City Research Online

Abstract

This article analyses qualitative data gathered from a survey of career practitioners on the issue of career image (n = 355, 75% female, 89% white and 78% from the UK). Findings reveal three key themes which represent how career image relates to practitioners’ values and beliefs, how practitioners make decisions about whether to address the topic in their practice and the strategies they use to address career image with their clients. Findings are discussed with reference to Watts’s socio-political ideologies of guidance. The data indicate that career practitioners are often uncomfortable about discussing career image, but address it where they believe that it is important to their clients’ success. While some practitioners believe the existing structures to be unjust, they generally seek to address this injustice at the individual level rather than seeking any kind of social transformation.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published online by Taylor & Francis in British Journal of Guidance and Counselling on 17/01/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03069885.2017.1286635.
Publisher Keywords:	Career guidance, appearance, attractiveness, career image
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

Export

Downloads