Peak Careers

Professional Development for Career Practitioners

Transition Theory

Too Young To Be Old. Nancy Schlossberg

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Too Young To Be Old: Love, Learn, Work, and Play as You Age. By Nancy Schlossberg, a friend to the career counseling world who is now in her 80’s and still writing, thinking, and sharing her thoughts on transitions. Much of this book is her personal journey in her 3rd Age and 100’s of interviews with others going through this new developmental stage of life.

She addresses the biases of age and gives suggestions on how to deal with our own perceptions of age bias as well as what we might do to address it when we hear it. Understanding all the various transitions people go through is a big part of this book, from the transition of leaving F.T. work, to moving, changing relationships, and more.

The key point of any transition is how your roles, relationships, routines, and assumptions about yourself change. Using her 4 S’s of breaking down the transition to identify weaknesses and strengths is covered throughout her book. 

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Is a life transition getting in the way of career decisions?

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Career Advising requires understanding how transitions affect our clients

Sometimes when we find one of our clients or students stumbling along in their own career development and/or having difficulty following through on action plans you have developed with them, it may be related to a transition they are going through.

Nancy Schlossberg developed her Transition Theory for career counselors and can be quite helpful in understanding how people move through a transition.  In her book, Going To Plan B, she explains the impact of a ‘non-event’ (something we WANT to happen but does not) and how a non-event can be as powerful as an “event.”

Understanding the impact of a transition and how it affects our roles, relationships, routines, and assumptions is valuable information for career counselors/advisors.

Schlossberg’s 4 S’s are great ways to think about the various components of a transition.

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Transitions

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Did you ever have a student not follow through with the plan you worked on with them?  I know I have many times.

Transition day to night.

Ever wonder why?  Transition Theory may offer some insight and help guide you to the “next steps” with this person.

Many EVENTS in people’s lives are obvious, (freshmen year for a first-generation college student or a senior year), but the IMPACT of that event on the person is the TRANSITION.  How people deal with transition or do not deal with it, can be blocking them from making good decisions.

Schlossberg’s Transition Theory breaks down the transition into four parts BEFORE you make an action plan.  (too often we go to “solution” first).

1.     One question you want to know is “are they overwhelmed by the situation?”  A first-generation college student coming from a family that has never had a high school graduate before, let alone a college student, can be facing many feelings and decision conflicts.  If I discover they really are overwhelmed with some life transitions, it might guide me on what to do next or what I can expect.

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