There are many stories we could tell about our lives – what’s the story of your career?
The narrative approach to careers is about telling your career ‘story’ or narrative in order to understand yourself and make sense of your career. Your career story is your personal perspective on your working life including the objective facts, subjective emotions, attitudes and goals of your career. You could tell your career story verbally or by writing it down.
You create your career story retrospectively as a means of determining and explaining the meaning of day to day events in your life. The basic principle behind the approach is that by telling your story you can get a sense of how you’ve got where you are and how you understand your situation. When you make career choices you don’t separate these from the rest of your life; the decisions that you make are influenced by and grounded in your prior experiences and if you can tell your story it can help you to understand your concept of ‘career’ and what is possible.
The narrative approach is about more than just telling your career story though. When you tell your story it can sometimes seem disconnected, complex and difficult to make sense of. The narrative approach is about reflecting on your story, looking for clues, themes and patterns that emerge. These themes and patterns can become the basis of future stories and career possibilities. Within the narrative approach there are many questions that you can ask yourself to help you make sense of your story and to consider future possibilities. These questions can be grouped into three levels:
Level 1 – information about content and experience. This level is about getting all the details of your career story. Questions to ask yourself include: · What did you do? · What was most satisfying? · Was there anything similar about your experiences? · What skills and knowledge did you use? · What did you do to get yourself to that point?
Level 2 – connectedness and subjective experience. This level is about considering the connections between your individual experiences and the various influences on your story. Questions to ask yourself include: · Where else in your life has this been relevant? · How do you interpret that experience? · How would you explain that? · What have you learnt about yourself as a result? · What does it say about what you are capable of?
Level 3 – identification of themes and patterns. This level is about helping you to understand the important themes and patterns from your past narrative in order to help you construct a future narrative. Questions to ask yourself include: · Are there any common themes running through the experiences you have described? · What do you think will be most significant for you in moving forward? · What will be the essential components of any future options for you? · How does your understanding of your past make you view your future? · How could you move this story forward?
You can find out more about the narrative approach to careers guidance in the International Handbook of Careers Guidance or by reading Career Counselling: A Narrative Approach by Larry Cochrane