The Career Development Inventory (CDI), created by Albert Thompson, Richard Lindeman, Donald Super, Jean Pierre Jordan, and Roger Myers. The CDI operationally defines Super’s structural model of career choice readiness among adolescents and emerging adults. Inspired by the construct of reading readiness, Super, reasoned that the readiness to and resources for making educational and vocational choices emerged during childhood and developed during adolescence. Super believed that vocational choice was an individual’s attempt to implement their self-concept in a work role. An individual’s level of satisfaction and success depends upon the realism and wisdom of their educational or occupational choice. To make an adequate choice and avoid educational or occupational failure; individuals must possess the necessary readiness and resources.
Career choice attitudes indicate an individual’s character with regard to the amount of thought, effort, and planning they have given to future occupational or educational choices. Career choice competencies represent an individual’s ability to apply their knowledge and understanding of careers and the world of work in making rational educational and career decisions.
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The two most important career choice attitudes are planning and inquisitiveness. The attitudes toward planning reflect a future direction, an awareness of choice, and a viewpoint involved in preparing to make distant choices. Developed attitudes toward planning, prompt behaviors such as discussing career plans with adults, getting part-time jobs, taking part in college or community activities, and finding out what people do in one’s field of interest. All of these can help an individual gain a clearer picture of one’s vocational interests. The attitude toward exploration means inquisitiveness about the world of work and individual’s place in it. Well developed attitudes toward exploration prompt behaviors such as information seeking, role playing, and talking with career counselors, professors, and professionals in one’s field of interest. Exploration involves using the resources available to gain information on careers and the world of work.
Super identified knowledge about occupations and the skill of decision making as a critical competency. Occupational information gathering, such as, knowing the requirements, routines, and rewards of an assortment of occupations of one’s interest is invaluable. Decision making competence is the ability to apply the principles of rational decision making to one’s educational and vocational choices. These four variables, two attitudinal and two cognitive, compose Super’s model of readiness for making vocational choices during adolescence. Super and his colleagues operationally defined this structural model of vocational development during adolescence and emerging adulthood by creating the Career Development Inventory (CDI).
There are two versions of the CDI. The CDI School form, which is designed for students in grades 8 through 12, and the CDI College form, which is designed for college students from freshman through senior years. Both forms measure the same constructs, yet differ in content. The different content reflects the educational level of the subjects being tested. Scores are reported on five scales: Career Planning (CP), Career Exploration (CE), Decision Making (DM), and knowledge of the World of Work (WW), knowledge of Preferred Occupations (PO). CP and CE comprise the attitudinal components of Super’s model, whereas DM and WW measure the competencies, PO measures the amount of in-depth knowledge one has with respect to their primary field of interest. PO is measured separately from the other four scales, and should not be administered to students below the 11th grade. The CDI also reports on three composite scales. Career Decision Attitudes (CDA) is the combination of CP and CE. Career Decision Knowledge (CDK) is the combination of DM and WW. Career Orientation Total (COT) is the combination of CDA and CDK. These composite scores exist to help gain a more reliable measure of attitudes toward career, knowledge of careers and the world of work.
CDI assessment and interview with Jamall Jones
Jamall, 29 year old college freshman, believes his goal for a career is a career as a Physical Therapist. Jamall is currently employed as a Security officer at a local college; he is an extrovert with very high energy and prefers to help others. Jamall reports he has been previously employed in a variety of jobs such as Shift Manager, Waiter, Bartending, and Restaurant Cook.
At first glance of the CDI assessment and its sublevels, I would believe Jamall to score above average in his assessment for Career Exploration (CE) and average for Career Planning (CP), Decision Making (DM). This is based on his previous list of jobs as well as his current position, which has allowed him to help others in different settings. He reports seeking information on a regular basis to develop himself to help others less fortunate. These activities include looking up information on the internet, inquiring information from family and friends, and supervisors. He states he hasn’t taken the time necessary to plan, “time is a big factor”. He mentions not have enough time in the day between working full time and now attending classes to pursue any planning activities for his career. His decision making skill seems to be a low- average, as he has jump from job to job often times in the same month. He mentions that his personality often gets him in the door of a job, but realizes later the position or job isn’t the best for him and wishes he had taken to time think about it. This pattern has repeated many times in his work life. Since Jamall has had many jobs, he has the exposure to many types of experiences, people and cultures. I would believe his (WW) World of Work score to be above average.
