Career Practitioners of Tomorrow - Core Competencies: Evidence-Based Approaches to Professional Growth

This episode is the second in the Career Practitioners of Tomorrow (CPT) series from NCDA's Diversity Initiatives and Cultural Inclusion (DICI) Committee. It explores how graduate students, early-career professionals, and new career services practitioners can intentionally build their professional identity through evidence-based strategies rooted in national standards, emerging research, and the evolving landscape of work and career development.

Panelists—including counselor educators, career services directors, and workforce development leaders—unpack the core competencies necessary for success in the profession and discuss trends reshaping practice. The conversation emphasizes practical, research-supported pathways for ongoing growth, including scholarship, writing, presentation development, mentorship, networking, and engagement with the National Career Development Association (NCDA). This session: 

• Explains how evidence-based frameworks guide effective practice and develop competencies.
• Highlights current and future trends shaping the field.
• Provides actionable guidance for building a strong career development portfolio.
• Offers tips for engaging deeply in NCDA to accelerate growth.

Speakers

• Moderator: Dr. Nina Talley - Director of Career Development, Center for Career & Professional Development, University of South Florida
• Dr. Christian Chan - Assistant Professor, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• Victor Massaglia - Director of Career Services, University of Minnesota School of Public Health 

Resources

• CPT Project for Session 2: Submitting Professional Proposals
• Career Practitioners of Tomorrow Guide: https://bit.ly/NCDA-DICI-CPT 
• Contact CPT: https://forms.gle/Y4oTKiL4kpdiisF69 

Transcript

National Career Development Association

Career Practitioner Conversations

Career Practitioners of Tomorrow, Episode 2

I'm Melissa Venable, NCDA Director of Professional Development, and I'm excited to introduce this episode. It's another in the Career Practitioners of Tomorrow series, recorded by NCDA's Diversity Initiatives and Cultural Inclusion Committee. Thanks for listening 

welcome everyone to the Career Practitioners of Tomorrow podcast series. I'm Dr. Nina Talley, the Director of Career Development at the University of South Florida, and I am honored to serve as your moderator for session two, Core Competencies and Emerging Trends: Evidence-Based Approaches to Professional Growth.

This series was designed to support graduate students, new career professionals, and early career practitioners who are building their professional identity in today's evolving world of work. Each session features leaders across counseling, [00:01:00] higher education, workforce development, and employer engagement, sharing real-world guidance to help you grow with confidence and purpose.

Today, we're focusing on evidence-based strategies to develop core, your core competencies, everything from scholarship and presentations, to networking, mentorship, and leveraging NCDA to fuel your growth. Before we begin, I'm excited to introduce our incredible panelists. First, we have Dr. Christian Chan of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

And the second batter we have on for tonight is Victor Massaglia the Director of Career Services at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. So thank you so much for being here, and [00:02:00] let's jump in Career by advisors work in so many different contexts, universities, community organizations, workforce programs, HR teams, employer relations, and beyond.

But regardless of the setting, there are foundational competencies that unite our profession So Dr. Chan, would you start us off by discussing some of the core competencies and why grad students and new practitioners should think about professional develop early professional development early in their careers?

Absolutely, Dr. Talley. Again, thank you so much for having us here and for engaging in this important dialogue. What we think about when we think about core competencies, they are so intertwined with what we see as certifications, right, that are related to professional advancement, and that they [00:03:00] are also related to the ways that we see, right, our job functions, our responsibilities, and our contributions in our respective work settings in career development.

And so when we think about core competencies, some of the most important ones, right, are the ones that drive our ethics, right? Drive what we do, who we are, and how we operate to the benefit, and that's the key word, right, to the benefit of our clients. It's not just about not doing harm. And if you even think about the work that we've all been collectively doing on the Committee on Diversity Initiatives and Cultural Inclusion for the National Career Development Association, something that I, wanna highlight is that several years ago, right we, framed what we called a positively worded statement.

And what that meant was that rather than just identifying, for example, non-discrimination, right, as our approach, we were also trying to reinforce what do we do to cultur- or to embed and employ [00:04:00] culturally sustaining care to the, uh, work of our clients and our students that we serve. And with that, here that we're not only seeing it from a way of, like, just don't do this but it's also what are we doing that's ultimately gonna be beneficial and optimal for our clients and our students and their wellbeing.

And so when I think about some of the core competencies that all career advisors should know, I think they're often tied to our respective settings. As we know, career development, the field, is pretty vast in terms of our representation, so many of us are counselors, resume writers, career coaches, and higher ed administrators, right?

