Career Planning Scale:

Assessing and Teaching

Career Planning
John Liptak, Ed.D., Associate Director
Career Services, Radford University
jjliptak@radford.edu
540-831-5091

2009 Careers Conference

What is a Career?

Career can be viewed as the life

course of a person encountering a
series of developmental tasks and
attempting to handle them in such a
way as to become the kind of person
he or she wants to be. With a
changing self and changing situation,
the matching process is really never
complete! (5)

Shocking Stats! (4)

50% are dissatisfied with current job

25% are always actively considering changing
industries
50% would take less money if their jobs would be
more meaningful
75% would take a pay cut for more personal time
50% are experiencing burnout
Workers today want meaning more than anything else. They crave purpose,
a sense of direction, and a feeling that they are contributing to society and
making it a better place. Planning is Critical! (Tarlow and Tarlow)

Need for Career Planning

Only 32% of people planned and chose their

job (NCDA)
With planning comes opportunity, but far too
many people understand/can implement the
career planning process (2)
Impact of career planning is stronger than
any psychological influence on people (1)
Courses/programs yield increases in career
decision making and career maturity about
93% of the time (1)

What is Career Planning?

An ongoing activity of making small & large

decisions about occupations, education,
leisure activities, and other life roles.
Process necessary for people of all ages
A process that must be turned into a
substantive psychological experience for the
client WOW Factor!
A skill that can be taught

The Career Planning Process

6. Implement
Plan

5. Plan Your Career

4. Make
Decisions

1. Knowledge of WOW

2. Knowledge of Self

3. Occupational Information

How Does it Help?

Makes job change process less scary

Orients and organizes life and career
Empowers people to take charge and
responsibility for own career
development
Teaches skills people can use
Enhances maturity (choice is not the
end-goal)

Why the CPS?

Too many career counseling models

Need a generic model that incorporated
best aspects of all
Donald Supers influence
Conducting group career classes with
offenders (books are intimidating)
Many career counselors have no formal
career development theory training

Barriers to Career Planning

Lack of Career
Maturity!

What is Career Maturity?

An individuals readiness to deal with

the career planning process and
his/her degree of success in coping
with current tasks involved in career
planning (Liptak, 2001).

A developmental process in which people

increasingly gain the capacity to make
sound career decisions.

Signs of Limited Career

Maturity

I dont know how to make a career choice.

What would you do?
I like too many things.
Why plan for the future.things are so
uncertain.
I dont know what I like to do (or value, or
what I am skilled at, etc.)
Im not good at making decisions.

Influencers of Career Maturity

Age, race,
ethnicity, locus of
control, SES,
and gender (3)
At Radford
University first
generation,
Appalachian

What does the CPS do?

Measures
strengths in a set
of skills or tasks
that people need
to possess in
order to make
and implement
effective career
decisions.

Theoretical Basis of CPS

Donald Supers Research about career

development and career maturity
People complete developmental stages
(but not all the same time)
People must complete tasks within each
stage to move to the next stage
Career Maturity is critical in the career
planning process
Advised me with this assessment

Supers Definition

Career Maturity An individuals

readiness cope with the
developmental tasks with which he or
she is confronted because of his or her
biological and social developments
and because of societys expectations
of people who have reached that stage
of development (Super, 1990, p 213).

Elements of Career Maturity

Planfulness
Exploration of self
Information gather about WOW
Information gathering about
Occupations
Decision Making
Reality Orientation & Implementation

Correlation between Supers

model and CPS Scales

Planfulness
Exploration of self
Information gather
about WOW
Information gathering
about Occupations
Decision Making

Reality Orientation &

Implementation

Career Planning
Self-Knowledge
Knowledge of the
World of Work
Knowledge of
Occupations
Career DecisionMaking
Career Implementation

Using The CPS

Administer after intake/group introduction

Identify career maturity in six skills

Strengths & Weaknesses

Look at individual items for information

Tailor your interventions
Teach the process
Use the activities in Step 4 to initiate group
discussions or for homework assignments

