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Engaging with a song that moves your client emotionally can reveal surprising insights about their interests, values and passions

Herky Cutler

If I asked you to name something that crosses generational, cultural, political and spiritual boundaries, moves people emotionally, changes moods, inspires people to be better, creates community, brings light to social injustice and simply entertains, what would you say that thing was?

Literature? Perhaps. Chocolate? A definite possibility. Music? Of course! Music is a powerful medium that everyone can relate to, and everyone uses music in many ways in their life. So, why not use music in career development?

Driving engagement through song

A long time ago, I wrestled with how to bring my passion for music into my professional life as an organizational consultant, speaker and trainer. And then it hit me.

What are we, as career practitioners, really looking for when we use assessments with our clients? Yes, we need the basic information from a client in terms of demographics, work experience, education and current situation. But what we really want is to get to know them – what they want out of life, what excites them and what dreams they have.

To find the answers, we would probably turn to an assessment tool – usually one we paid for – that measures employability, personality or occupational compatibility. All of these tools have merit. For me though, they lack what I consider to be the key in any relationship where one of the primary goals is change: engagement. If we don’t engage our clients deeply, how can we really help them change?

I’ll never forget my experience teaching a career course as a high school guidance counsellor, using a computer-based career interest inventory with students. I would ask a student, “What question did you just answer?” “Huh?” was the usual response.

The students weren’t engaged with this tool; they were just using it as a means to an end. Music, on the other hand, is highly engaging. I decided to put my theory to the test with some of the students who worked for me. I developed the following technique. 

From theory to practice  

The first person I tried this exercise with was a 16-year-old high school student I’ll call Will. Will was struggling in school, did a lot of drugs and showed real interest only in music, skiing and spending time with his friends. He brought in the song “Needle and the Damage Done,” by Neil Young. Will felt that the song was about social justice, conformity and rebellion. Through our discussion, many of Will’s characteristics, values and passions jumped out at me, including:  

• Non-conformist
• Risk-taker
• Leader
• Creative
  

While this exercise didn’t point Will toward a specific occupation, I suggested he reference the list I created when considering what types of work might make him happy.

How to use music as a career development assessment tool

Step 1: Ask your client to bring in a song that moves them emotionally. It can’t be just a song that they like. It has to move them deeply in some way. Instrumentals are fine, too.

Step 2: Find a video for the song and watch it together.

Step 3: Print a copy of the lyrics and have a conversation about them, asking a variety of questions. I have a list of general questions I ask in addition to others that pop into my head as we have the conversation. Some examples are:

• Why did you choose this song?
• What does this song mean to you?
• What do you think the writer is trying to say about him/herself or about the world?
• How does this song move you?

Step 4: While your client is answering the questions, make notes about their interests, values and passions.

Step 5: Once all the questions have been answered, go over your notes with the client. Ask them if what you wrote resonates with them. Ask them if there are any surprises and what those are. Once the discussion is over, hand the client your notes.

Tips

• Make no judgment about the song the client brings in, even if it contains inappropriate images or language, unless you’re working with a group of people and you feel the song may offend others. If that’s the case, ask the client to choose another song.

• Don’t share what you know about the song if it’s familiar to you, especially if you think the client’s interpretation of the song is “wrong.” It doesn’t matter. What matters is the impact the song has on the client.

• When you’re making notes about the client’s interests, values and passions, make sure you use their words, not yours. Accuracy is very important in assessment. If you’re using your interpretation of what the client is saying, and not what the client is actually saying, it may not be accurate.

• When you hand the client your notes, emphasize that what you wrote down cannot then be translated into determining an occupational path for the client. However, it’s fair to encourage the client to use those notes whenever they find themselves researching occupations or working. Does the occupation or job reflect the things that are important to the client, which he/she articulated from the analysis of the song?

• This technique is another tool to add to your collection. It may not be appropriate for all of your clients, but if you feel your client is willing to take a bit of a risk, ask if they want to give it a try.
  

Conclusion 

If you try this technique and your experience is like mine, you’ll be amazed at how engaged your client is in this process. Remember, this activity is client-driven; you will be talking about music that is important to the client, not evaluating answers to a career interest inventory they may have difficulty understanding the purpose of.

In my opinion, our goal as career practitioners is to help the client discover who they are and help them articulate their interests, values and passions. We should do so in a way that engages them and helps build a strong relationship between practitioner and client.