So we might be operating, right, from competencies and from competencies and guiding ethical documents like the NCDA, the National Career Development Association Code of Ethics. And for those of us who are counselors, right, or trained as counselors, we're also trained in the NCDA Code of Ethics and the [00:05:00] American Counseling Association Code of Ethics.

But that also doesn't only limit us there, right? I think for, even for me I should be knowledgeable, especially if I'm supervising or working collaboratively with a team of colleagues from all of these various disciplines. I think a lot about, right, SHRM, right? So who does a lot of work around HR certification, so SHRM and human resources.

And then I also think a lot about NASPA, right, and ACPA, right? And ACPA, who has a very close history with the American Counseling Association. But the, uh, when we think about ACPA and NASPA, and then of course, when I think about NACE, right? Like, I think a lot about, especially when we're thinking about what we do in career practice, right, career advising, career coaching all of our professional associations, there are reasons they've cultivated these guiding documents for so many years, and why they routinely update them for between six [00:06:00] to 12 years, right?

Mm-hmm. On that rotation. So I, often look to my professional association first, and I know that we'll be diving quite a bit into that in our conversation here, but there's a reason why they're attached formally to our professional association. Awesome. Thank you so much. And just to ask the, a part two of this question as well how do you choose what professional development or experiences are needed most?

So one, one of the pieces I'll highlight in my own work, right? So a lot of my work centers on intersectionality, especially as it pertains to career development. And intersectionality, not just meaning, right, the the intersections of social identities and statuses, but also as we think about how do we dismantle multiple intersecting forces of [00:07:00] oppression, racism, heterosexism, genderism, classism, ableism, nativism that are, uh,

Islamophobia, right? That are all happening within our respective work settings in career development and even the workforce itself. And something that I often emphasize, not only for supervisees counselors, students, colleagues that I work with, is that when we think about multiculturalism and what we frame as standards for culturally sustaining career development practice, those are often intertwined with our ethics, right?

So it is ethical, right, to be multicultural and is multicultural to be ethical, right? So in that vein, they are not mutually exclusive. And where I think, for example, many of our new practitioners who are really getting their foot in the field, I often help them think, okay, what is it in terms of what is your professional home per se, right?

Even if you are located in career development, I think you find that you're connecting yourself with your professional home and what you've been trained [00:08:00] in originally, right? So for, for example, myself, I've been trained as a counselor both in my master's and my PhD. So of course there's a reason why I'm looking toward the ACA and NCDA code of ethics.

And with that being said, like, right, so for our colleagues who are who work primarily, right, in higher education settings, they might be looking toward yes, the NCD- NCDA code of ethics, but also to professional standards guided by ACPA and NASPA, right? And so in that vein, that might be helpful for them.

And then I know many, many colleagues reference NACE as well as a part of their work, especially for those that's working in higher ed university and college career counseling centers. So when I think about where new practitioners and grad students where they might be looking, I think our first exposure comes from our training background, right?

So whe- what we've been trained in both, um, especially at a bachelor and maybe at a graduate level, right? [00:09:00] So I would say start there, and of course, especially as you're listening to this podcast, it's very, very helpful to get familiar with the NCDA code of ethics. And what I'll, the final piece I'll highlight here is that For those of us, especially even for me, right?

Even though I've been trained in a particular discipline, it's also important for me, right, to familiarize myself with all of the professional standards and codes of ethics that cut across all of our different respective disciplines featured in the career development field. Because I wanna know, like, especially what my colleagues are also held to, because then I also need to understand, right, how to ethically, right, supervise, but also how to be supportive of what they're ethically held to in their practice.

Excellent. Thank you so much for a excellent insight. Victor? Yeah. I was just gonna... But that was fantastic, Dr. Chan. And that just, um, maybe as a, a rubric as well. So if uh, participants would Google [00:10:00] NCDA career count- career competencies, you'll see the multicultural career competencies. There's a list of them, and so you might wanna do a self-assessment to see where you are on...

I'll just list, there's about 10 of them here. I won't list all 10 of them. The first one is career development theory, is the first one, and that's a huge area of exploration. Uh, next one's individual and group counseling skills, and some of us have counseling backgrounds, some of us don't. And so how are...

If that's important for our role, that might be an area that we might want to improve. And so there's a list of them there. And so the, even in the theory part of it, like when someone asks you, like- What's your career development theory? How do you work with a student, or how do you work with an, an alumni?

