National Careers Week is a good moment to pause and ask a deceptively simple question.

What image best reflects a 'career' for you? 

Is it a ladder to climb, scaffolding to traverse up, down and sideways, a misty path with twists and turns, or perhaps a patchwork quilt that grows over time and is never quite complete? 

Take a moment to consider which image resonates the most, why you chose it, and whether your understanding has shifted over time. Now think about the young people you work with, and their parents and carers. Which image would they most likely choose?

Ladders and straight roads are compelling – they appear to offer reassurance of clarity and certainty. They also satisfy the aspirations of families who expect their child to choose a linear, high-status profession, such as medicine or law. 

Yet these metaphors do not serve everyone well. They fail to capture the complexity and unpredictability of life; they create a sense of failure for those who are less academic or clear about where they are heading; they perpetuate the narrow definition of career as a profession and paid employment.

Let’s replace the ladder with the image of the patchwork quilt: one unique piece, but made up of many shapes, textures, and colours – study, voluntary and community activities, and life roles such as caring for others. Both we and our careers unfold through a continual process of becoming, always evolving and never truly complete. 

Let’s try an analogy that many young people might relate to: Minecraft. In this world, players create and shape their environment using raw materials and tools. Until now, much of a young person’s world has been mapped out for them: how they spend their day, what they study, who their classmates and teachers are. But at the end of Year 11, they suddenly have more agency – if they choose to use it.

In this analogy, the raw materials are their strengths, abilities, and qualifications. The tools are the career management skills they need to build and keep building their career: a growth mindset, self-awareness, decision-making, information management, and transition skills, to name just a few. 

This is why a simple career plan is not enough. The real purpose of career learning and personal guidance is to equip young people with these tools, empowering them to craft and continually shape their own unique career journey.

Using metaphors and analogies in career work

Some people struggle to process figurative language more than others, but that isn’t to say that we shouldn’t use it or make assumptions about who will struggle (for example, there are brilliant autistic poets). We're almost always speaking in metaphors, and the metaphors we choose shape what feels possible. The ladder doesn't just describe a career; it prescribes one. It tells us what counts as progress, what counts as failure, and what doesn't count at all.

When a client is stuck, it's often not because they lack information, it's because they're trapped inside a story. Offering a different metaphor can unlock something that no amount of labour market data can shift. The right image, at the right moment, is genuinely sticky. It changes how people see themselves.

So, what is a career?

• It is singular – you only have one and it lasts throughout your life, prior to and beyond paid work.
• Career is now – you are already on a path.
• It is made up of many different shapes and textures – the roles you play, the effort you put into something for a result, formal and informal learning, paid and unpaid work. It is therefore unique to each person.
• You cannot always plan for what it will look like as a career unfolds in context, in a changing environment full of unpredictable life events
• Everyone has one. We are all occupied in some way. We all have a contribution to make.
• The aim of career learning and career guidance is to equip young people with the resources to craft a career that has purpose and meaning to them.
• The social justice angle means that the careers profession engages in challenging some of the external constraints and structures that make that more difficult for some than others. 

Finally, here are a couple of links to formal definitions of career that might prove useful: 

• CERIC glossary
• Career Development Institute