Music has the capacity to do this because of its universal appeal and its ability to trigger deep and meaningful emotions within us. Try using music as a career development assessment tool and discover just how powerful it really is. 

Herky Cutler is a Certified Career Development Professional, a lifetime member of the Career Development Association of Alberta and has been training career practitioners for more than 12 years. He has developed a number of unique career development tools and is a popular keynote speaker and presenter at conferences all over North America.

Brock University’s integration of gamification and assessment has helped students discover new insights about themselves

Marisa Brown

We didn’t start out with a comprehensive plan to gamify assessments with our students at Brock University. It just sort of happened.

We knew we wanted to increase student engagement in their career planning. We also wanted students to critically assess their own strengths, skills, competencies, work values, interests and other key elements in the career development process. Providing students with alternatives to traditional, formal assessments as part of their career journey was also a priority – we wanted them to have fun.

Around the same time, we invested in training a staff member in LEGO® Serious Play® – Methods & Materials facilitation. We were also considering how to incorporate images, mind maps and systems to support design thinking in our work with students.

What does it mean to ‘gamify’ assessments?

CERIC’s Glossary of Career Development defines self-assessment as the process of evaluating one’s own abilities, skills, values, interests and characteristics (CERIC and the Canadian Council for Career Development, n.d.). In the post-secondary context, this can be extended to students and the process of self-reflection in career discovery, career decision-making and career readiness.

Gamification in assessments means applying principles of game theory. According to Kapp and Coné (2012) – leaders in applying gamification within a learning context – a well-designed game involves abstract thinking, interactivity and is defined by a structure or set of rules. Players work toward a tangible outcome and the process may also elicit an emotional response as they strive to attain the goal. At Brock, we have aligned gamification principles to self-assessment by using a variety of tools to encourage abstract thinking and interactivity with the end goal of students discovering new insights about themselves and their career path.

Gamification at Brock University

Brock University has integrated LEGO® Serious Play®, mind mapping and SparkPath Challenge Cards into its career development toolkit.

LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP)

We use LSP with students as a tool for self-assessing strengths, values and skills. Our career consultants facilitate this process in a structured manner while also offering opportunities for abstract thinking (as in Kapp and Coné’s definition of gaming).

LSP is a facilitated technique that is grounded in four main phases: present the challenge, build a model reflecting the challenge (ie, add meaning to the LEGO® bricks), share and reflect. This process is repeated several times through a LSP session, resulting in deeper discussion and connection to the main topic or challenge. At Brock, we have facilitated LSP sessions in relation to skills identification, interview preparation, professionalism training and reflection.

For example, in a recent interview-preparation workshop, we used LSP as a strength-based self-assessment tool. We asked students to construct a model of their strengths, skills or “superpowers.” In doing so, students analyzed their own abilities and made connections to how their strength translated in a work or academic setting. Reflecting on their strengths through LSP helps students develop answers to interview questions such as “tell me about yourself” and “what is your greatest strength?”

Students are often surprised at how the LSP process leads to generating new insights about their own strengths while also having fun “playing” with LEGO® bricks. They get genuinely excited about sharing their models with other students and feel more confident in expressing their strengths (than if they were to have done so without building their models first).

Students have also commented that they did not see themselves as creative until participating in LSP. They began to see themselves as creative thinkers through the process of building with the bricks. Students also expressed that they appreciated the opportunity to assess their current strengths in relation to career, rather than skills that they may use someday or have used in the past.

Through LSP, students engage in a continual reflection process and are more connected to the outcome – a physical LEGO® metaphor that they personally created. This complex, involved process can be more impactful than relying on a generated list of strengths or skills that is often a result of completing a more traditional assessment.

Read more about assessments and training opportunities on CERIC’s CareerWise website:

8 free career assessment tools to help clients find their fit

Courses career professionals can take in summer 2019

Mind maps 

We also use mind maps as a way for students to identify and self-assess skills and competencies. Through a guided process, students create mind maps of skills they have developed through experiential learning activities (including co-curricular and curricular learning experiences) related to specific courses, program areas or career pathways. They engage in abstract thinking by literally drawing connections from experiences to skills in new ways.