Being able to talk about your, your interests, your experience, uh, you'll feel that much more confident as you grow and develop as a professional. Awesome. Thank you so much for that [00:11:00] insight. Uh, and Vic give us some tips, or give some tips for new practitioners such as presenting research, writing articles, or submitting conference proposals.

Oh, thank you for that, Dr. Talley. So at the beginning of my career I was pretty green. I was at, I worked at the University of, uh, St. Thomas is where I got my start, and these seemed like very unattainable goals for me. The, the, uh, the scholars, the presenters at present- you know, at conferences just seemed it wasn't for me.

Until I, I, uh, was approached by, um, a faculty member and said, "Hey, Vic, y- you're interested in..." This is the early internet, but, "You're interested in online, uh, work in counseling. Do you wanna do a workshop together?" And so he and I co-developed a, um, proposal for the Minnesota Career Development Association, [00:12:00] and lo and behold, it got, it got accepted.

And so, um, my, uh, my thought here is that the more we can, like, write articles, give presentations, submitting a por- a proposal, like every every time you don't apply for submit a proposal, the answer's always no, so what do you have to lose? It's just basically time. But as far as be- the profession and what, what we're doing is, like, what are you becoming?

I'm becoming a career development professional, and part of that is to be engaged with the, the language, being, uh, up to date on various topics, collaborating. So a couple, um, thoughts on how to go about it was, like, what, what content would you want to talk about? What gets you on fire? What are you curious about?

You may not be the expert, but what do you wanna contribute into the conversation? I'm doing a [00:13:00] presentation, On, uh, well, I did a presentation it was AI and the Art of Being Human, and there's a lot to learn. This was last year. There's a lot to learn about AI, but I'm like, wow, we're trying to train AI as to be human.

Well, what if, what if we reverse that? Okay? And I was just very curious, and so I'm more knowledgeable about that topic just because I explored that, and I, and I collaborated with that. Uh, if you haven't presented that much or if you haven't submitted a proposal, it's just great to get a colleague, a s- a former supervisor, a present supervisor, a faculty member that you, that you, um, um, respect and can learn from.

Where to present, you could go if you're working for a university, there's a lot of opportunities to, to go to the classroom, student workshops, staff meetings, graduate seminars. We have the nat- or [00:14:00] Minnesota Career Development Association, like I mentioned, MCDA, where we did that, um, AI session. So go to your local, CDA, uh, NCDA national conference is there.

There's community partners. There's opportunities for nonprofits that might really appreciate it. L- uh, religious f- affiliations that might need some career development topics, lunch and learns, uh, et cetera, et cetera. Now, Dr. Chan and and Dr. Talley might have even more, more suggestions there. But I think just getting in the habit of, um, writing proposals.

It doesn't have to be, like, an academic journal. It could be in for a newsletter. So, uh, the sky's the limit on getting involved in those areas. Awesome. Thank you so much. And giving presentations and submitting proposals can be intimidating for those who are new to the [00:15:00] profession. So Vic, describe how to overcome that imposter syndrome for practitioners, uh, with marginalized identities and encourage young and new professionals to put themselves out there.

Well, thank you for that question, Dr. Talley. And, um, as I was thinking about this question, thinking about where I started too, even I've heard... I don't know how accurate or timely this data is, but they say there's data out there that speaking in front of people are more afraid of that than death.

They might, I think they go, like, first of all, people are more afraid of death, but then presentation. 'Cause that's pretty scary stuff people freeze and, um, they can't imagine themselves doing that. And, and I think that's can be part of our, our profession too, is like, I remember, like, when I had to meet my first student.

I was I d- am I gonna be good [00:16:00] enough, you know? And am I gonna serve this person? And we both survived that meeting. So my, my thought here is that just leveraging what Dr. Chan l- led us with with the competencies is, get familiar with the tools of career development. Figure out where you are on a scale, if you wanna do a Likert scale on, on these competencies.

And it's like, what do I need to pr- to be better in each particular area? We all have the opportunity to be successful, but we don't get anywhere if we don't scratch, stretch the comfort zone. Okay? Change happens when we're uncomfortable, and being self-aware about our self-efficacy and, uh, where we are, I'm gonna be talking about building relationships in a moment.

But you're not alone in this profession. NCDA, m- uh, your state Career [00:17:00] Development Association, there's a cadre of folks that can help you with these skills as you go forward. Awesome. Absolutely. The importance of building, uh, your network and having support amongst your colleagues is so important, and I hope we're demonstrating this as we are giving this podcast.

Um, think another question, what are ways to connect with potential mentors and project collaborators? I love this question. Um, I, uh, my- one of my thoughts as a career counselor is that success is about relationships. Okay? We don't get success on our own. We just don't. We're successful for the people that we connect with, we hang out with.

