Reflections on the 2020 NCDA Virtual Conference

By Melissa Venable and Marty Apodaca

In service to its membership, NCDA rallied to host its first ever Virtual Conference. Three keynote speakers and featured live sessions addressed salient issues affecting both practitioners and the people they serve. In an ever-changing landscape of career and world events, conference participants were united in a message of advocacy.

Essentials of Career-Focused Counseling: The Quality Toolbox for Counselors-in-Training

By Zach Budesa

Dr. Chad Luke’s book focuses on providing information which students and professional counselors can put into practice. Dr. Luke takes a relational tone and focuses on ethical and multicultural practices throughout the text. The book also attempts to integrate brain-based information into career counseling, and points readers to important resources, like ethical codes and career-based websites. Essentials of Career-Focused Counseling includes practical and theoretical information to benefit readers.

“The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be”: Helping Clients Future-Proof their Careers

By Willa Smith

The COVID-19 pandemic has had great impact on small and big businesses and their workforces. Career practitioners can help clients “future-proof” their careers in these uncertain times by reviewing labor market trends of the past, present, and future, identifying skills to develop, and updating their decision-making approach.

Supporting Early Career Development of Transgender and Gender Expansive Children in Elementary School

By Nathan Mather, Ellen H. McWhirter, and Peter P. Ehlinger

The early career development of transgender and gender expansive (TGE) children may be limited by negative school experiences such as unsafe school environments and gendered career exploration activities. We offer suggestions for how career development professionals can make elementary school career education gender-affirming, optimizing career possibilities for TGE children.

Insider Tips for Creating a Successful Virtual Event

By Aimee Tejeda Lunn

Many college career centers have taken to utilizing virtual platforms to continue to engage students, connect them to potential employers, and develop career learning opportunities. This article focuses on five applicable tips when developing an online career learning activity, focusing on the purpose of the virtual event, target audience, logistics involved, marketing tips, and the importance of post reflection.

Artificial Intelligence and the Future: A Book Review of A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, And How We Should Respond

By Charles J. Lehman

While the current health crisis is having a tremendous impact on jobs, there is a much larger, long-term threat that could, over time, result in a permanent loss of work. A new book foresees how this is likely to happen and how society should adapt.

Recognizing Professional Development, Publications, and Advocacy

In 2020, NCDA celebrated award winners, produced webinars, published a new book that covers theory, research and practice and created a social justice resource list. These efforts continue to reveal and support the NCDA mission and inspire and empower individuals to achieve their life goals.

Scribbr – APA Citation Generator

One free tool for generating APA style citations can be found at: https://www.scribbr.com/apa-citation-generator/#/ Effortlessly create your reference list and in-text citation in the most up-to-date APA format using this site.

Beginning with the August 2020 issue of the web magazine, all submissions to Career Convergence are asked to follow the new 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual (2020), especially the citations and references. The editorial team will assist authors in conforming to the new style. There are many other sources of information about the changes to the APA Publication Style following the release of the 7th edition, including the APA site https://apastyle.apa.org/

Tip submitted by Ali Breen abreen@ncda.org