Individual Portfolio for Career Guidance - Assignment Example

Individual Portfolio Career Piece E Affiliation: Summarize the results of the required self-assessment and self-inventory exercises. Use critical thinking and your knowledge of psychology to analyze yourself. This summary can help guide your career direction. Self-assessment indicates that I am an autonomous as well as an altruistic person whose main happiness is derived from being in a social position where I can be able to assist others in their challenges and achievements. These two assessments have been brought about by my constant need to solve the problems existing in the society which people have as well as enable them live in harmony without any complaints or reduced complaints. I have realized a pattern since childhood and even without psychological assessment tests I still would have been able to analyze it. This pattern involves the fact that I have never passed a person in trouble willingly. I have always aimed at assisting people and creating trust with them. The trust enables them openly communicate with me and I try as much as possible to solve their problems. This discovery has made me consider a career in counseling. This is because in counseling I will not only be able to assist people solve their problems but I will also mentor them about different topics and issues that might arise during the counseling session. It is through solving their problems and mentoring them that I will be able to show my altruistic talent which I have inside (Woolfe, et al. 2009). The autonomy will come about because of the independence of mind I will be having as well as having been certified to carry out the counseling openly and in the end be able to assist people be autonomous as well in the society. Describe your professional philosophy, including your goals and career plans. My professional philosophy is similar to my personal philosophy and which is to always be an ethically upright individual. Being ethical requires much more than abiding to the professional code of conduct and ethics demanding confidentiality. My philosophy entails being morally upright according to the norms and mores of the society, being an individual of high integrity, being honest as well as always aiming to be fair and altruistic in all situations. These added to the code of ethics in psychology contribute wholly to my professional philosophy (Miller and Wertheimer, 2009). My goals are both short and long term. My short term goals are to be mentoring students and especially those in the high schools who are bound to make wrong choices due to adolescence. In addition, I have my career goals which are long term and which include handling the handling the complaints of others, encouraging them and trying to assist them solve their problems. I want to fulfill these goals through counseling where even the problem solving will be based on professionalism. In order to be able to achieve these goals, and live up to my professional philosophy properly, I aim to enroll in graduate school and pursue a Master’s degree in Psychology and specialize in counseling psychology. This additional education will not only be an addition in professionalism but addition in my counseling skills as well. It will widen my scope of long term goals to be bigger and better accommodating more and more people as well as mentoring even many more. Demonstrate how your professional goals and career choices align with your values and life interests. Describe how your values relate to professional behaviors and practices. My values include working with others, advancing in all that I set my mind to, being responsible. This is in addition to helping others as well as influencing people positively. My career choices as mentioned above are lined towards counseling and altruism. My career goals are aligned to my personal values in life as they all aim at helping others. Altruism goes hand in hand with influencing people positively. In order to be to assist people, I have to work with them and be responsible over them as well as show the responsibility on my part. By having an education in psychology as well as furthering my studies through obtaining a Masters in the same subject and specializing in counseling, I will be in a better position to be able to fulfill my values as well as professional goals (Bennet and Miles, 2010). A mentioned earlier, my philosophy and values are towards upholding ethics. Ethics surround the practice of counseling and are taken seriously in that profession. There is a specific code of ethics for psychologists and which has to be adhered to strictly at all times failure to which legal measures are taken. By having my values centered towards the exact practices and values of the profession, it then means that I will not encounter difficulties in following them. It will also be easier for me to avoid any legal implications as a result of not following strictly the specific code of ethics which I will have been sworn to follow once I become a certified counseling psychologist. Apply psychological principles and knowledge to discuss how your individual motivation and attitudes will help you overcome obstacles to reach your professional goals. No career lacks its own set of obstacles and the only way to deal with them is to find motivation. I am an intrinsic motivator which means that even without the presence of an outside source of motivation; I will still have a certain level of motivation with me. However, with the many challenges I am bound to face solving problems and assisting people, I will need additional sources of motivation. My motivation sources will be fellow counseling psychologists. These are people who have experienced similar obstacles in their careers that I am bound to experiences and they can be able to motivate me. The motivation can be through direct advice or giving pointers in cases where the information risks compromising client confidentiality. The other source of motivation can be derived from taking regular breaks and rewinding (Helms and Rogers, 2011). The breaks give an individual perspective and assists in deep thought which can assist in solving further problems properly in future. Learning is another way to overcome obstacles. The learning in discussion in this case is through observation and then copying the same. This is especially in cases where obstacles are of a different nature than those I will have been used to. Observing and modeling how other professions even in other careers such as businessmen tackle their problems and obstacles; I can get a few pointers to use. The modeling should however be within the legal standards as well as ethically acceptable. Modeling may be used as a last resort to dealing with obstacles. Include an action plan for implementing your career goals. This will serve as a road map to help you take concrete steps to fulfill your goals. For example, describe the steps you are planning to take to apply for a job or apply to graduate school. Discuss realistic ideas about how to implement psychological knowledge and skills in occupational pursuits that meet personal and professional goals. My plan of achieving the above mentioned career goals are systematic and very specific. The first step will be to carry out research on the graduate schools with the best Master’s program for counseling psychology. This research will be based on reviews from people online as well as relying on word of mouth advice from others. The next step is to apply to all the best choices I will have found and seek to become their student. Application process as well as the process of waiting for results is bound to be a long one and hence I will be involving myself in other activities. The main activity will involve going round high schools mentoring the students. Since this is not bound to happen all the time due to examinations and holidays, I will preoccupy myself with assisting in solving problems and other altruistic behaviors in social organizations and corporations (Healy and Link, 2012). This will be a part time job. The other step when I am not engaged in any activity is to carry out research and start reading widely about counseling psychology. This is to enable me to be conversant with what is to come once I start my Master’s program. Once the confirmation letter comes, I will start applying for scholarships as I prepare to start the next chapter of my life and being a step closer to fulfillment of my professional and career goals. During my school breaks, I will search for internship programs to start my counseling goal. References Bennet, N. and Miles, S. (2010). Your Career Game: How Game Theory Can Help You Achieve Your Professional Goals. California: Stanford University Press. Healy, L. and Link, R. (2012). Handbook of International Social Work: Human Rights, Development, and the Global Profession. New York: Oxford University Press. Helms, J. and Rogers, D. (2011). Majoring in Psychology: Achieving Your Educational and Career Goals. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Miller, F. and Wertheimer, A. (2009). The Ethics of Consent: Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. Woolfe, R. et al. (2009). Handbook of Counseling Psychology. London: SAGE. Read More