People On Campus

Robert Chope--A new chapter in career self-h elp books

When Dr. Robert Chope, a professor in the Department of Counseling, took a sabbatical to do research on corporate whistle-blowers, he had no idea that it would lead to his first book deal and the opportunity to reflect on nearly 25 years of insights gained as a career counselor.

Midway through his research, Chope was contacted by New Harbringer, a publishing house that targeted him after receiving a tip from one of his friends. Chope suddenly found himself using his sabbatical time to combine research and mass-market writing. The book, which is scheduled to hit bookstores in December, is titled "Dancing Naked: Breaking through the Emotional Limits that Keep You from the Job You Want." It represents the culmination of ideas and experience Chope has acquired during twenty-four ye ars spent training future career counselors here at SFSU and maintaining his own private practice.

Chope is well aware of the various factors that influence job choice. After graduating from Harvard, he came to San Francisco State, where he obtained a M.A. in counseling. He then applied to a Ph.D. program in psychology at the University of Minnesota. Upon graduation, he went to work for the Department of Behavioral Disability at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but when the opportunity arose to return to SFSU, Chope decided to take it. While it meant a shift away from full-time research, he reali zed that, among other things, "winters are a drag" in the mid-West, teaching positions do not open up very often in California, and a move to the coast would let him indulge his love of sailing.

Of course, Chope quickly discovered that San Francisco State offered its own attractions, "The student body is composed of intriguing, thoughtful, and provocative students who are willing to challenge their professor," says Chope, adding that it is something he does not always see at other institutions. He also holds the faculty in high esteem. "They are fabulous people who are incredibly talented—especially those in my own department."

Many of the ideas Chope presents in "Dancing Naked" were formed over time while teaching a course on advanced career counseling. Observing that most self-help career books do not "deal with the emotional issues and the personal aspects of career searching," Chope builds upon the basic premise that people form a "career identity," an idea of what jobs they are trained for, what careers are acceptable to pursue, and what positions they are personally suited for.

"What happens when you form this identity and then can’t do it? What is it like to have one [a career that fits your career identity] and then lose it? Or, what happens when you get in to your training for it, and you find that you lack something essential to it?" All of these scenarios, says Chope, can create an emotional crisis for an individual. By exploring the implications of people’s responses—such as rage and self-doubt—to this crisis, Chope offers ways to work through them.

While today’s economy presents serious challenges to the traditional career identity (a life-long position in the field in which you were trained), Chope says he has learned one thing: "You can always inculcate hope. The world is changing so radically, you can seriously do anything. In five years, up to one-third of all the jobs will probably be ones that do not exist today."

In response to this change, Chope believes that a person’s career identity should be flexible and based on skills people know they have rather than the specific things they are trained to do. He adds, "A real satisfying career search is one where you take risks and break out of a mold—not stay in one."

--William Morris

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