island to bring attention to the importance of place and community, in a time when the notion of community is at risk of being lost.
More post-secondary institutions are developing resources to support career questions from LGBTQ2+ students who feel the stakes are high as they prepare for their careers and sometimes their first entry into the workforce. LGBTQ2+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, queer, questioning, pansexual, intersex, asexual, non-binary, unlabelled) jobseekers can face discrimination in job search and at their places of work, which can 
While career development practitioners (CDPs) help clients navigate their career journeys, often we are also called upon to help these individuals deal with other issues that may impede them on their path. These issues can range from housing to immigration support to discrimination, to name a few; in each case, there is often a desire either from within us or from the client to act as an advocate.
Zita Cobb is Innkeeper of Newfoundland’s Fogo Island Inn and Founder and CEO of Shorefast, a registered Canadian charity with the mandate to promote cultural and economic resiliency for Fogo Island. She previously worked with JDS Fitel, subsequently JDS Uniphase, where she contributed to building the company into one of the most successful high-tech innovators in history. She firmly believes the success achieved by Shorefast illustrates that reviving small communities is possible: there is inherent value in rural places that can be reclaimed and made relevant for 21st-century life.