Ellen Shobrook from the University of Birmingham discusses Careers vs Collectivism as part of the BUCU #UCUStrikes in Feb 2022.

1. Career vs
Collectivism?
Exploring how to empower our
students for their futures, beyond
the employability agenda
Ellen Shobrook, Careers Network
28.03.22, UCU Teach-outs

2. Full disclosure…
• We’re starting with some discussion
• This may be somewhat self-indulgent
• I may be preaching to the converted / stating the obvious
• I may swear
• Basically just sharing some books/resources that have helped, or are on my
‘to read’ list…
• I’m hoping to learn more from you that you do from me
20XX 2

3. What is a Career?
Some discussion prompts:
• What is a Career?
• Does everyone have one? If not, why not?
• What are the positives we gain from our careers?
• In want ways might careers/jobs have negative impact?
20XX 3

4. Me and my ‘career’
• BA Humanities in Brighton, plus various ‘jobs’
• Stumbling on a ‘career’ in ‘careers’
• Recent (pandemic-induced) career crisis
• Now trying to understand:
• Why I haven’t been living my values
• Why managers sometimes act the way they do
• How I can empower my students as they embark on their careers
• How this could be related to broader social change
20XX 4

5. Books that
saved my
sanity…

6. The Tyranny of
Merit
• Meritocracy (“you can make it if you
try!”) is a myth
• It breeds hubris in the winners and
humiliation in the losers
• Meritocracy legitimizes inequality
• Humiliation breeds populist politics,
Brexit, Trump etc.
• Need instead to focus on luck, humility
and common good
20XX 6

7. Bullshit Jobs
• In the 1930’s Keynes predicted a 15- hour
work-week in the West by Y2K
• The proliferation of bullshit jobs has a
political component (keep us busy!)
• Psychological violence - “How can one
begin to speak of dignity in labour when
one secretly feels one’s job shouldn’t
exist?”
• Unwritten rule that the more your job
benefits society, the less you should be
paid for it (you can have money or
meaning, but not both)
• https://www.strike.coop/bullshit-jobs/ 20XX 7

8. Lost in Work
• Workers are ‘free’ to sell their labour, but if you
don’t freely engage, you cannot survive
• Factoring in reproductive work (meeting the
needs of the worker outside of the market)
• ‘New work’ and the management of emotions
• Jobification of hobbies (‘side-hustle’) and
gamification of work
• Work under capitalism harms us individually,
socially, and environmentally
• “Not the optimal conditions for action – but ones
that necessitate action on a bigger and deeper
scale than in previous historical circumstances”
20XX 8

9. 20XX 9

10. On the ‘to
be read’
list…

11. 20XX 11

12. Careers and the
employability
context
Based on work by Tristram Hooley
@pigironjoe
https://careerguidancesocialjustice.wo
rdpress.com/

13. The Employability ‘agenda’
• Universities push the idea of ‘employability’
• Telling students that they have to fit into the labour market, do it quickly and
earn as much as possible
• Student employment rates then influence university rankings
• Whose interest in this ‘employabilty agenda’ in?
• Teaching ‘resilience’ as a skill without context
• Re-framing work whilst study as ‘building experience’
• How do our graduates gain an awareness of their workplace rights?

14. Tristram Hooley:
Careers Guidance for Social Justice
• “Career is where our hopes, dreams, skills and potential interact with
wider social, political and economic systems. And all too often these
systems are not fair. They constrain rather than enable; they oppress
rather than empower. “
• Aiming to reframe the concept of career as a democratic and
participatory one (I like ‘contribution’ rather than ‘career’)
• Developed five signposts to a socially just approach to career
development
20XX 14

15. The Five Signposts
• Build your understanding of the world and your place in it
• Name oppression when you experience it and see it elsewhere
• Question what is normal
• Come together with others
• Work at a range of levels
20XX 15

16. Build your understanding of the
world and your place in it
• Think about the structures that you are part of
• Who benefits from them?
• How do they connect to politics and the economy?
• What is your role and your place?
• Discuss this with others
• Think about what you have the power to influence and change
20XX 16

17. Name oppression when you
experience it and see it elsewhere
• Notice patterns in the way that you and other people are treated in your
Workplaces and careers
• Resist the urge to internaliSe oppression
• Call it out and organise against it
20XX 17

18. Question what is normal
• Ask what is considered normal and why
• Consider how far you want to conform
• Ask who is forcibly left out of ‘normal’
• Challenge norming and celebrate diversity
20XX 18

19. Come together
• We can’t career alone
• A problem shared is a problem halved
• Building a network of reciprocity is a key resources
• Be willing to solve career problems through collective action as well as
individual action
• Join a trade union!
20XX 19

20. Work at a range of levels
• Career is not just conducted in the workplace
• You need to engage in career development at every level from your
own psychology to global political action
20XX 20

21. Some final discussion prompts...
• What about careers built on collectivism (e.g. union careers or political
careers)?
• Can (non-political) careers and collectivism co-exist?
• Can we support our students in their careers beyond ‘employability’ (or
is this just not possible under current neoliberal capitalist conditions)?
• Is UBI the answer?
• If we can’t normalize unionization, how can we build a movement?
(Union roles on LinkedIn?)
20XX 21

22. Thank you!
Ellen Shobrook
ellenshobrook@yahoo.co.uk
@ellenshobrook on twitter