Career Counseling

Just like developing one’s personality is a lifelong process, career development is also a gradual and slow process that starts when you are born. Then it keeps on going for the rest of your lifetime and stops when you decide to have a long vacation break (pun intended). Many factors can influence your career development process directly and indirectly. And if you are thinking of starting early and controlling all the factors, let us tell you it is simply not possible. It starts from your interests; now, if you are interested in something, you will naturally learn the abilities to do that particular work you are interested in. The abilities you learn turn into the values that you honour, and these values and your background influence your personality. Did you notice how everything influences your career development? Did you also notice that most of these subconscious actions happen over your lifetime? Must you be now wondering if there is no way to influence your career development process consciously? Right! The answer to this question is Career counselling.

What is Career counselling?

Career counselling is an intricate process helping you to expand your understanding of yourself and the world around you. It provides you with the much-needed mental and social maturity to make an important decision (career, educational, and life) for yourself by analyzing all the factors related to the decision-making.

It provides you with an important perspective on the different things (things that you haven’t even realized) that improves and assist your decision-making abilities.

Career counselling is often thought of as counselling that people undergo to decide what major they should take or what job they should go for. But it is not limited to major selection or job-related decisions. It is important to understand the importance of career counselling before diving into any other topics related to it. We have emphasized why the career development process is a lifelong process, right! Just take yourself as an example, imagine your day, think of how many decisions you have made today, quite a lot, right? Now think how many factors were you able to control to make a single decision, not that many correct? Similarly, the career development process, a lifelong process, involves many subconscious decisions, and the factors related to making a proper decision can’t be controlled. But you can learn the ability to be aware of such factors and learn to analyze them to come up with possibly the best decision for yourself. After developing the above-mentioned abilities, you can make better decisions for your life and future career. Career counselling helps you in the present moment as well as in the future. It is good to be preventive by nature or proactive in nature.

Expectations you can have from your career counselling sessions

The appointed career counsellor will help in the following matters.

The most important aspect for which an individual usually opts for a career counselor is doubts about your education and personal and career life questions. They will help, guide, and assist you through these matters.
If you feel like you want someone to hear you out without having any biased opinions, career counseling is the best option for you.
You can also share your ideas, things you want to do, the goals you want to achieve, or your feelings about something or someone.
The career counselor will provide you with the best advice related to your career and educational choices.
They organize your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and different problems, then present them to you in a logical manner (for your better understanding) and provide a way to deal with them.
Various factors ( direct and indirect) are identified by them that can affect your educational, career, or personal life decisions and assist you in analyzing them.
Different skills, abilities, qualities, characteristics, and values are also identified by them, which help you to have a better understanding of yourself and indirectly helps you to analyze yourself.
In many cases, they might also identify some dormant abilities or qualities in you and help to improve those qualities and ultimately polish them.
They have a vast knowledge of career information and various sources, about what colleges are best for you, what job opportunities are better for you, what career path you should opt for, what field you should choose for your major, etc. Such an immense ocean of knowledge helps you to expand your thinking ability and provide you with mental and social clarity to mature your decision-making abilities and make better decisions for yourself.
They also help you map out an action plan that can be very helpful for people who are suffering from a lack of concentration or the people who need someone to guide them. Such action plans are helpful in general as these plans are a well-organized set of actions that are supposed to be taken and completed within the deadline to make a successful career.

False Expectation one can have from their career counseling sessions.

The appointed career counselor will not help in the following matters.
As mentioned above, a career counselor’s role is to provide you with enough information about the related matter to help you analyze all the factors related to the respective matter and provide you with an open and healthy mindset to make a better decision for yourself. They won’t decide on your behalf, as it is not their job to take your career or any personal life decision. It is your life, so you should be responsible enough to make your own decisions.
They also won’t provide advice related to course selection or what subjects you should go for.
As mentioned above, they don’t make any schedules for you but will guide you through the process and assist you.

How to know if you need career counselling?

Nowadays, it is common for every school and regulatory for a CBSE-affiliated school in India to have a career counsellor on the campus. In the current market scenario, it is not possible for students to go to school without any aim in their life or without knowing what they like or dislike. In simple words, students in today’s times cannot afford to lose their time in the things they don’t see a future in. Every student needs to have goals that need to be fulfilled under proper circumstances and deadlines. These actions train the student to develop a better careers for themselves. Being proactive is the key in the modern world. The damage can be fixed, but why wait for anything to go wrong? If the damage can be avoided or prevented in the first place, then why not opt for proactive measures? Career counseling helps student to have a better understanding of themselves. Their parents can attend the sessions with the students to have an even better understanding of their child. Every student is different, and they are gifted with their unique abilities. These dormant abilities need to be identified and polished because one can achieve a successful career if they do what they like and are proud of.

And don’t worry if you are a little late to realize the importance of career counseling. Even adults can be benefited from career counseling sessions. They can be helped to make better financial, career, and personal life decisions. Adults who are not satisfied with their current jobs or are frustrated from their current financial and life choices can also consider career counseling sessions. They will surely help you see the bigger picture and provide you with the much-needed positive and healthy mindset to make better decisions related to your career or lifestyle.

It is important to get your career counseling done by a trained counselor in your respective problematic matter. They should have the knowledge and experience to counsel people, i.e., matters they want to get career counselling. They should have a Bachelor’s degree (Behavioral sciences or psychology), and also they should be having a Master’s in counselling. Always go for the career counselor having an active career counselling license. Your career is important because it will decide what you will do for the next 5 to 10 years of your life. So, put in the required time, consult the best available career counsellor, and then take your decision with a calm and healthy mind.