An exploratory study of the job hunting support process by career counselors at public employment security offices

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to generate hypotheses about the process by which skilled career counselors at public employment security offices provide support to job seekers who appear to be experiencing employment challenges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight career counselors with good reputations and more than six years of experience at public employment security offices, and analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach (hereinafter referred to as M-GTA). As a result, 42 concepts and 9 categories were generated. Depending on the past work experiences of the job seekers, experienced career counselors in the public employment security offices seemed to provide job hunting support that “transforms the sense of obligation and fear into motivation”, or “gradually help them to face their honest feelings and to get inspired from them”. The experienced career counselors also seemed to approach for their clients to be independent working adults by offering hints to improve human relations and facilitating their growth based on their initiatives and conviction. These results suggested that the experienced career counselors are taking a “nurturing” approach to foster fundamental skills as working adults for their clients. The quality of the experienced career counselors was also characterized by thorough acceptance of the clients, emphasis on prospective learning, and implementation of concrete measures.