Received 09/22/10

Revised 12/22/10
Accepted Í 2/23/10

The o r v
Life Design: A Paradigm for
Career Intervention in the 21st Century
Mark L. Savickas
new paradigm is implicit within the constructivist and narrative methods for career intervention that have emerged
in the 21st century. This article makes that general pattern explicit by abstracting its key elements from the specific
instances that substantiate the new conceptual model. The paradigm tor life design interventions constructs career
through small stories, reconstructs the stories into a life portrait, and coconstructs intentions that advance the career
story into a new episode.

Among individuals choosing jobs and constructing careers, workers must be employable, lifelong leamers who com-
the work world of the 21st century provokes feelings of mit themselves to an organization for a period of time and
anxiety and insecurity. Whereas the secure employment and show professional character in performing em )tional labor
stable organizations of the 20th century offered a firm basis for and adapting quickly to changes. The new confract of em-
building a life and envisioning afriture,the digital revolution ployability has prompted management and hur lan resource
of the 21st century has brought a new social arrangement of scholars to reconceptualize careers as boundary less (Arthur,
work in which temporary assignments and time-limited proj- 1994), protean (Hall, 1996), customized (Benko & Weisberg,
ects replace permanent jobs (Kalleberg, Reskin, & Hudson, 2007), kaleidoscopic (Sullivan & Mainiero, 2008), and as a
2000). The "dejobbing" wrought by the global economy has portfolio (Handy, 1998).
produced the "insecure worker," including employees who Frequent job dislocation and career destabilization set
are called temporary, contingent, casual, confract, freelance, workers adrift as they try to chart theirfrituresand shape their
part time, extemal, atypical, adjunct, consultant, and self- identities. Entering today's work world requires more effort,
employed. The transformation of the labor force from core deeper self-knowledge, and greater confidence than ever
workers with permanent jobs to peripheral workers with before. Individuals who must cope with unstable occupations
temporary assignments has already affected nearly half of and frequent job fransitions may request subst! ntially more
workers in the United States (Kalleberg, 2009). help from career counselors, and I think a difï ¡rent kind of
During the 20th century when employees occupied a help. The two major paradigms for career inter\ ention in the
permanent job, workers could count on bureaucratic orga- 21 st century were vocational guidance and career education.
nizations to provide a grand narrative about how their lives Vocational guidance rests on a psychology of fixed fraits and
would unfold. Today, individuals can no longer plan to work types that can be objectified with tests and then matched to
30 years developing a career within the boundaries of one job stable occupations that provide long tenure. Career education
or even one organization. Instead, during their lifetimes they rests on a predictable trajectory of developmental tasks that
may expect to occupy at least 10 jobs, more properly called can be eased by teaching individuals mature attitudes and
assignments (Saratoga Institute, 2000). One in four workers competencies that prepare them to unfold calreers within
in the United States has been with their current employer for hierarchical organizations. Matching through vocational
less than a year (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2004). The new guidance and preparing through career education may not
job market in an unsettled economy calls for viewing career adequately address the life design needs of citi;;ens in infor-
not as a lifetime commitment to one employer but as a recur- mation societies.
rent selling of services and skills to a series of employers who
need projects completed. An examination of contemporary
employment practices reveals that the social reorganization
• A New Approach to Career Intervention
of work has produced a new psychological contract between As the form of work changes from stability tc mobility to
organizations and their members (Rousseau, 1996). Today, reflect the labor needs of posttraditional societies, so too

Mark L. Savickas, Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medi-
cine. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mark L. Savickas, Department of Behavioral and Coniimunity
Health Sciences, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, 4209 State Route 44, Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 e-mail:
[email protected]).

© 2012 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved.

