If a curious person took the time to question people about their careers, he or she might hear a story like this one: "Yes, I very much enjoy my position as a journalist writing for several newspaper chains. I used to be a high school English teacher," or, " my career as a small business consultant grew from my love of training employees in my chain of donut shops. Before that I was a police officer."

Moving from one occupation to another is called occupational mobility. There can be several routes within a certain family of occupations or a move can be made outside the group as in the police officer to the retail store operator. Occupational mobility can be complex. The mobility patterns across and among different jobs or occupations describe a giant lattice of interrelated movements rather than single, isolated, and clear-cut tracks (Herr, undated, p. 3).

Counsellors will want their clients to be aware of the possibilities for mobility growing out of any occupational choice. Clients therefore need to be guided to research more than the type of program to study. They also need to be guided to find out from libraries, associations and interviews with people who work in the field what family of jobs may be open to them. For instance, a person who is interested in a public relations program should know about the diversity of job titles and the variety of organizations where the positions may be found.