From emplotment to employment: Becoming a career critic

Abstract

Synthesising concepts from career and literary theories creates frameworks for a new approach termed career criticism. Careers can be seen as stories, conscious and unconscious texts;  analysing elements such as structure, plot, narrators, and narrative techniques enables students to interpret surface and below-surface meanings of career stories. Techniques can be taught in formal career learning to enable clients to understand influences and consciously take action in relation to them. This paper draws on methods common in Humanities to present a model of career criticism. Developed in higher education, the approach could be applied to careers work in multiple settings.