Journal ofCounseling& Development • January 2012 • Volume 90 13
 Savickas

must the form of career intervention change. The paradigms the old ideas. It represents a fundamental reordering of career
of guiding and preparing now must be supplemented with a counseling theory that envisions career intervention ÍTom a
new paradigm that fully addresses the life design needs of different perspective and elaborates it from new premises
workers in information societies that have destandardized about self and identity.
the life course (Duarte, 2009). The loss of stable structures
and predictable trajectories decouples people from moder- Self
nity's grand narrative about the life course and expectations The modem idea of actualizing a self that already exists within
about its pattern and structure. The individualization of the a person served career counseling well during the second
life course (Beck, 2002) calls for a science of intervention half of the 20th century. The idea of self-actualization arose
that deals with constructing a self and designing a career. from the belief that inherent within each person resides an
With the shift in responsibility for career from institutions indispensable essence that constitutes the immutable core
to individuals, people must "get a life" (Habermas & Bluck, self (Gubrium & Holstein, 1999). However, for careers in the
2000) and bridge transitions in that life by using what has 21 st century, that belief may be replaced with the postmodern
been referred to as biographicity (Alheit, 1995) and identity belief that an essential self does not exist a priori. Accord-
work (Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2003). ingly, clients do not select words to describe a preexisting,
Autobiographical reasoning and identity work involve the essential self Rather, clients choose words to constitute a
reflexive activities of forming, maintaining, and revising iden- self and form self-conceptions. This view considers self to
tity narratives characterized by distinctiveness, coherence, be an a posteriori story, not an a priori substance defined by
and continuity. These narrative processes produce the identity a list of properties. As one speaks one's story, so one makes
capital of knowing and liking one's life story. Individuals may oneself, and this self-constructing is a life project. For career
then invest their identity capital and their stories to cope with construction theory, stories constitute a critical element be-
the uncertainties prompted by occupational transitions and cause in addition to building a self, stories provide the efficient
work traumas. As workers move from one assignment to the means through which an individual also builds a subjective
next assignment, they must let go of what they did yet not career, that is, a story about her or his working life (Young,
who they are. If they let go of everything, then the loss may Valach, & Collin, 1996).
overwhelm them. By holding onto the self in the form of a life Self-actualization and self-construction offer fundamental-
story that provides coherence and continuity, they are able to ly different perspectives on and prospects for career interven-
pursue their purpose and projects with integrity and vitality. tion. Some counselors find the idea of self-constructing more
useful than the idea of self-actualizing. Other counselors do
• A New Paradigm not want to relinquish the familiar idea of self-actualization.
So, during the period of transition in which we now live,
Career practitioners and researchers now are formulating new counselors experience confusion and conflict between the
constructs to help clients negotiate a lifetime of job changes epistemologies of positivism and constructionism. Never-
without losing a sense of self and social identity (Guichard, theless, I believe that eventually the prevailing paradigm for
2005). To better assist clients in designing their lives for career counseling in the 21st century will be rooted in social
the 21st century, many career counselors now concentrate constructionism and identity (Guichard, 2009) rather than
on identity rather than personality, adaptability rather than logical positivism and personality (Holland, 1997).
maturity, intentionality rather than decidedness, and stories
rather than scores. The constructs of identity, adaptability, Identity
intentionality, and narratability contribute to the formula- Career construction theory clearly differentiates self fTom
tion of a new model for comprehending vocational behavior, identity. Self is not identity nor is it absorbed into identity.
namely, career construction theory (Savickas, 2005b). This In career construction theory, identity involves how people
psychological theory of vocational behavior follows from think of themselves in relation to social roles. Using a syl-
an epistemological position called life designing, which logism, one may think of identity forming as an individual's
concentrates on contextual possibilities, dynamic processes, thesis (self) encounters society's antithesis (role) and crafts a
nonlinear progression, multiple perspectives, and personal synthesis (identity). Individuals begin to form psychosocial
patterns (Savickas et al., 2009). In relation to career, this con- identities by associating the psychological self with social
structionist perspective highlights flexibility, employability, roles and cultural representations. In due course, individuals
commitment, emotional intelligence, and lifelong learning. assemble and articulate a comprehensible identity narrative.
This article presents for the first time a new paradigm for Narratives about identity provide self-understanding in the
career intervention, one that complements the psychology of form of an interpretation of self that orients one to a social
career construction (Savickas, 2005b) and the epistemology of world. Through narratives, individuals interpret the self as if
life designing (Savickas et al., 2009). This conceptual model it were another person. As William James (1890) famously
for career counseling is not just an addition to or extension of explained, the "I" tells a story about "me." Individuals enact

