08/01/2026

Defining the Path: Professional Identity in Career Development

By Tammison R. Smith

As part of their daily work, career practitioners routinely help clients explore occupations and develop meaningful career identities. Although professional identity development has been well documented in fields such as clinical mental health counseling and nursing (Barton, 2024; Cornett et al., 2023), comparatively little research has examined the professional identity development of career practitioners themselves (Lindo et al., 2020). The importance of understanding the professional identity of career practitioners cannot be underestimated. Career development is experiencing rapid change driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), which can provide tailored career services instantly; shifting societal views about the nature and purpose of work; and educational systems facing unprecedented financial and demographic pressures. In this context, a clearly articulated professional identity can help the profession build public trust while strengthening stakeholder and legislative support (Law, 2011).

Law (2011) argued that professionalism is a personal commitment outlined by institutional policy. Such policy has the power to position a profession within the public sphere as the recognized owner of its expertise and capabilities, build public trust, strengthen negotiating leverage and influence with stakeholders, and attract those considering entry into the profession. Bloom (2022) distinguished professionalism from professional identity, describing professional identity as the internalization of a profession's norms. Taken together, these perspectives suggest that understanding how professional identity develops is an important step toward strengthening professionalism within the field. Accordingly, this project explored the pathways through which career practitioners entered the profession and developed their professional identities.

NCDA Leadership Academy and Project

The NCDA Leadership Academy charges participants with the task of completing an action learning project related to the profession or association. This author’s project addressed a gap in the understanding of career practitioners' professional identity development by examining the factors that contribute to professional identity formation, with the goal of informing the NCDA 2024-2027 Strategic Plan.

Specifically, the study sought to better understand:

• The pathways and influences that led practitioners to careers in the field of career development.
• The experiences that shaped professional identities and made the work feel inevitable.
• The values practitioners associate with career development work.
• How these findings may inform future recruitment, stakeholder relationship building, and advocacy efforts.

A mixed-methods survey was developed and distributed nationally to NCDA members, with 47 practitioners responding. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns across participants' stories.

Participants represented an experienced group of career development practitioners. Most identified as female (77%) and White (81%), worked full time in the profession (87%), and were affiliated with higher education or private practice (83%). Participants also brought substantial experience to the study, with 48% reporting 12 or more years in the field, including 20% with more than 25 years of experience.

Eighty-one percent reported working in another professional field before entering career development, and 87% indicated they had considered other careers. Participants entered career development from education, business, mental health, and numerous other professional backgrounds. Although nearly half of respondents reported previous exposure to career counseling during college, more than 13% had no prior experience with the profession before becoming practitioners. Respondents were nearly evenly divided in their preferred professional identity label, with slightly more preferring the term career counselor. These findings suggest that career development is often a second or even third career for practitioners and reinforce the diverse, often non-linear pathways into career development work.

Respondents identified helping others, passion for lifelong learning, personal change, and advocacy as the values and factors that best represent the profession of career development. Practitioners also endorsed internal influences (e.g., passion for helping and sense of purpose) more often than external influences (e.g., family or financial considerations) as motivations for choosing the profession.

Three qualitative questions explored what drew respondents to the profession, what experiences shaped their professional identities, and what moments made career development feel like an inevitable career choice. Across these questions, four major themes consistently emerged.

1. Professional Identity Is Built Through Belonging

Participants frequently described professional identity as developing through relationships with others in the field and meaningful work experiences. Mentorship, inclusion, experiential learning, and opportunities to contribute all strengthened professional identity formation and participants' sense of belonging within the profession rather than formal institutional milestones such as graduation or licensure.

2. Personal Experiences Become Professional Assets

Many practitioners described personal career transitions, uncertainty, adversity, immigration experiences, or previous careers as foundational to their work. Rather than viewing these experiences as separate from their professional identity, respondents described integrating them into their practice through empathy, advocacy, and deeper connections with clients.

3. Client Transformation Sustains Professional Commitment

Respondents consistently described "lightbulb moments" in which clients discovered purpose, meaning, hope, confidence, or new possibilities. Witnessing these transformations helped practitioners recognize career development as deeply meaningful, sustainable, and purposeful work.

4. From Transactional Work to Social Justice Advocacy

Participants frequently contrasted career development with previous professional roles that emphasized institutional priorities or transactional outcomes. They described being drawn to career development because it provided opportunities to focus more fully on the needs, identities, and aspirations of individuals. As their professional identities developed, practitioners also described increasing awareness of the systemic barriers affecting clients and a growing commitment to advocacy, equity, and creating opportunities that support human flourishing.

Overall, the findings suggest that career practitioners' professional identities develop through relationships, meaningful experiences, participation in professional communities, and reflective meaning-making over time.

Recommendations

The findings suggest several opportunities that align with the National Career Development Association's 2024-2027 Strategic Plan priorities.

Cultivating Community: Experience and Belonging

• Expand opportunities for mentorship, experiential learning, and early exposure to career development as a profession.
• Celebrate, recognize, and promote the diverse pathways into the profession.

Career Empowerment: Understanding Professional Identity Needs

• Explore opportunities for credentialing that better reflect the learning, mentorship, community, purpose, and meaningful practice experiences practitioners identify as central to professional identity formation.
• Continue research on pathways into the profession, experiences of belonging, and the distinctions between career development and related helping professions.

Advocacy: Articulating Professional Identity

• Leverage practitioners' professional identities to strengthen articulation of the profession's identity, expertise, and scope, enhancing recruitment, legitimacy, and public understanding.
• Equip practitioners with the language and tools needed to advocate for the profession and its broader societal impact.

^{NCDA Leadership Academy, Class of 2026}

Conclusion

This project suggests that career practitioners rarely enter the profession with an established career development identity. Instead, professional identity develops over time through relationships, meaningful client experiences, participation in professional communities, and opportunities to contribute to the field. Recognizing how professional identity develops provides an important opportunity for NCDA to address contemporary challenges. By strengthening professional identity in ways that reflect practitioners' lived experiences, NCDA can more clearly communicate the value of career development work, build public and stakeholder trust, strengthen recruitment, expand pathways into the profession, and advocate for the profession's visibility, legitimacy, and societal impact.

References

Barton, H. (2024). Motivations: A study of why some counsellors choose to become counsellors. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 52(2), 221–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2022.2142198 

Bloom, T. J. (2022). Understanding professionalism's interplay between the profession's identity and one's professional identity. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 86(9), Article ajpe8956. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8956 

Brown, C. (2002). Career counseling practitioners: Reflections on theory, research, and practice. Journal of Career Development, 29(2), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/089484530202900203 

Cornett, M., Palermo, C., & Ash, S. (2023). Professional identity research in the health professions: A scoping review. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 28(2), 589–642. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-022-10171-1 

Lara, T. M., Kline, W. B., & Paulson, D. (2011). Attitudes regarding career counseling: Perceptions and experiences of counselors-in-training. The Career Development Quarterly, 59(5), 428–440. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2011.tb00969.x 

Law, B. (2011). The future of careers-work professionalism: Fears and hopes. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 27, 17–24. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.2704 

Lindo, N. A., Ceballos, P. L., Blalock, S., Conner, C., Edwards, J., Spellings, M., Webster, L., & Opiola, K. (2020). Students’ perceptions of career counselling: An examination of a graduate curriculum in the United States. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 48(6), 803–814. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2019.1679350 

McMahon, M. (2006). Career counselling in Australia. International Journal of Psychology, 41(3), 174–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590544000167 

Nilsson, S., & Hertzberg, F. (2022). On the professionalism and professionalisation of career guidance and counselling in Sweden. Nordic Journal of Transitions, Careers and Guidance, 3(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.16993/njtcg.38 

Tammison Smith, PhD, LPC, CSCP, is Associate Director of Career Development and Outreach at St. Cloud State University, where she partners with faculty to integrate career development into the curriculum and prepares graduate students for careers in career development. She is the outgoing President of the Minnesota Career Development Association and the incoming Career Practitioner Supervision Representative on the NCDA’s Training and Education Council. Her professional interests include identity development and using assessment to demonstrate the impact and value of career development. She is passionate about mentoring future career professionals and advancing the profession through leadership, research, and advocacy. She can be reached at tsmith2@stcloudstate.edu