Applying a Systemic Procedure to Locate Career Decision-Making Difficulties

Locating clients' career decision-making difficulties is one of the first steps in career counseling. The authors demonstrate the feasibility and utility of a systematic 4-stage procedure for locating and interpreting career decision-making difficulties by analyzing responses of 626 college students (collected by Tai, 2007) to the Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ; Carl, Krausz, & Osipow, 1996). In addition, the responses of 2 students selected from this group arc individually analyzed and interpreted. The procedure makes it possible to map the various career decision-making difficulties of undergraduate students and tailor the appropriate career counseling intervention to the unique needs of clients.