in college and to clarify his occupational goals. He thought the
assessment activities he had completed earlier accurately reflect him
(Self-Knowledge), but he was not sure how to relate the information
to a specific course of study and was reluctant to choose an occupa-
tion because he knows very little about what’s out there. He ac-
knowledged that after completing the assessment activities he had
not done much with them but had simply stuck them in a drawer.
He said he likes to daydream about what he might do in the future
but hasn’t done anything specific to further research those options
or determine which one might be his first choice (Occupational
Knowledge). K said he has a tendency to put off decisions until it
gets to “crunch time.” In addition, K acknowledged that there might
be occupations he knows very little about or doesn’t even know exist
(Synthesis). K said he felt like he had some time to explore options
before committing to a choice. This is consistent with the philoso-
phy of the college where he was enrolling, which recommends a
plan of general studies for the first two years. K’s reflections on his
thoughts about his career choices, as well as his comments during
the counseling sessions, pointed to the difficulties he was having in
understanding how to go about making a career decision and the
anxiety he was feeling over committing to a choice.
Formulate Goals. Eva talked with K about what he hoped would
happen as a result of his visit to the career center. Given K’s ten-
dency to go with the flow sometimes or be influenced by others, Eva
encouraged him to set some specific goals for his career counseling
experience. She introduced the idea of an individual learning plan
(ILP) as a means for keeping track of this information. K appreci-
ated the fact that she was not “telling him what he needed to do”
but was letting him take the lead on what happened next. This also
played into K’s value of independence, being able to “do things your
own way.” K said that one goal he had was to identify some majors
at the college that relate to his interests and learn more about the
coursework required (see Table 8.1). Another goal was to “learn
more about occupations that I’m considering.” K said, “I don’t feel
348 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT