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Clients presenting with career-related concerns often desire a greater sense of meaning in their work. Therefore, incorporating the constructs of calling and vocation into the career counseling process may have utility. An overview of conceptual and empirical work on these constructs is provided. Drawing from recent integrated definitions of calling and vocation, the authors present suggestions for incorporating these constructs in practice. Counselors are encouraged to explore the extent to which clients feel a transcendent summons to a particular career, the extent to which clients’ careers bring meaning to their lives, and the extent to which clients’ careers serve society. For clients who wish to view their career as a calling or vocation, the authors provide strategies to help bring meaning and social purpose to their work lives.

Clients experiencing dissatisfaction in their careers often yearn for something that goes beyond better wages or more supportive supervisors: Many want to experience a calling or vocation (Colozzi & Colozzi, 2000; Dik & Duffy, in press). Increasingly, popular authors (e.g., Brennfleck & Brennfleck, 2005; Palmer, 2000) and scholars (e.g., Hall & Chandler, 2005; Hardy, 1990; Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, & Schwartz, 1997) have advocated reclaiming the constructs calling or vocation in career and life planning. Such attention has helped raise awareness of these constructs and has catalyzed research and theory on their role in career decision making. Yet, the real value of the constructs may lie in their implications for counseling practice. Thus, the purposes of the current article are (a) to examine how calling and vocation are defined and studied by psychologists, (b) to describe how these constructs can synchronize with contemporary career counseling approaches, and (c) to provide suggestions for how counselors can effectively work...