This process of skill self-assessment also offers an opportunity for students to identify potential gaps and areas for further growth (if they are unable to identify experiences related to specific skills in their discipline or career focus). Students have commented on how the mind-map exercise offers “a-ha” moments for them when sharing their maps with colleagues and telling the stories of how they have developed certain skills.

Tangible outcomes include the mind map, answers to interview questions, ideas for career decision-making and goal-setting.

SparkPath Challenge Cards

Another informal self-assessment tool we have been using to engage students in career discovery is SparkPath Challenge Cards. Each Challenge Card set contains 30 visually appealing cards representing challenges in the future of work in health care, technology, society, environment and the economy.

Our career consultants use the Challenge Cards in one-on-one coaching sessions to engage students in conversations about career options, areas of interest, likes/dislikes and values. This approach focuses on students identifying challenges, problems and opportunities (shifting away from a focus on specific jobs). Through the guided process, students prioritize areas of interest and are encouraged to self-assess and reflect on personal and professional values. By interacting in the process and “playing” with the cards, students develop an action plan for next steps in their career planning.

These tools align with our philosophy of career development at Brock. We provide students with the tools to be successful in a self-directed process. Our career development model is grounded in John Krumboltz’s (2008) planned happenstance theory and Jim Bright and Robert Pryor’s (2003) chaos theory of career development. We encourage students to be flexible and take manageable risks while also asking for help and staying organized through the process. By inviting students to actively participate in the self-assessments of mind-mapping, building metaphors through LEGO® Serious Play® and Challenge Cards, they engage more fully in their own career decision-making. Students are engaged in the process of learning and developing their own narrative, which, according to Kapp and Coné, are critical elements of gamification.

Where we go from here

Our next steps include evaluating how impactful these activities are three months out and also in the longer term. We will be investigating how students are applying these concepts in future career and professional decision-making and how the tools have supported their career journey and self-exploration.

Marisa Brown is a Career Curriculum Specialist with Co-op, Career & Experiential Education at Brock University. She is a LEGO® Serious Play® – Methods & Materials facilitator, career development practitioner and holds a Master of Education – Teaching, Learning & Development.

References

CERIC & the Canadian Council for Career Development (n.d.). Glossary of Career Development. Retrieved from ceric.ca/glossary-of-career-development

Kapp, K. & Coné, J. (2012). What every chief learning officer needs to know about games and gamification learning. Institute for Interactive Technologies. Retrieved from karlkapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/clo_gamification.pdf

Krumboltz, J. D. (2008). The Happenstance Learning Theory. Journal of Career Assessment, 17(2), 135–154. doi:10.1177/1069072708328861

Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. (2003). The Chaos Theory of Careers. Australian Journal of Career Development, 12(3), 12–20. doi: 10.1177/103841620301200304

Waggoner, D.R., Martin, S.J., Eads, J.L., & Branson, R.D. (Feb 2019). Using an Escape Room as Gameful Training with Students. NACE Journal. Retrieved from naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies/using-an-escape-room-as-gameful-training-with-students/

In turning the assessment lens on myself, I learned more about my own career journey, these tools and how I will use them with my clients

Stephanie Warner

As career practitioners, we work with a variety of tools and techniques to serve our clients, including assessments.

I work primarily with graduate students, who tend to struggle when it comes to identifying future plans, despite their years spent pursuing a specialized field of study. Like all of us, students change over time; their values, interests, skills and ambitions evolve. I use assessments as a tool to help them dive into the exploration process and build self-knowledge.

Three years ago, I was considering my own strengths and priorities as I embarked on a significant career transition. After spending most of my adult life studying and working in scientific research (not always happily), I applied to a job at the University of Calgary’s Career Services office.

In this time, I have learned how to use assessments to help clients in their career exploration. But, I wondered, what might I learn about these tools – and my own career journey – if I applied them to my own life? So, I recently turned the assessment lens on myself, trying out some new tools as well as revisiting my past assessment results with a more practiced eye. Here is what I learned.

CliftonStrengths

$19.99 USD

This assessment is designed with positive psychology in mind and provides users with their top five talent themes, from a list of 34. It was the first assessment I did when starting as a career advisor, and some theme descriptions didn’t immediately resonate with me (Input, Analytical – Is this test trying to tell me I’m boring and nerdy?). Chances are, I reacted this way because I had previously seen these talents as weaknesses.

