Career Counseling in College (Essay Sample)

Career Counseling in College
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Institution
Abstract
Providing effective and realistic career counseling to single mothers can be challenging especially with the ever increasing complexity work environment and evolving stereotypes about working women. However, counselors have an opportunity to provide their advice to women who have chosen to be single mothers while at the same time working in a normal work environment. There is need for counselors to consider the specific needs of this group of women even as they offer their career counseling advice to ensure that single moms are in a better position to juggle between their work and home based responsibilities. This paper discusses main things to consider when offering career counsel to single mothers. The paper discusses how a career counseling theory can be used by counselors to address career counseling problems to single mothers.
Key words: career counselors, single mothers, work environment
Career Counseling in College
Introduction
The dynamic economic conditions and cultural obligations have caused many single women to look for jobs in order to be able to fend for their families. While the provisional conditions in a single parent family have dramatically changed, with the fact that mothers are the breadwinners in their families, the traditional role of motherhood has not changed. Single mothers are expected whether by choice or coercion to provide the same kind of love and care to their children in the same way they would do if they were living with a man (Uchendu, 1996). Therefore, single mothers have to carefully consider the kind of career that they want to choose for them to effectively juggle their roles between these demanding roles. Career counselors have always come in handy to help single mothers choose a career, and by so doing need to consider several factors that will determine the kind of career a single mother enters. This paper addresses factors that career counselors consider in regard to careers to single mothers.
Factors Career Counselors Should Consider with Regard to Single Mothers
According to Fuller, Kershaw & Pulkingham (2008), working single mothers are less likely to return to their work when their children are born. This is because they have to deal with the responsibilities of providing care to their children besides doing other household chores. As such, career counselor need to consider the issue of family matters when they are advising would be single mothers because the responsibilities in future seem to overshadow the need to stay in a permanent job while ignoring the children.
Morrison et al (1999) observed that single mothers can easily quit their job if they discover that their children are not likely to get the kind of upbringing that they want them to have. This therefore means that care counselors need to consider the issue of quitting a job to care for children without necessarily affecting the income that the family is going to have in future. Therefore, career counselors need to advice single mothers to chose a career that will allow them time to care for their children while still keeping their jobs. Some jobs require people to be around in a fixed time like from morning to evening without the possibility of working part-time. In such a case, a single mother may find it difficult to attend to both demanding roles and in the end quit the job to care for the children. While this is the case, such mothers would have chosen a career that suits their schedule once in a while so that they have half of the day with their children and without necessarily quitting their jobs.
Another issue that career counselors need to focus on is the workplace environment. According to Morrison et al (1999), some work place environment views single mothers as less productive that married women. The counselors while advising a single mother on the kind of job she needs to enter should consider the work environment that the woman is going to work. Characteristically, the traditionally male-dominated jobs will obviously present a challenge to a single mother who wants to pay attention for her family. The sexual advances from male colleagues in such an environment are likely going to be high and this may disrupt the attention that the single mother wants to give to her family. Evidently, single mothers need to have a supportive work environment that will help them to manage their time well between their work and the family and not be disrupted with dates and other offers from male colleagues. This may cause the single mother to pay little attention to their work and family and therefore cause insurmountable consequences to both responsibilities.
Similarly, career counselors should consider giving counseling services that goes beyond careers for single women because they are always dealing with other challenges besides the need to work. For instance, the careers can address the issues of single parenthood and the stigma that comes with such responsibilities (Collins, Tiedje & Stommel, 1992). They should also consider addressing the issues of relationship with male colleagues and other people that a single mother interacts with and give moral support to them. This is going to encourage them to seek for better jobs in future since it will built confidence in them. The emotional support that career counselors are going to give to single mothers should help them to make sound decision with regard to the kind of job they want to pursue. Ultimately, the career counselors also need to address the overall impact that the job that a single mother is hoping to enter in terms of upward growth and satisfaction that a single mother is expecting from that particular job. The impact that the job is going to have on children in terms of their basic needs and other forms of support is also important since the single mother should not be advised to enter a job that will not assist the children in their development.
Career theory and how its tenets will be used to single mothers
Career decision-making theory stipulates that a person has the sole responsibility of making the final decision with regard to the kind of career that they want to pursue (Amundson, 2005). As such, the theory is applicable to the single mothe...