The Career Planning Scale

Use Steps for easy administration, scoring, and

interpretation
Items are behavioral in nature
Written at 8th grade level
Women score higher than men on every scale but
the Knowledge of World-of-Work scale
Women are much better career decision makers
People score highest on the Self-Knowledge scale
and lowest on the Career Planning scale
Can be used by itself or in conjunction with a text

STEP 1 Knowledge of the

World-of-Work

Objectives:

Prepare people for an uncertain occupational

future.
How the global economy will affect their career?
Explore employment issues in the workplace of
tomorrow.
Prepare people to take advantage of new
technology and new career opportunities.
Identify geographic features important to them.
Explore the value of lifelong learning.

Step 2 Self-Knowledge

Objectives:

Help people explore their interests, skills, values,

and personality, and how these match to
identified occupations.
Help people discover how their personal
characteristics translate to the world of work.
Help people envision what they are looking for in
their career and what they have to offer
employers.
Answer who am I?
How does work fill needs?

Step 3 Knowledge of
Occupations

Objectives:

Help people identify alternatives.

Help people explore occupations that
interest them.
What are the characteristics of the work?
Help people search the Internet, read
books and other print materials, and talk
to others about occupations.
Shadow workers?

Step 4 Career DecisionMaking

Objectives:

Help people develop a methodical approach to

making career decisions.
Look for info on salary, job requirements, etc.
Help people collect information, weigh the costs
and benefits of their choices, rank order
possibilities based on probabilities of success,
and make final decisions that fit their personal
characteristics and overall life goals.

Step 5 - Career Planning

Objectives:

Help people develop both short- and long-term

goals for their career development.
Have people create a specific timeline for
accomplishing these goals and steps they need
to take to achieve them.
Have people develop a career plan that will allow
them to live a balanced lifestyle consisting of
work, family, and leisure activities.
Help people think about choice implementation.

Step 6 Career
Implementation

Objectives:

Help people identify how to implement

occupational decisions.

Teach people how to look for a job, including writing a

powerful resume and cover letter, networking for job
leads, and interviewing effectively.
List and find solutions to barriers (BESI)
Explore education and training
Entrepreneurship
Other

Administrative Uses

Use the CPS as a pre and post-test to

determine if your students/clients are
developing skills over time.
Use the activities in Step 4 to initiate group
discussions or for homework assignments.
Keep a database of test scores that you can
use for program review.
Develop a baseline for comparison.
Use the CPS as a curriculum guide to teach
Career Exploration and Planning courses.

CPS

World-of-Work
Self-Knowledge
Occupations
Decision-Making
Career Planning
Career
Implementation

Career Quizzes*

Chapters 1-3
Chapters 4-6
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Chapters 8-9
Chapters 10-12

*Liptak, J.J. (2008). Career quizzes: 12 tests to help

You discover & develop your dream career.
Indianapolis, IN: JIST Publishing.

Interventions at RU

UNIV 100/Freshman Orientation

Short Programs
Individual Coaching Sessions
Career Development Courses
Senior Seminar Courses

References

(1) Herr, E.L.H, & and Cramer, S.H. (1996). Career

guidance and counseling through the lifespan.
Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
(2) Lock, R.D. (2005). Taking charge of your career
direction. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
(3) Naidoo, A.V., Bowman, S.L., & Gerstein, L.H.
(1998). Demographics, causality, work salience,
and career maturity of African-American students: A
causal model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 53,
(1), pp 15-27.
(4) Tarlow, M., & Tarlow, P. (2002) Digital aboriginal.
New York, NY: Warner Books.

References (continued)

(5) Super, D.D., Savickas, M.L., & Super, C.M. (1996). The
life-span, life-space approach to careers. In Brown, Brooks, &
Associates (Eds.), Career choice & development (p. 140).
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Anderson, P, & Vandehey, M. (2006). Career counseling and
development in a global economy. Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin.
Liptak, J.J. (2001). Treatment planning in career counseling.
Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Super, D.E. (1990). A life-span, Life-space approach to career
development. In D. Brown, L. Brooks, & Associates (Eds.),
Career choice and development. San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass.