The Constructivist Resume: Promoting the Career Adaptability of Graduate Students in Counseling Programs.

The authors present the constructivist resume, an original approach developed to promote professional identity development and career adaptability (i.e., concern, curiosity, confidence, and control) in students completing graduate-level counselor training programs. The authors discuss underlying theories, induding Super's (1990; Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996) life span, fife space theory and Peavy's (1998) SocioDynamic Counseling Model, and their applications to career counseling. They also provide a detailed case illustration, make practical recommendations, and note the advantages and limitations of the approach. The postmodern perspective views human knowing as a process of subjective meaning making in which knowledge is constructed by the individual. Constructivism, a relatively new theoretical counseling perspective, posits that individuals create meaning in their own iivesi Savickas ( 1993 ) called for the increased development and application of constructivist approaches in career counseling to keep pace with contemporary society's movement to a postmodern perspective. A clear indication of the profession's amrmarive response is reflected in the fact that today many career counseling textbooks include chapters devoted to constructivist approaches (e.g., Sharf, 2002; Zunker, 2006). In addition, there has been a recent increase in the development of constructivist career assessment techniques (Sharf, 2002) as well as constructivist applications to the career counseling process (Brott, 2005). Despite the increased use of constructivist career applications during the past 15 years, some authors have also noted potential limitations to constructivist approaches (e.g., McMahon & Watson, 2008). For example, these approaches have been criticized for placing too much emphasis on imagination and too little on real-life action (Reid, 2006). In addition, effective implementation of these approaches often requires personal qualities, including openness and imagination, on the part of both the counselor and the client (McMahon, 2006). Constrncring Idenrirks The need for openness and imagination on the part of clients is particularly apparent regarding those constructivists advocating that clients apply postmodera principles to the task of designing their identity. By intentionally selecting and participating in identity construction experiences, a person can potentially construct his or her identity. Peavy's (1998) SocioDynamic Counseling Model views the self as a project that is perpetually being constructed by the individual. From the SocioDynamic counseling perspective, a self that is complex and fluidly adapts to changing contextual demands represents an optimal level of functioning (Hansen, 2005). By contrast, Morgan (2000) described individuals who tell simple,. brief, and incomplete autobiographical stories as having thin narratives. We believe that thin narratives may in part be the product of a thin collection of accrued experiences and related social roles or selves. Because of a relative lack of world of work experiences, the graduate student who is nearing completion of her or his graduate studies is likely to possess a thin sense of her or his professional identity. Thin professional identities plausibly limit an individual's ability to adopt a forward-looking, selfconfident stance during the transition from graduate school to professional employment- What is required during this challenging transition period is a constructivist approach that will promote the development of a more complete sense of identity. In other words* the individual needs a developmental approach that will thicken her or his professional identity. For this reason, we describe and recommend the constructivist resume not only as a product, but also as a process that potentially facilitates the development and implementation of a student's professional identity Super's Exploration Stage and the Transitioning Process The most highly regarded developmental career theory, which also advocates the use of developmental counseling approaches,« Super's Super, 1990; Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996) life span, life space theory. …