Happenstance it's been happening all week!

It's been a great first week on placement in Craigmillar, as usual I've been speaking to lots of people, seen community guidance in action , visited several projects which my placement organisation works in partnership with and I've met a fair few of the good people of Criagmillar. So far so good, and what I've become very aware of this week is the power of happenstance , and the extent to which looking back I can see it influencing my career choices and opportunities.To me happenstance is really a mixture of opportunities bourne out of networking and chance meetings and this week because of it I have been able to reconnect with old colleagues, hear about potential job opportunites and gain some useful insight for my essay. It has also given rise to a few questions about the theory itself , and how it can be used in a guidance situation, as taking advantage of these opportuniites and seeking them out in the first place I think requires a level of confidence, assertiveness that many of the people we are working may not possess. So how do we help enable people to be more confident networkers and to take advantage of opportunities ? This is certainly something that I don't feel we can tackle alone and certainly where young people are concerned it's an issue for parents ,teachers, youth leaders also. Perhaps one of the ways we can can contribute is in career education with young people perhaps incorporating some of the kinds of things we look at within the confident futres team regaerding being effective communicators and things like presentation skills and actually talk about the value of networking and how that is useful not just in the world of work but in other areas of our lives also. There is a danger however with chance opportunitiesthat we get seduced by the proverbial red herring and rather like the bargains in a sale instead of choosing wisely we seize any opportuniites just because they are there and we can, but then again perhaps Krumboltz would say does this really matter is trial and and error such a bad thing isn't it the best plan just to be trying things out, taking risks and grasping those opportunities with both hands ?