Career-story interviewing using the three anecdotes technique

Abstract

This article describes the value of using the Three Anecdotes Technique (TAT) during career-story interviewing. The TAT is a technique aimed at eliciting clients’ three earliest memories to help counsellors identify clients’ preoccupations and thereby support them to deal with problems they encountered in early life, that still influence them. The participant was a white South African woman in her mid-twenties who was frustrated in her current career and who sought career counselling to help her decide on a career path and redesign her life. The results suggested that the technique helped the participant confront the complexities of negotiating a career pathway after the intervention. She appeared motivated to realise specific goals for her career and life development: Deal with her current (problematic) career situation, decide on a career path and redesign her life. The TAT offers a promising strategy for career intervention counselling.