Revisiting my results with a colleague reinforced for me the benefits of debriefing with a career practitioner whenever possible. This allows the client to describe the strength in their own words and identify action items they are motivated to address. Using the targeted language of the Strengths Insight Report often resonates more strongly.

VIA Character Strengths

Free

I breezed through this character strengths activity. VIA provides a rank-ordered list of all 24 character strengths, which I appreciated. Once again, I found that my first instinct was to read into the language literally, and had to urge myself to really read the description. For example, “judgment” may sound negative, but the description is “Thinking things through and examining them from all sides; not jumping to conclusions; being able to change one’s mind in light of evidence; weighing all evidence fairly.” Although the descriptions were short, they aligned well with information gleaned from other assessments. I found this congruence satisfying.

Knowdell Card Sorts – Career Values

$19.95 CAD

Values are the core principles that help us answer the question, “what is important to me?” For those who are more tactile, the Knowdell Card Sorts – Career Values cards may be a good option.

This tool evaluated elements that the other assessment tools didn’t directly address: my needs, motivators and purpose. I organized the cards bearing values descriptions into five categories, from “Always Important” to “Never Important.” Discussion around what each value means to me, how I would prioritize it and how it will shape my career decisions was satisfying and empowering. I found helping others and exercising competence make me feel satisfied, while competition is stressful. No wonder I enjoy working with students more than I did competing to publish.

Strong Interest Inventory

Approx. $40 CAD plus certified practitioner time

This assessment seems to really get me and is always a hit with clients. It provides more tangible career options based on one’s pattern of likes and dislikes. My own results fit extremely well with my recent career changes. Reviewing my results with a certified practitioner, I came out as an investigative, social, artistic mix – interests often associated with careers in teaching and university administration. It is important to note that students often find the results surprising if they don’t know what a given career is, or if they have pre-conceived notions about the value or attractiveness of the given occupation.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Approx. $50 CAD plus certified practitioner time

MBTI can be a challenging assessment to interpret with an individual, due to its dichotomous choices. They may initially feel frustrated with what can seem like rigidity at a surface level. I balked at the different results that arose compared to when I had last taken it, at the age of 16. Luckily, this time around I used the MBTI Step II report, which breaks each preference into five facets, and debriefed with a certified career practitioner. My Step II results showed that, for example, my facets were equally distributed between the S and N type, which helped me to relax about which “bin” I was in overall and identify characteristics that resonated with me.

Read more about assessments and training opportunities on CERIC’s CareerWise website:

8 free career assessment tools to help clients find their fit

Courses career professionals can take in summer 2019

What has this experience taught me?

In taking these five assessments, I picked up some first-hand experience that will shape conversations with my clients and how I administer assessments to have the most benefit to them. Here are a few of my observations from this experience: 

• It’s important to define concrete questions before doing the assessment and revisit them at the end. When I checked in with myself after completing the assessments, I was then able to ask, “did this answer my questions?” and “what will I take forward?” Following this process with my clients allows us to address any unresolved concerns or discuss areas that still aren’t clear from the results.
• First impressions can be hard to overcome. I found myself jumping to conclusions about the language or dismissing certain options based on my previously held beliefs. Having a career practitioner present to ask some key questions (eg, “Tell me more about what this means to you” and “Why do you think this option showed up in your assessment?) allowed me to move past my gut reaction and explore the possibilities.
  

• Assessments are a great starting point. They provide positive language, opportunities for reflection, even options for careers. Many clients use assessments for self-discovery, but many that I work with also find that the assessments simply validate and reinforce ideas that they already hold about themselves or their prospects. However, they should not be taken as a directive. While most assessments incorporate an opportunity for self-reflection prior to delivering the reported results, the objective, research-based nature of the formal assessment often seems to carry more weight with the client. It is important that the student critically evaluate their results and not just take them at face value.

My results were consistent overall. Together, they painted a more complete picture than any one assessment individually. Using this variety of assessments, I feel more confident about the value of some of my more practical and analytical traits, especially when I can apply them in a people-centred world. The results align better with my current role than my last; I only wish I had invested the time in doing this sooner.

Stephanie Warner holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Experimental Medicine from the University of British Columbia. She is now the PhD Career Development Specialist in Career Services at the University of Calgary and also moonlights as a private career consultant and sessional instructor.