14 Journal ofCounseling& Development • January 2012 • Volume 90

Life Design

and edit their identity narratives as they join a social group that From my perspective, an implicit paradigm for career inter-
provides a recognizable social niche. They become identified vention has emerged to meet the self-construction and career
with holding environments such as neighborhoods, churches, design needs of 21 st-century clients. In the present article I seek
schools, and occupations. They then pursue purpose and to make that paradigm explicit by abstracting several specific
values within their validating communities. From this per- instances of constructionist and narrative interventions into
spective, occupational choice involves niche construction as the language of a new paradigm. To do so, I firs gathered the
individuals adopt a meaningful cultural script and then pursue instantiations that I could identify. The examples that invoke
it in work roles that matter to them and their communities. the general conceptual model include career style assessment
Identity is much more variable than conceptions of the and counseling (Savickas, 1989), narrative caresr counseling
self. Identity commitments do provide a stable significance, (Cochran, 1997), constructivist career counseling (Peavy,
at least for some period of time. Nevertheless, identity re- 1997), career construction through goal-directed action (Young
sponds to context so individuals continuously revise it in & Valach, 2004), My System of Career Infiuences (McMahon,
negotiation with social positions and interpersonal discourses. Patton, & Watson, 2005), My Career Chapter (Mcllveen,
Accordingly, identity development is a lifelong process. An 2007), Discovery ofOccupationalActivities and Personal Plans
individual must repeatedly revise identity so as to adaptively (Guichard, 2008), metaphor making (Amundsop, 2010), and
integrate significant new experiences into the ongoing life the chaos theory of career counseling (Pryor & Bright, 2011).
story. Developing or revising an identity accelerates when All of these specific instances of the life des gn paradigm
the content of the current identity is unable to support the share the same goal: to prompt meaningful activities that
individual in confronting a new set of demands imposed by further self-making, identity shaping, and career constructing
the society (Heinz, 2002). A story that cannot be continued (Savickas, 2010). Each method uses autobiographical stories
must be revised. When this occurs, individuals feel anxious to lead clients through their ambiguity by creatjing scenarios
because they encounter challenging situations without the that link future initiatives to past achievements. In due course,
protection of an identity that holds and comforts them. These each client authors a biographical bridge that expresses his or
feelings prompt some individuals to seek career counseling her personal truths and authorizes an identity that transports the
to further their identity work. client into the ñiture. The paradigm for life des gn structures
interventions to (a) construct career through sm ill stories, (b)
deconstruct these stories and reconstruct them ir to an identity
•Life Design: A Paradigm for Career narrative or life porfrait, and (c) coconstruct intentions that
Intervention lead to the next action episode in the real wor d. I consider
each element in turn.
Life design represents a new paradigm for career intervention.
Kuhn (1996) described a paradigm as a set ofpractices that define
a scientific discipline at any particular period of time. A para- Construction
digm is a conceptual model that is widely accepted in a practice When individuals are dislocated from their ci rrent stories,
community and usually is the prevailing view of best practices. they begin narrative processing of their biogra)hies (Heinz,
For career intervention, paradigm means the general pattern 2002). Some individuals seek counseling to assist them in
of practice, which includes many specific examples. Within a this identity work. With these clients, life design interven-
paradigm of practice, specific instantiations do not follow a rigid tions begin by having them describe both the incident that
pattern; rather each realization of the general conceptual model dislocates them from the current episode in their story and
shows aflexibleand creative application of the abstract template. their goals for a new scenario that they want to coconstruct
The paradigm for vocational guidance is to (a) enhance with a counselor.
self-knowledge, (b) increase occupational information, and Then counselors ask clients to narrate micronarratives, or
(c) match self to occupation. Specific substantiations of this tell small stories, that demonstrate how they have constructed
conceptual model include the person-environment fit ap- their self, identity, and career. Life design intervention focuses
proach advocated by Holland (1997) and Lofquist and Dawis on narration because stories are construction tools for build-
(1991). The paradigm for career education is to (a) assess ing identities and careers out of complex social interactions,
development status, (b) orient the individual to imminent Storytelling makes the self and crystallizes wha clients think
developmental tasks, and (c) develop the attitudes and com- of themselves. The more stories they tell, the more clients
petencies needed to master those tasks. Specific examples develop their identities and careers.
of this conceptual model and its emphasis on learning can Individuals compose stories to organize events in their
be found in instances known as career development and as- lives into a sequence. Each educational and vocational posi-
sessment counseling (Niles, 2001; Super, 1983), integrative tion that they have occupied may be viewed as a short story
life platining (Hansen, 1997), the social-cognitive framework in the novel of their career. In career construction theory, the
for career choice and counseling (Brown & Lent, 1996), and sequence of positions in a résumé presents the ^tory that one
the learning theory of career counseling (Krumboltz, 1996). generally thinks of as an objective career.

