Praising the client in career guidance

Abstract In this article, we explore how praises directed at clients are used in Finnish career guidance encounters. More specifically, we examine how praise works as a tool for attending to the institutional agenda of career guidance. Our data set is a compilation of career and study guidance encounters within schools and universities, including 16 video-recorded and one audio-recorded career guidance sessions with 15 student-clients and 9 professionals. We use conversation analysis as an approach and method. Our analysis shows that the praises either focus on the client’s strengths or their effort and skill in “doing career work”. The praises occur in three contexts of performing institutional tasks of the encounters: 1. Mapping the client’s situation, where praise is used in closing-relevant positions to “set aside” unproblematic issues; 2. Taking a stance on the client’s strengths, where praise is offered to deliver professional views on the client’s character, and to counter their self-deprecations; and, 3. Contributing to decision-making, where praise is used to topicalize the client’s assets as cues to decision-making and to validate their interests. In general, the counsellors make efforts to show that their praise is grounded in the client’s self-report.