Brain Based Career Development: A Path to Client Action and Engagement

LIMITED TO 50 PARTICIPANTS

While this workshop is presented primarily through the career development lens, the information and techniques are applicable to other advising interactions.  This workshop will be valuable to advisors across the institution.

Imants Jaunarajs, M.A., Assistant Vice President and Executive Director for the Career & Leadership Development Center (CLDC) at Ohio University, is facilitating the workshop.

Brain Based Career Development (BBCD) is a career development theoretical model based on cutting- edge neuropsychological best practices.  Practitioners can use BBCD to guide clients (a.k.a. students) to take action and identify solutions to their career development problems. BBCD is a new way to work with clients; a more strategic and effective way to facilitate client action and engagement.

Brain Based Career Development:

• gives clients ownership of the career development/advising process;
• ensures the career development/advising process does not become overwhelming;
• provides practitioners brand new strategies for how to think about and complete their day-to-day career development/advising work with clients.
• helps clients more effectively navigate the career development/advising process, which leads to more meaningful outcomes.

At the end of the training, participants will be able to… 

• understand the Brain Based Career Development model; 
• discuss neuroscience research implications for career development;
• examine how clients become overwhelmed; 
• examine “decision making” and “taking action” from a brain based perspective;
• practice the seven BBCD coaching techniques;
• take away numerous practical materials which they can update to best fit their needs;
• formulate a plan for how to implement the BBCD model in their current career development practice; and
• understand when being a “helper” is not helpful.

Who Should Attend:

• Career Services
• Student Affairs
• Academic Advising
• Leadership Development
• Human Resources

Cost: $100 for GC3 Members

          $150 for non-GC3 members

Click Here to Register for Brain Based Career Development: A Path to Client Action and Engagement

About Brain-Based Career Development

For most individuals, the career development process is inherently overwhelming due to the shear amount of information and future-based thinking, which goes along with making life-altering decisions. In today’s world of information overload, it is imperative practitioners understand the brain’s biological limits and the impact this has on career development.

Research in neuropsychology has highlighted limitations in the processing power of specific areas within the human brain. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision making and imagining the future, is easily “overwhelmed”. Overloading the brain with information negatively impacts decision-making.  Imagining the future, something you have not experienced, also takes a lot of mental effort. People spend more time thinking of problems (what they have seen) than solutions (what they have never seen). Knowing that decision making gets difficult when the prefrontal cortex is exposed to too much information, especially with future based decisions, career development practitioners can be strategic in the manner in which they provide services and resources to clients.

About Imants Jaunarajs:

Imants Jaunarajs, M.A., serves as the Assistant Vice President and Executive Director for the Career & Leadership Development Center (CLDC) at Ohio University. With over twelve years of experience in university career centers, Imants is a creator of innovative and outcome driven career development best practices, including Brain Based Career Development (BBCD) and Leadership Coaching (an executive coaching model for undergraduate students). In the fall of 2012, Imants led the merger of “Career Services” with the “Leadership Center” to create the Career & Leadership Development Center at Ohio University. Starting with only one staff member, Imants strategically developed the new career services paradigm and currently oversees a staff of 15 professionals and 35 graduate and undergraduate student employees. In 2018, the CLDC was the winner of the National Excellence Award for Career Services Excellence. Imants earned a Bachelor of Arts from Earlham College and Master of Arts from Western Michigan University.