People’s actions represent role behaviours, by this definition of career, their answers to
the expectations of their superiors, colleagues, underlings, etc. These expectations are
formally described in job descriptions, internal regulations, and individual or collective
work contracts. At the same time, organizational culture implicitly includes the
expectations of the main or supporting characters. The results of these expectations are a
multitude of “psychological contracts” that are continually negotiated and renegotiated
(Herriot; Pemberton, 1996). Role behaviour gradually turns into a script that people use to
“act”.
Metaphor may include the idea of multiple roles. A person performs several roles at the
time (e.g. employee, student, parent, friend, member in an association, etc.) and must play
all parts given or voluntarily taken. Through counselling a person can be supported in
examining and analysing the relationship between the roles played.
The economic metaphor – career as resource
For the past years, there has been a major change in career conceptualisation. One is no
longer perceived in terms of “expenses”, but rather in terms of “earnings”. Staff
management has turned into human resources management and managers often speak of
their employers as of “their most important resources”. Principally however it is not day-
to-day work that represents the main resource, but an individual’s entire career.
Organizations promote the idea of career considering that individuals who value
themselves will place their career at their disposal. They facilitate an employer’s rise
within the firm and offer opportunities for development and expertise in a certain field.
The problem the metaphor raises is that of the ownership over someone’s career. Who
does career belong to, the employer or the organization? Metaphor consequently allows
investigation of career ownership in the counselling process.
The narrative metaphor – career as story
Much of what we know about careers comes from people’s “stories”. In addition, we
convey a series of information about our own careers from personal stories. There are
infinite such stories, some less structured (spoken), other structured (CV, letters of intent,
etc.). Stories about someone’s career allow the investigation of patterns, career building
modalities, and discovering means for continuing it.
Frequently, people’s stories about careers have recognizable cultural or social elements.
For instance, Osland (1999, apud Inkson, 2002) on studying narrations on career of some
“expats”, noticed common elements in the stories, structured around the ideas of:
heroism, bravery, and individual journeys.
The narrative metaphor is very well represented in the media. Here we frequently meet
career stories that turn into models, and individuals becoming product or company
brands. In case of metaphor, the main problem is to discover the line between reality and
fiction.