As I mentioned, you know, we're becoming career professionals. We're becoming a really great, uh, [00:18:00] member of a very awesome, awesome professional- profession. I, say I have the best job ever, you know? And that's helping people through transitions. So who's gonna help me through my transition? So there's few different ways that you can do this.

And so it could be start with the competencies and say, "Okay, I wanna build in some of these competencies." That first one, as I mentioned, was career development theory. Boy, I certainly I could get some, um, knowledge through reading books and listening to podcasts, but, like, who could I have some conversations with on how to develop my career development theory expertise?

There's many people in NCDA that has that, that ability. So universities would be a good place to look for faculty members and students. Graduate students or undergraduate students that are interested in career development topics. I think LinkedIn is a fantastic tool for research and for [00:19:00] connecting people.

A lot of folks are f- nervous or anxious about reaching out to so-called strangers. I believe that the content makes it warm. So if you're interested, I'm interested in AI and the art of being human, I could go to, to LinkedIn and do some search on artificial intelligence with two, two words, put them in quotes, artificial intelligence and career development, and a, a list will come up.

I could reach out, look at some of those profiles and reach out through LinkedIn and see if I could conduct an informational interview. Okay? Awesome. When you go to those in- informational interviews is, is come in with some questions and be, be curious, also, I think about these terms of building relationships too.

At the end of that conversation you could say, "Do you mind if I stay in touch and explore this topic with you further?" Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much for that insight. Dr. Chan, [00:20:00] opportunities to grow within NCDA and other professional communities for counseling, career services, and workforce, uh, development is so important.

So can you highlight a little bit about that? Absolutely. I- some of my reflections on this question dovetail with what Vic was sharing, and what I often reflect on, right, is especially as I circle back to Vic's thoughts about what does it mean, right, to overcome, uh, imposter phenomenon? What does it mean to overcome the, um, to put yourself out there, right?

And what does it mean to really also buffer the effects of marginalization and how it even seeps into our perspectives, right, of ourselves and our accomplishments. One of the, the ways that I often reflect on this, both from my own personal journey, but also because of the work that I do in [00:21:00] supporting and mentoring, right, colleagues particularly colleagues with marginalized identities, one of which is also saying Find the people who remind you of your joy.

Because it's not just okay, what can I do to just get ahead or just for professional advancement? But when you find people who help to foster your joy, to help you see that you can remain true and authentic to who you are, and then to help you see that this is not about just getting ahead, but this is about just being authentic and and happy and joyful, right, in the work.

Everything comes along with that. And so all of the success comes along with that. And I will say I, I think a lot about those community members. You feel it right away, right? You feel it when you go to the conference and, or if you go, right, and even connect with someone [00:22:00] virtually. So I think a lot about...

or what Vic shared about ways to connect with potential mentors and project collaborators, that sometimes it's not... Yes, showing up to the conference and the meetings are important. And remember, there are all these meetings that happen in between that time, right? Because we know that conferences aren't always accessible to all of our community members.

So sometimes n- they're not able to show up yearly to the conference in person, but there are other opportunities like the meetings that we have for our committee that, or task forces, right? Calls to serve openly. Those are ways that you can connect. But also it's, what you... That even maintaining, right, that social media presence and network also gives you an opportunity, right, to continuously cross paths.

And when you cross paths with people who share that same joy, that same passion, those are the people who remind you, I, these are the people who are part of my community, right? And [00:23:00] people who will surprise you more than you ever know that you'd be surprised, right? And what I mean here is I think a lot about examples where- There are people in my life who I would very much call a mentor, and they would have never claimed themselves as mentors, right, to me.

But they were so grateful for that because that is what it meant to them, and that's what they mean to me, right? That even the messages, the daily affirmations, the weekly affirmations that they provided of just saying, "You belong. You matter. You are a part of this field, and you have valuable insights already," right?

That's what mattered. And I, I think sometimes we wait, especially for many of our colleagues to say, "Oh, it only until I achieve this amount of experience, or this degree or certification, or this set of accomplishments that's the only way, right? That I, I feel like [00:24:00] I'm able to contribute or that I have meaningful and valuable insights."

All of our, especially graduate students, all of our new students and our new professionals all have valuable insights right now in this very moment, and that they're bringing something that's shaping the entire culture of our field and our organization. And so I really wanted to emphasize that. And I think about, again, these opportunities to grow within NCDA, it's about showing up to these meetings, right?

