J.P. has written this book for career service providers and provides us with a different lens to look at the career development process. It is not about what do you want to be, but what challenges do you want to take on. He introduces us to the challenge mindset and how we can be career catalysts rather than career matchers.
The inherent problem with trait-factor theory is that it is biased to what we know. It is why so many people choose professions similar to their parents. JP encourages us to ask “What challenges do you want to take on?” And you can do that by using his Challenge Card Sort, or by having the student/client flip through magazines or websites to find articles that are interesting to them. (He has other suggestions too).
This challenge mindset flips the career process from (1) what interests do I have (2) match them to occupations (3) research them, (4) find a company that has an opening, to (1) what challenges do I want to address (2) what companies are dealing with that challenge (3) who within that company is doing something that looks interesting to me (4) find a way to get close to that job by doing an information interview or internship, or volunteer, or whatever they can do to learn more. Then let “intentional serendipity” bring the job to them.
I love this model because most people can only name 30-100 job titles and there are 20,000+ job titles out there and more coming daily. So when people come to us and want to choose a job title, it really is not effective. Choose a challenge and find out who is working on it, and then explore the various occupations within that challenge.
This is a practical, easy-to-read book with great examples which help the reader understand what JP is writing about. Each chapter ends with a section titled Take Action with specific action steps you can take to tie the ideas from the chapter and put them into practice.
The challenge mindset embraces so many concepts I believe in. The two most important to me are, giving the client ownership of the process, and embracing Intentional serendipity i.e. taking action and being open to discovering something by accident.
If you are a career service provider or a person who is looking to make a change in their career, this book is a great place to start your journey. There is no assessment to take that will tell you what to do. But there is a new way of thinking that can help you discover what you want to give to the world.
You can find more information on the Challenge Card sorts and JP’s work at https://mysparkpath.com/
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