Jamall’s CDI assessment profile, quickly reports his high score on Career Exploration (CE). According to Jamall, he spends a lot of time researching an exploring careers and information on developing himself to help others. His score in (CE) group was 94%, which is above average and correlates to what he originally stated before taking the assessment. My interpretation of his high score reflects Jamall has actively employed his resources, and gathered information appropriate to his future occupational choices of being a Physical Therapist. Besides being a Physical Therapist, Jamall mentioned researching information on careers such as Culinary and Law enforcement. He states he is more likely to purse the Law enforcement if being a Physical Therapist doesn’t work out for him, which would be a good choice for him since is currently employed as a security officer. My assumption that Jamall would be above average was correct as he scored above average in this area.
Jamall’s next high score was in the area of (CP) Career Planning. Jamall mentions he doesn’t have the time to do what is necessary for him to plan for his careers due to working full time. His score was a 57%, is average score which is explained his statement “time is a big factor”. Jamall does attend classes in his chosen field which indicates he has made some level of commitment toward his career, but lacks the interest in following up activities, such as part time jobs, and summer internships which show a degree of engagement in his chosen field. My assumption that Jamall would be average was correct as he previously mentioned, he lacks the necessary time to commit to career planning.
The next highest score on Jamall’s profile was in (PO) Knowledge of Preferred Occupations. His score is 29% which is a below average score and indicates a need for him to gather more information regarding the Physical Therapist profession. Jamall stated since he is currently taking the beginning classes in program, he knows very little about the core of the field and doesn’t feel it’s necessary now to speak to professors or others in the field since he is just starting out. My assumption that Jamall would be average was incorrect in this area, although Jamall is in school pursuing this field he is lacks the essential steps that confirm he is making the decision to pursue this field.
Jamall’s lowest scores were in the group area of (DM) Decision Making and (WW) World of Work. His scores in these groups were 8% and 4% respectively. Having such low scores in these groups indicate Jamall is lacking in the ability to apply knowledge and insight to career planning and decision making. Jamall would probably benefit from practicing the principles involved in effective decision making. When I communicated this to him, his reply was “yes you’re right, I do have a problem with making a decision and sticking to it”. His low (WW) score would point towards him learning more about his skills, preferences, and reviewing how to get jobs. My assumption that Jamall would score average in Decision making and above average in World of Work were both incorrect as he lacks the ability to make decisions and “stick to them”. I believe Jamall would score higher in World of Work due to having large number of jobs and the opportunity to learn from each of them. According to the test he was well below average as this was his lowest score.
The three composites group scores for Jamall were Career Development Attitudes (CDA) 82%, Career Development Knowledge (CDK) 4% and Career Orientation Total (COT) 18%. These composites scales indicate for Jamall has an above average career development attitude and less likely to need help in his attitude toward his career. He has below average knowledge of how to make career decisions and a below average knowledge of the world of work. His scores indicate he has a need for help in the area of making decisions. Jamall’s overall career maturity is below average. It is extremely likely that Jamall would benefit from individual counseling, and structured exploratory experiences.
As a result of discussing his CDI profile, Jamall was able to see what areas he need more guidance. Jamall understood why he was pursuing the career he was, but it was also apparent he had arrived at the decision in not the best fashion. He mentioned the test “didn’t help me” because he was already sure.
In counseling Jamall using Super’s Life Span theory, I find that Jamall’s age of 29 puts him into the establishment range (25-44). The life stage before establishment is exploration. It is evident from the CDI, Jamall should continue to explore careers and be more systematic in his decision making. His most dominate set of behaviors is consistent with exploration, he reports jumping from job to job, and looking for opportunities to develop himself to help others. During counseling session, after we had determine the developmental stage he is in, set goals of narrowing his personal career choices, develop the necessary skills such as decision making, problem identifying and solution selection. Then move into the next phase of establishment, here we will work on the skills necessary for stability, and foundation.