In between the conferences, right? So, and again, it's also about I wanna reinforce what Vic shared earlier. When you make a connection with somebody and you always show up, right? We know this in human resources, career development, resume writing. We know this. You show up with your business card. You always have one, right?

And it's funny, it's like a lo- it's becoming a lost art, and I still have mine. I bring mine everywhere. So I would say bring your business card everywhere. Exchange those business cards because it also is a prompt. It's a memory, [00:25:00] right? To remind yourself, "Oh, I need to reach out to this person," and follow up with them after the conference, right?

Because, and if they don't respond, take another moment to follow up with them a couple weeks later, right? Because just because they don't respond doesn't mean that they don't wanna connect with you. Sometimes they, you never know what happens. I mean, I'm not gonna Criticize certain email platforms, but some of them are terrible but with that, right, there are moments where they might not be responding because it ended up in their spam, right?

Or something in their server basically flagged the email, so they weren't able to, to see you, right, or see your email the first time. And they always c- they always appreciate the follow-up. And so, and I, I say that even, right, when you think about speakers and leaders that you connect with, right? Even keynotes that you connect with, most of them are very, very human, and they want to connect with you, too.

[00:26:00] So don't be afraid to reach out to them. Most of the time they wanna hear from you, too, and that relationship is important to them just as a m- as much as it is to you. So I would say that's another, uh, way. And the final way I'll highlight this, so in addition to our social media presence and our networking on social media, what I'll also highlight, too, is that there are a lot of times, right, it's not only that angle of getting engaged in profess- service to the profession, but it's also about the angle, right, of finding all these online communities.

So for example Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, right? So there are opportunities like that where people just connect based on their passion. Mm-hmm. And based on something that they really care about in the community. And, um, the last part I'll highlight is even at our local community, right? So I'm on the board of directors for North Carolina for Community and Justice, which has a ton of...

It's very much a human relations [00:27:00] organization, so we do a lot of equity, diversity, and inclusion work. And there are many colleagues who are on the board of directors who are all in the HR world, right? And it was just such a cool surprise and crossroad for our work together. So, you know, get involved in the local community and find ways to contribute there, because that's also a way that you sustain your, your professional development and your culture and who you are.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I can't believe the time. This has been so amazing and so insightful to our new career practitioners, and I wanna thank you all for such thoughtful insights that you have rendered to us. Before we begin closing out, I want to open the floor. Is there anything additional that any, uh, one of you would like to add to our listeners?

Perhaps a final recommendation or a word of encouragement?

Dr. Chen? go go [00:28:00] ahead, Vic. Oh first off, Dr. Chen, I just want to say I was very inspired by the meeting people with joy. That just fill- it filled my cup even as you were saying that. I also really want to punctuate too is looking for ways of service. So as we talked about being able to articulate your skills, your strengths, your competencies, is looking for the need in there too.

What committee do you want to be in? And being able to say like, "Hey, I'm a really good writer, I love to write," or, "I joined the diversity committee 'cause I'm really interested in social justice matters, and I really wanna make sure I can make a positive change as I'm becoming this more skilled, uh, professional development."

I'm at victorm@umn.edu if anyone would care to continue the conversation. If so, but thank you so much for inviting me to chat with you all today. Vic, you read my mind. I was just going to say to our listeners for the [00:29:00] podcast that feel free to reach out. We are here, but I, I definitely I'm...

I wanna be a support to you and your journey, so feel free to reach out anytime. If you see me on LinkedIn, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn, add me as a connection. If you... Also, if you'd like to, I also respond to my emails. So if you, uh, would like to reach out to me via email, it's c-d-c-h-a-n@uncg.edu. So that's cdchan@uncg.edu.

Awesome. This has been a rich and energizing conversation, and I want to thank you both, Dr. Christian Chan and Victor Masalia for this wonderful experience and sharing your experiences and your wi- your pearls of wisdom. A few reminders for our listeners. The resources mentioned today will be posted in our [00:30:00] Career Practitioners of Tomorrow resource guide, which you can access through the URL listed in the episode description.

Session one covered our introduction of the CPT community, and this episode will also be available soon. In session three, our upcoming session, is going to be featured technology and future-focused, and session four will be ethics and action, impact and advocacy, and they will be released early in 2026, so you don't want to miss them.

We also welcome your feedback, so use the CPT contact form to share questions, reflections, or topics you like our panelists to address in future sessions. Thank you again for jumping... For joining in with us today. I'm Dr. Nina Talley, and this has been [00:31:00] session two of the Career Practitioners of Tomorrow podcast.

Take care, and we look forward to learning with you