08/01/2009

Creating Careers with Confidence

Book Review by Darrell A. Luzzo

Colozzi, E. A., Creating Careers with Confidence. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2009. 109 pages

Each year, dozens of publishers distribute catalogs and attend professional conferences to market their new books to prospective customers. At this year's NCDA Global Conference in St. Louis, several publishers displayed their latest offerings in hopes of capturing the attention of conference attendees and encouraging them to consider purchasing the new books that have been added to their list.

For those of us who work with individual clients, there is always the possibility that a new career planning book can provide an excellent vehicle for helping our clients achieve their counseling goals. For those of us who work with groups or offer outreach services to members of the community, such books can unlock a new approach or direction that we can share with others. And for those of us who teach career exploration and planning courses, reviewing new career planning books helps to ensure that we continue to offer our students the best available products to assist them in their career search.

I am pleased to report that among this year's new publications in the career exploration and planning domain is a true gem that is authored by one of NCDA's finest members. Creating Careers with Confidence, written by Dr. Edward A. Colozzi, stands out as one of the most engaging, inspiring, and worthwhile workbooks to be published in our field in the past decade.

Available from Pearson Publishing, Creating Careers with Confidence offers a fresh approach to career exploration and planning that will capture the hearts and minds of persons of all ages and backgrounds. Offering readers much more than traditional career planning workbooks, Creating Careers with Confidence facilitates the discovery of one's calling and, through a series of reflective exercises and imagery, helps individuals understand the possibility of creating careers that offer personal meaning and fulfillment.

By encouraging the process of self-discovery and reflection, Dr. Colozzi provides readers with a series of enlightening stories and exercises that capture the true essence of career development. From his creative flair for describing the various vocational personality types theorized by John Holland to his symbolic explanation of career-life, Dr. Colozzi engages readers in a journey of discovery that opens the door to self-knowledge and offers effective strategies for unlocking one's true career-life pattern.

Throughout Creating Careers with Confidence, Dr. Colozzi effectively and creatively uses imagery and metaphor to connect with the reader. Whether it is his use of the famous Hawaiian banyan tree to explain the various elements of one's self-concept or his reference to buying an ice cream cone to explain the elements of reflective and intuitive decision making, Dr. Colozzi's style is sure to capture everyone's imagination and drive home the most important points to be considered when making career decisions.

Comprehensive in its approach to career exploration and planning, Creating Careers with Confidence also equips readers with valuable knowledge and information to support the identification of careers that align with one's career-life identity and vocational personality. Through a process that helps readers match their Holland code to career areas depicted on ACT's empirically validated World-of-Work Map, Dr. Colozzi prepares readers to further explore meaningful career options and provides them with a series of useful tools and resources that can be used to support the exploration process.

Written in a workbook format that is organized into seven major sections, Creating Careers with Confidence offers individuals at all stages of the career exploration and decision making process a creative and engaging solution to unlocking the key to a confident and fulfilling career. As someone who works with individual clients, community groups, and classes of undecided students of all ages, there is no doubt that I will be integrating Creating Careers with Confidence into my future work. I invite you to take a closer look and discover for yourself the ways that you can help your clients and students create careers with confidence!

 Dr. Darrell Luzzo serves as the Senior Vice President of Organizational Development and Training for OnCURE Medical Corporation, where he oversees the company's talent management and career development programs. Darrell is the Past-President of NCDA and member of the ACA Insurance Trust Board of Directors.  Darrell's career includes executive-level assignments with Strategic Partnerships LLC, JA Worldwide/Junior Achievement, National Career Assessment Services, Inc., Mt. Hood Community College, and ACT, Inc.  Darrell obtained his bachelor's degree in psychology and his master's and doctorate degrees in counseling from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  He can be reached at dluzzo@oncure.com