Career 1 Discussion Post

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Professor’s Name

Date

Career 1 Discussion Post

Similar to other counseling disciplines, career counseling faces ethical standards as other counselors. Counselors can access very personal or private matters of their respective clients. Disclosing this information means a breach of confidentiality which could be criminal resulting in civil penalties for the counselors. Disclosure of private information is one of the ethical issues linked to career counseling. However, there are other ethical issues related to career counseling and not in other types of counseling (Hooley & Rice, 2019).

One of the issues is the undue influence of the desired outcomes (Irving et al., 2019). The counselors might attempt to influence the decision-making process of their clients based on their expertise and beliefs. For example, career counselors from organizations related to aviation might attempt to guide their clients back into the aviation companies since they are very familiar with the aviation industry and the career paths of the employees in this industry.

Another ethical issue is the application of inappropriate evaluation processes and models (Irving et al., 2019). When career counselors apply inappropriate testing or interpretation of the results, they would significantly skew the outcome of the clients. For example, the client may be given advanced skills without an evaluation of their understanding and expertise levels. These poor results would result in the clients foregoing a job or career they look forward to but would need additional training.

Career counselors might also provide counseling to clients in untrained or unfamiliar competencies (Irving et al., 2019). Counseling is known not to be a one-size fits. Every client is an individual and requires different levels and types of support. Clients are known to choose counselors that are competent in particular disciplines and subjects. The clients, therefore, expect that the services of the respective counselors are useful and professional. If career counselors operate outside their competency levels, the outcomes are less likely to match the needs of their clients. For example, women returning to the workforce after a child-rearing period require specialized needs such as legal advice and evaluation, and retraining. The specific nature of their requirements, therefore, requires particular competencies that deal with gender or mid-career counseling matters.

Lastly, career counselors may create intentional errors in evaluation and assessment (Irving et al., 2019). Clients who have contracted and sought out professional counselors are predisposed to act on the recommendations or the results from their meetings. This creates high levels of trust in the counselors from the beginning even before the counselor and the clients meet. With regards to this, the assessments and the evaluation results must be accurate according to the needs of the clients. Results containing errors result in the clients making inappropriate career choices or disregarding opportunities and options for appropriate careers.

References

Hooley, T., & Rice, S. (2019). Ensuring quality in career guidance: a critical review. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 47(4), 472-486.

Irving, B. A., & Malik-Liévano, B. (2019). Ecojustice, equity, and ethics: challenges for educational and career guidance. Revista Fuentes, 21 (2), 253-263.