Journal ofCounseling& Development • January 2012 • Volume 90 15

 Savickas

Deconstruction still feel random. So in life design, reconstruction means to

In some cases, client stories include dominating expecta- configure and integrate agent, goals, means, and interactions
tions or insidious ideas that suppress more life-enhancing to form a unified and meaningful identify narrative or life
alternatives. Counselors must always think carefully about porfrait. Thus, emplotment reconstructs a subjective career
how a client's stories might be deconstructed to reveal from clients' consfructions of their work life. The explicit
self-limiting ideas, confining roles, and cultural barriers. In occupational plot tells about the client's journey to reach
particular, they must be sensitive to axioms of meaning and certain goals and to elaborate the self in a social context. The
ideological biases regarding gender, race, and social status. explicit plot tells of the outer journey and why it happened.
When stories require deconstruction, counselors may discuss It is augmented by a career theme about what it all means.
with clients what a story assumes, overlooks, omits, forgets, This inner journey traces an emotional Odyssey shaped by a
or inadequately addresses. Deconstruction seeks to undo a cenfral conflict with its associated needs and longing. The
story's uncritical domination over the client's thinking, not implicit theme adds meaning and purpose to the plot of the
desfroy the story. The goal is to access different meanings and macronarrative.
new knowledge that open up possibilities and restart stalled Although the theme may explain emotional transforma-
initiatives. Having listened closely to how a client constructs tions, it is more timeless and absfract than the plot. The career
her or his career story, and maybe deconstructing some of theme provides an unifying idea that, through reoccurrence,
its ideas and incidents, the counselor reconstructs the small makes a life whole. The career theme represents the control-
stories into a large story. ling idea served by the plot. The thematic pattern weaved by
this underlying idea provides the primary unit of meaning used
Reconstruction to understand the facts of the occupational plot. As individuals
Narrative processing of identify constructions gathers mi- incorporate new experiences, they use the implicit theme to
cronarratives about important incidents, recurrent episodes, digest the plot episodes by imposing the pattern of meaning
significant figures, self-defining moments, and life-changing on them. When individuals face challenges and disruptions,
experiences. In working with the micronarratives, the coun- the recurrent pattern in the macronarrative theme directs,
selor actively gathers the story threads and weaves them regulates, and sustains their actions.
into one tapestry to craft a unified sense of individualify. In addition to the cenfral idea that the life serves, the career
Integration of small stories about the self in social situations theme also carries the character arc, that is, how the person
constructs a large story or macronarrative, that is, an identify changes over time. The arc porfrays where the person started,
narrative. The macronarrative reconstructs experiences to is now, and wants to end up on some essential personal issue.
make sense and to sediment values, attitudes, and habits into The character arc begins with some flaw that propels and
a grand story about the person's life. The person becomes a moves the individual. Usually, theflawarises from something
character in a world that she or he has constructed. Thus, the missing in life, something that individuals long for and need.
identify narrative confers a life story on the self as a social To overcome this limitation or weakness, individuals seek to
being. It bestows personal meaning and social mattering on attain some goal thatfialfiUsthe need. They wrestle with and
a life as it tells about pattern and progress. try to overcome the fear, limitation, block, or wound. In due
The macronarrative of identity explains clients' past, course, they overcome the adversify and franscend their flaws
orients them to the present, and guides them into the future. as they become something more than they were. In this way,
To do this, the identify narrative highlights the occupational individuals use work to become more whole and complete.
plot and career theme in the sequence of small stories. Plots
structure the sequence of episodes into a coherent whole, Coconstruction
raising some facts to prominence while ignoring others. The Having reconstructed an identify narrative from the client's
writer E. M. Forster (1927) explained that a story tells what micronarratives, the coimselor then presents to the client a
happened while a plot tells why it happened. Forster exempli- draft of her or his life portrait, including the occupational
fied this difference between story and plot as follows: "The plot, career theme, and character arc. A first goal in narrating
King died, and then the Queen died" is a story because it has a the life portrait to clients is to have them consider the mac-
sequence. In comparison, "The King died, and then the Queen ronarrative reconstructed by the counselor. Reflecting on the
died of grief" is a plot because it adds causalify. life porfrait typically leads to the client editing the identify
Having elicited several micronarratives or small stories narrative. This revision involves amendments that correct
from a client, the counselor must eventually emploi them mistakes, adjustments that come to terms with old conflicts
(Ricoeur, 1984). Emplot means to place the micronarratives and settle accounts, and alterations that enhance self-esteem
about what happened into the context of a macronarrative, or and support a more optimistic view of life.
large story, about why it happened. Emplotting the sequence However, revising the macronarrative involves more than
of episodes into a larger story adds explanatory links and just giving accurate voice to the client's life story. Clients
causal coherence to the experiences that may otherwise need to modify the porfrait to make it more livable and then

