Journal of Career Development, Vol. 27, No. 3, 2001

Transforming Career Centersfor the New Millennium

M. Meghan DavidsonMary J. HeppnerJoseph A. Johnston

University of Missouri–Columbia

Every year for the past ten years, the University of Missouri–Co-lumbia has sponsored a three-day conference for college career centerpersonnel across the country. The original intent was to help preparecareer planning professionals for the new millennium. Because of theinterest in the annual conference and the obvious need that is felt bycareer center professionals, we have continued hosting the conference.We are grateful to the Editor of the Journal of Career Development,Dr. Norman Gysbers, who has on several occasions suggested the jour-nal be the forum for papers presented at these conferences. This year’sconference produced a number of particularly good papers that are thefocus of this special issue.

It is our practice to begin the conference by identifying themes thatmay be transforming career centers. Many times the themes remainthe same, only with time assuming more or less importance. For ex-ample, we identified technology as a theme several years ago. Itclearly is an even more important influence on our practice today. Fiveother themes emerged and were discussed at this year’s conference,several of which are the topic of papers presented in this special issue.These include the appearance of new career theories—personal careertheories, the recognition of ever more diverse populations using ourservices, different ideas about accountability in career centers, chang-ing staffing patterns and new ideas about what constitutes a career,

Address correspondence to M. Meghan Davidson, University of Missouri–Columbia,16 Hill Hall, Columbia, MO 65211; e-mail: mmd75b@mizzou.edu.

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all leading to new ideas about what should constitute career serviceson a college campus.

Most of the themes lead to a common argument for preparing a newkind of professional. Technologically sophisticated individuals mustbe more the norm. Diversity must be incorporated. New theories mustbe examined, as should new approaches to providing services that ap-peal to a much more diverse population. Our staff members will beexpected to have skills and competencies that are far more extensivethan ever before. Far from being simply providers of information, cen-ters must reconsider how, why, where, and when they are reachingtheir clientele. It will be a more demanding time for all of us. And alsoa very exciting time to be part of this profession!

Papers that were presented at the conference and receive particularattention in this volume of the journal do much to amplify thesethemes. Krieshok’s article examines critically some of our most sacredbeliefs about career decision-making and then carefully helps us re-think those beliefs. He makes a cogent argument for less emphasis onhelping our clients become decided and more attention to helpingthem act as their own agents.

Lee and Johnston then expound on a holistic approach to careercounseling. Ideas are developed for using personal career theory (PCT)and incorporating planned happenstance in career counseling. Theydiscuss the importance of treating the whole person and not dichoto-mizing career concerns. They offer suggested tools and theories todemonstrate these important approaches in our field.

Hammond outlines how a needs assessment can be used as a tool toprovide evidence of effectiveness, justify costs, and make more effec-tive decisions about services we should provide. She takes us througha step by step procedure that she successfully utilized at her institu-tion, that can serve as a case study and model for those wishing topursue such an assessment on their campuses. In another article,Hammond also covers using a widely used personality inventory, theNEO, in career counseling. Hammond builds the case for the impor-tance and relevance of assessing the “big-five” personality domainsand applying that information to career decision-making.

Miller and McDaniels overview the impact of computer technologyon career services. They not only describe new directions but concludewith a discussion of who is attempting to provide services and whatnew credentials and training may be necessary given this greater em-phasis on technology. Davidson also explores the impact of computertechnology, but focuses on examining the trend of increased use of

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virtual career centers and decreased use of brick and mortar centers.She proposes seven critical issues related to the increased use of tech-nology in career centers that deserve our immediate attention. In-cluded are ethical considerations and attention to student outcome.Finally, Skovholt and his colleagues examine the critical issue of pre-venting professional burnout. He and his colleagues provide sugges-tions on ways to promote self-care, personal wellness and balance inboth our professional and personal lives.

We hope the reader will be moved by these articles to think inbroader terms about what can be part of our practice as career centerprofessionals. Career counseling continues to change and emerge aswe enter the 21st century. Although being more challenging, we be-lieve it will also be more rewarding.