Running head: CAREER THEORY AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1

Career Theory Autobiography

Dean Paulk

COUN 650

Dr. Lisen Roberts

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Introduction

My name is Dean Paulk. I am a 32-year old male who currently works as the Internship

Coordinator for the Center for Career and Professional Development at Western Carolina

University (WCU). I received my Bachelor’s degree from WCU in 2005 in Sociology with a

minor in Social Work. Throughout my undergraduate career, I was unsure of my career goals.

From the time I was very young, I was drawn to the medical field. I have a strong

suspicion that it is because my grandmother and her partner were both in the medical field, with

my grandmother being a Respiratory Therapist and her partner being an X-Ray Technician.

They lived in a nice house and never seemed to be wanting for anything. In contrast, I grew up

below the poverty line and we struggled financially.

My mom insisted that I would go to college since she never did. I was not given a choice

in the matter, so I did not take my career goals very seriously as a result. I finally decided on

Graphic Design as a major. I couldn’t explain now why I chose this path. I have always been

artistic, but I have always also known that making art a career would very soon cause it to lose

its joy.

When I got to WCU, I quickly realized that a major change was necessary. I consulted

my boyfriend at the time, who suggested Social Work, since I liked helping people and he said I

would be good at it. I never sought out any assistance from the Career Center on campus. In

fact, I did not know they existed during my time on campus, mostly due to the fact that since I

had some resentment at being forced into college and therefore did not take it as seriously as I

should have. At the end of my Junior year, I realized that I did not want to be a Social Worker.

The amount of stress and highly-charged emotional situations that would be required terrified

me. In doing some research, I decided to try to change my major to Sociology instead. Due
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mostly to a very sympathetic advisor, my credits were worked out so that I was still able to

graduate on time.

After graduation, I moved to Maryland to accommodate the continuing education of my

partner. I took on jobs that did not utilize my degree and were unrelated to my career goals.

After about two years, we moved back to North Carolina. I worked in food service and retail,

until I started working part-time temporary work at WCU as an Administrative Assistant. From

there, I moved into a full-time Administrative Assistant position with the College of Business in

the Management academic department. I worked in this job for four and a half years, until I

moved to Asheville and left that job for my spouse.

We moved back after about a year, during which time I worked as a receptionist for a tax

company. I applied to a few jobs on campus, and eventually took a position as the

Administrative Assistant with the Career Center in 2013.

Last summer (2015) our Director retired and we hired a new Director. She started talking

to me about the possibility of moving into an Intake Counselor role, which then shifted into the

Internship Coordinator role that I am currently in. This role allows me to coordinate the

internships for credit across the departments that utilize our office (about 1/3-1/2 of the

departments on campus), along with assisting with cover letters, resumes, job and internship

searching, interview skills, and graduate school preparation. The position will also shift into

allowing me to begin career counseling as I am working on obtaining my Master’s degree in

Higher Education Student Affairs.

During my time working in Higher Education, I realized that my passion was in helping

students to succeed. I had a general idea on how to do so, and assumed that it would always be

in the Administrative Assistant role. After receiving the advice and support of our new Director,
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I was finally able to narrow down my career goals and decide that my ultimate passion is in

helping students to make the career decisions that I struggled with for so long. If I can help

students to make those decisions earlier and find some satisfaction and passion in their classes

and their career goals, then I will be successful in achieving my goals.

For this assignment, I will be using the Holland’s Typology theory and the Social

Cognitive Career Theory.

Theory 1

Holland’s Typology is a widely-recognized theory of career development. Holland’s

Typology works on the basis of interests and linking those interests to one’s career (Roberts, L.,

2016b). Holland’s Typology assists people in finding work that they enjoy and work that plays

on their strengths.

My Holland Code is SAI (or SIA). This stands for Social, Artistic, and Investigative

(Roberts, L., 2016b). Social refers to an interest in helping people (Roberts, L., 2016b). Artistic

refers to creating things, and Investigative refers to working with ideas and theories (Roberts, L.,

2016b). According to O*Net, SAI/SIA occupations include Therapists, Teachers, and

Counselors of varying types and in various fields (“Interests Search,” n.d.). This lines up very

well with my career goals and chosen career path. It also very strongly explains my draw to art,

and also my draw to the Social Work and Sociology majors in my undergrad.

I have always been a very caring and helpful person, and always put others first. I am

definitely a helper, and very strongly prefer to work in a position that allows me direct contact

with people and allows me the ability to help them in some way.

It also creates a much more satisfying position if I am allowed to utilize my creativity and

artistic side from time to time. In my current position, I am allowed to decorate my office and
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create flyers and advertisements for various events.

On the Investigative side, I utilize that in my current position by way of problem-solving

with students and working out solutions that satisfy students and any other party that is involved.

In the case of the Internship for credit program, I am quite often presented with problems to

solve and issues to overcome. There are cases of students who are having communication issues

with their supervisors or faculty members who are not communicative with myself or the

students who are taking their classes. I am required to think on my feet and to problem-solve

and come up with ideas on an almost daily basis.

Theory 2

Social Cognitive Career Theory focuses on self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and

overcoming real or perceived barriers (Roberts, L., 2016a). Self-efficacy refers to the belief in

one’s abilities (Roberts, L., 2016a). Outcome expectations refers to one’s belief in the likely

consequences of a behavior (Roberts, L., 2016a).

This theory is very important to those who have or perceive barriers to achieving their

career goals. In my case, the poverty that I experienced growing up was a definite perceived

barrier to my career development. I never imagined the possibility outside of childhood that I

could work in a medical field, and instead decided to not pursue an education past a Bachelor’s

degree. This was partly due to the cost and difficulty of paying back student loans and the

anxiety related to that, and partly due to the belief that it just wasn’t something that people from

my socioeconomic background did.

Whether being counseled during my undergraduate years with this theory in mind would

have ultimately reshaped my career goals, I’m not certain, but I do know that it would have been

helpful to me to have those barriers broken down earlier than they were for me, and perhaps
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would have prompted me to start pursuing my Master’s degree sooner. I knew that I could take

classes without charge as a WCU employee, but still hesitated in doing so due to these barriers

that were still in my mind. I now realize that it was due to the preconceived notions I had, and

the hesitation related to that. However, at the time, I could not make sense of why there was a

block there for me and why I could not move past the first step.

My self-efficacy was very low and I could not imagine any clear outcome expectations.

The only consequences I could imagine were wasted time and a lack of clear direction. This

caused me to hesitate in making a decision, although I knew that I wanted to continue my

education and obtain a graduate degree.

Conclusion

The two theories that I chose for this assignment—Holland’s Typology and Social

Cognitive Career Theory—were the two that resonated the most with me. They were the two

theories that explained most clearly my career history and development. In learning about these

theories and in applying them in this assignment, I have continued to learn more about the

reasons why my career development was what it was, and learned that if I knew this information

sooner that it would have saved me a lot of time, effort, and energy. However, in doing this and

in taking the “long way around,” I have learned that helping others to avoid some of the

indecision, lack of direction, and uncertainty that I dealt with is absolutely my passion and my

career goal.
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References

Interests Search for: Social, Artistic, Investigative. Retrieved from:

https://www.onetonline.org/explore/interests/Social/Artistic/Investigative/

Roberts, L. (2016a). Social Cognitive Career Theory [PowerPoint Slides]

Roberts, L. (2016b). Week 1: Holland’s Typology [PowerPoint Slides]