The transition from compulsory education to vocational training or secondary school marks a critical phase in adolescents' educational trajectories. In Switzerland, career guidance is systematically integrated into lower secondary education to ensure a smooth transition while fostering self-reflection and awareness of gender norms influencing career decisions (D-EDK, 2016). Despite these efforts, adolescents continue to make gender-typical career choices, and there is limited understanding of the gendered differences in skills required to approach career choice as a coping process (Gottfredson, 2002). The gaming world offers unique opportunities to address this gap. This study is grounded in the Life Design framework (Savickas, 2012) and its concept of career adaptability, linked to Jane McGonigal’s Challenge Mindset approach (2016) and Bartle’s taxonomy of gaming archetypes (Bartle, 2003). It is part of the longitudinal digibe project, which investigates how reflection using a digital tool can support career planning. A specific module examines the relationship between gaming experiences and career planning. The research adopts a quantitative approach, applying chi-square tests to identify significant differences in gaming behaviors between male and female adolescents. Based on these findings, subgroups were formed, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to evaluate the effects of gaming behaviors on coping skills relevant to career planning. Preliminary results indicate that male adolescents, particularly those aligning with Bartle’s "Killer" archetype, favor competitive gaming but demonstrate limited collaboration skills. Female adolescents, more often associated with the "Socializer" archetype, prefer cooperative strategies in gaming and career planning. These findings suggest that integrating game-design-based workshops into vocational orientation programs could foster critical skills such as teamwork, collaboration, and network-building, especially for male gamers who may lack these competencies. Given the widespread popularity of video games among adolescents across Europe, this approach holds significant potential for enhancing gender-sensitive career guidance. By addressing skill gaps and promoting adaptability, this research offers innovative insights into leveraging gaming to prepare young people for the challenges of career planning in an evolving labor market.

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