In everyone’s life, there comes a stage where they are confused about their career and future. At this point, they think of taking the services of a career counsellor. A career counsellor helps to clarify your situation and to decide if you should venture into a new career or continue the existing one.
What is a Career Counsellor?
A career counsellor is a professional coach who helps you plan your future career wise. They study you and your situation, what you are pursuing right now and what you are planning to do later. On the basis of that, they provide you with scope of the career you think you should do and other scopes as well.
What are the services provided by a career counsellor?
Career counsellors and coaches are those who provide a list of services so before deciding that you need a career counsellor, it is better to know all the services they provide to have the most out of your one visit to a coach.
- They study your likes, and dislikes. They also analyse what you are good or bad at. On the basis of that analysis, they suggest you the appropriate career path you should follow.
- A career counsellor also provides you the service of preparing a resume or cv for applying for the jobs. They also tell you the jobs application going on.
- They help you in establishing a relation between personal and work life.
What are the skills that a career counsellor should have?
- A career counsellor should have the ability to put his / her client at utmost comfort. A client should be comfortable enough to share even the personal information if so needed.
- Good skills of interviewing and good listening power. These two are must in a career counsellor. If they do not have good listening power then how would they suggest you the career options.
- A career counsellor needs a good analytical mind. They have to analyse your dislikes, likes, and what you are good at by listening to you.
- A need counsellor also requires a good convincing power. Many individuals are still confused even after consulting a career counsellor because they are not satisfied.
How to find a career counsellor?
- Ask friends / family members: Nowadays, almost everyone consults a career counsellor to have a proper view of their future. Consult your friends, seniors, or your cousins to find a good and trustworthy counsellor.
- Contact your college: Colleges are mostly in contact with a lot of career counsellors as they keep on calling them on a regular basis to college. You can take the card or the contact details from the college.
How to choose the perfect career counsellor?
Before finalising a counsellor to have services, you need to know if he / she is good enough to clear your confusion. So, choose wisely.
- Ask questions about them: If you have taken suggestions from your friends or family members, ask them questions like: “how was he?”, “did he clear your doubts?”, “was he a good listener?”, “would you consult him again?”. These questions will give you insights as to whether the counsellor was good enough or not or whether you should consult the same one or not.
- Check credentials: NCDA (National Career Development Association) has created certain expectations and requirements for professions to have before entering in to the field of career counselling.
- Take a trial: Not all, but some career counsellors offer a trial of 15 to 20 minutes. If you feel satisfied in those 15 to 20 minutes, carry on with the counselling and if you are not, just cancel it and find another counsellor.
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Your future depends on you
Most of us are confused about our future and career choices we should make, but before this, some of us are more confused as to whether we should take the services of a career counsellor or not.
So here we are listing some signs that indicate that you need career counselling:
You are clueless about your future:
If you are confused as to what you should do in the next stages of your life, you can either do online research on your own and if you are still confused, consult a career counsellor. There is a phrase that says, “There are a lot of people moving fast, but without a direction.” Moving without a direction is just as same as not doing anything. Therefore, it becomes important for you to take proper steps.
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You are just done with class 10 and now you are confused about the stream
This is a problem a lot of students face. While in school, no one has a clear picture as to what their interests are and what should they do later in life. But for that, you have to choose a stream in class 11 amongst humanities, commerce, and science. If you are confused, consult a counsellor who will enlists every course and scope and job which you can do in a particular stream.
Also, they will listen to you and analyse your interest areas, and on the basis of that, decide a stream for you.
You are just done with your class 12 and you have no idea which course to pursue
This is considered to be the major difficulty nowadays. Even if you did your 11 and 12 classes in a particular stream, you can still change your stream and choose a different course. For example, if you had science stream, you can shift to commerce or humanities course easily. But only according to your interest and if you are confused, what are the career counsellors for?Consult them and tell them how you are not able to decide whether you should continue the same stream or should change.
In this case, counsellor also provide you with the dates and information about the application forms of the different universities and exams which you should fill and prepare for.
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Your graduation is complete but you cannot decide the next step
It sometimes happens that the subject that you did graduation in, is no longer of your interest. For example, you did b.com and the next step which is automatically thought is to do m.com. But what if there are other courses you can pursue as well which might be of your interest? A career counsellor will help you with that.
There can be more examples. Some prevalent examples are: students complete their graduation in economics but while doing it, they mostly lose interest in the subject economics. After that, they have various other options to pursue other than masters and counsellor help you to choose between them.
You are doing a job nut you are still unsatisfied
Millennials these days face this on a large scale. They might be working in a job which is paying them good but they are still not satisfied with it. Maybe because they are not doing something they like, or they are tired of it and want to do something new. But choosing a job means that you can see yourself doing the same work for at least next 10 years.
If you are just not able to see yourself doing the same work for years, consult a counsellor. It is not unusual to change a job like that. Also, it is never late to learn something new.