16 Journal ofCounseling& Development • January 2012 • Volume 90

Life Design

extend it into thefiiture.That is why they come to counseling. methods emphasize more of the back story, many focus on
The processes of revisions and elaboration open possibilities occupational plot, others highlight the career theme, and still
for rearranging story elements. Client and counselor join others concentrate on the character arc. Also, the different
together to candidly craft a move in meaning with which to methods inquire about different stories as they elicit narra-
confront choices. The coconstruction of the life portrait seeks tives about important incidents, recurrent episodes, significant
to incorporate the current dislocation in a way that clarifies figures, self-defining moments, or life-changing experiences.
priorities, mobilizes central tendencies, and increases the On the basis of the paradigm of life design described in the
possibility of transformation and development. This occurs present article, I have crafted another specific inst mce of career
as clients access different meanings and knowledge that open intervention to explicitly apply the abstract concîptual model.
new possibilities and restart stalled initiatives. With new Career construction counseling (Savickas, 201 la) begins with
language, fresh perspectives, and expanded vistas, clients a career story interview, with four to six questions about how
may reorganize their meaning system and clarify what is at clients construct their selves and careers. Next, Cjounselors de-
stake in the next episode of their career story. Then clients construct these stories and reconstruct them into a life portrait.
are ready to face challenges and disruptions using plot and Then the client and counselor use that portrait to coconstruct
theme to provide overarching goals, rules, order, certainty, and intentions and actions that begin the next episcde in the cli-
values. This self-clarity enables clients to make their inten- ent's occupational plot. Demonstrations of careei' construction
tions more apparent to themselves and their counselors. With counseling enable counselors to evaluate the use: illness of this
this newfound clarity, clients may envision the next scenes, life design intervention (Savickas, 2005a, 2009).
form intentions, and begin to act.

Action •Conclusion
A good story about the self encourages clients to make career Simply stated, the new general model for career intervention
transitions while holding onto a self that is even more vital involves construction, deconstruction, reconstruction, and
and intentional. A revised identity narrative enables indi- coconstruction that lead to action in the real woj-ld. The para-
viduals to meet the uncertainties of transition with comforts digm of life design does not replace but rather takes its place
recalledfi-omthe past. Life design interventions forge links to alongside the paradigms of vocational guidance and career
the world that lies ahead by promoting intention and action. education. Its place is positioned by five sets of distinctions
Whereas scripting the next scene brings clients' experience that differentiate among vocational guidance, career educa-
forward, activity starts clients living ahead of themselves. tion, and life design: actor, agent, and author (McAdams &
And the necessary action is to turn intentions into behavior Olson, 2010); object, subject, and project (Savickas, 201 lb);
infused with meaning (Malrieu, 2003). Action inherently resemblance, readiness, and reflexivity (Savickas, 2011a);
holds meaning from the past while it carries the person into the scores, stages, and stories (Savickas, 201 la); an 1 traits, tasks,
future. Through action, not verbal expressions of decidedness, and themes (Savickas, 2001). Vocational guida ice, from the
clients engage the worid (Krieshok, Black, & McKay, 2009). objective perspective of individual differences, views clients
Going ftirther and deeper into the world answers the questions as actors who may be characterized by scores on traits and
brought to counseling. Action prompts further self-making, who may be helped to match themselves to occupations that
identity shaping, and career constructing. employ people who they resemble. Career education, from
To conclude the consultation, counselors ask clients the subjective perspective of individual development, views
whether they have accomplished the goals they brought to clients as agents who may be characterized by their degree
counseling. Counselors usually end with a few sentences oí readiness to engage developmental tasks appropriate to
that summarize what has occurred by consolidating the their life stages and who may be helped to implement new
coconstructed story and explaining how it relates to why the attitudes, beliefs, and competencies that further their careers.
client sought counseling. They may use the words tension, Life design, from the/?rq/ec? perspective of social construc-
attention, intention, and extension to explain to clients the tionism, views clients as authors who may be characterized by
outcome of counseling. The client brought some tension to autobiographical stories and who may be helped to reflect on
address in consultation with the counselor. Together client and life themes with which to construct their careers. Depending
counselor paid attention to that tension in the form of career on a client's needs and social context, practitioners may apply
stories. Then they reconstructed the tension into intention. career interventions that refiect different paradigms: voca-
Following counseling, the client seeks some extension of the tional guidance to identify occupational fit, career education
self in purposeful action that resolves the tension. to foster vocational development, or life desigr to construct
a career. Each paradigm for career interventi jn—whether
Career Construction Counseling it is modernity's guidance, late modernity's education, or
As already stated, the life design paradigm for career interven- postmodernity's design—is valuable and effective for its
tion is implicitly present in several specific instances. Some intended purpose.

Journal ofCounseling& Development • January 2012 • Volume 90 17

 Savickas

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