Beyond the Briefing: Exploring Factors That Enhance or Inhibit the Success of Career Counseling Across Military Populations

This master’s thesis investigates on how career counseling can be more successful when in service of the military population , specifically focusing on expanding on the need of a more holistic approach during sessions. The results shed light to the necessity of having a tailored and holistic approach when dealing with such a diverse and complicated population. The study revealed that when introducing topics of Peace and War to the My Career Story interview, participants were more open and able to create connections between their past interests, current role, and future aspirations. This research has shown that when integrating such topics, counselors can create a more realistic path for their clients future, whether inside the military or in the civilian world. Additionally this study shows that family seems to be an integral theme around the participants from military populations, suggesting that including families and making them an active part of the career counseling, can allow counselors to better integrate into their clients lives an approach that will go beyond the briefing of a simple TAP meeting. Furthermore, the study practical implications support a need for a change in the intervention career counselors are currently offering, not only imposing themselves when one decides to leave the military, but in the work continuum while they are an active service member, to better impact their lives when they eventually decide to leave.