Career Development Without Borders: Culture, Global Connectedness, and AI

By Sonja Robinson, Hildah Mokgolodi, and Mary Ellen Earnhardt

As careers grow increasingly global, career practitioners must navigate the intersection of artificial intelligence, intercultural competency, and cultural influence. Drawing on regional perspectives from across the globe, this article explores how career professionals can leverage AI responsibly, honor diverse cultural frameworks, and apply cross-cultural competencies to support clients in an interconnected world.

Gatekeeping Student Usage of AI in Career Counseling Courses

By Galaxina G. Wright, Diana Charnley, and Neslihan Caliskan

Gatekeeping in counselor education involves navigating artificial intelligence use among counselors-in-training. This article examines challenges, including academic integrity, detection tools, data security risks, and inconsistent institutional policies. It offers practical, ethical strategies for counselor educators to assess, guide, and model appropriate AI use while promoting professional competence and responsible integration.

The Professionalism Gap: Bridging Expectations from School to Work for Gen Z

By Rebecca Burtram

Gen Z is increasingly being talked about as a problem to solve rather than a generation to understand. This article reframes Gen Z workplace struggles as predictable outcomes of recent schooling, not character flaws. It outlines how career development professionals can help early-career employees develop accountability, communication, problem solving, and reliability through explicit coaching and support.

Helping At-Risk Teenagers Bridge the Gap Between School and Work with Transferable Skills

By Billie Baran

Transferable skills are crucial across diverse careers. It is important that educators and career service providers prioritize bolstering the development of these skills in at-risk high school students. Integrating this awareness can build student confidence, improve academic performance and expand students’ perception of post-secondary professional pathways they might not otherwise consider.

Code-Switching: Survival or Strategy When Preparing to Enter the Work World?

By William T. Taylor

Code-switching has evolved into a complex workplace behavior tied to identity, inclusion, and power. This article examines its impact on minority professionals, highlighting psychological and career effects. Career development professionals can support underrepresented individuals in navigating and reframing these experiences for authenticity and equity. Career development professionals can educate students about the appropriate balance between assimilation and authenticity as they prepare to enter the professional work world.

Beyond the Battlefield: Using Super’s Developmental Approach to Veteran Career Counseling

By Amber LoPresti and Lisa Cardello

Veterans face unique, often-overlooked challenges navigating the transition from military to civilian life. Using a developmental approach, such as Super’s theory, career practitioners support veterans by helping them explore their career journeys, translate military experience into civilian job competencies, and re-establish a meaningful vocational identity beyond their time in uniform.

Conference Engagement Your Way

By Brianna Navarro and Melanie Reinersman

Traditional conference participation offers many benefits yet challenges the busy professional’s time and budget. How can engagement and ROI be maximized for conference participants? NCDA offers a combination of tradition and innovation to meet the unique needs of career development professionals today.

Training Assistance with NotebookLM

NotebookLM <https://notebooklm.google.com/> helps career practitioners streamline training by creating a source-grounded AI. By uploading your own department handbooks, ethical guidelines, or industry reports, you can generate an assistant that answers questions based strictly on those specific materials. Staff can then generate instant FAQs, study guides, or audio summaries. This ensures training is accurate and context-specific, allowing career peers to master complex information while reducing the risk of AI "hallucinations." It’s an efficient, user-friendly way to manage departmental knowledge and professional development.

Tech Tip submitted by Angie Thompson, angie.thompson@mso.umt.edu