Free Career and Job Search Advice

Guest · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:35 pm Post subject: Career Counseling

I was employed by a government agency for 10 yrs but was asked to resign last week. It was suggested that I go a career counselor. Will the counselor put me in the right direction? What do I get out of this?

I'm afraid of not finding work. I have a family to support. Will they really help?

Guest · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:42 pm Post subject:

You may find out that the professional counselor is the way to go. A counselor can help you by asking you the questions you don't think to ask yourself and giving you information you might not have considered. In the end, you have to make the call on what feels right for you.

I've been to career counseling myself and they have helped me. Doing this did give me a lot of useful insight into myself and my recent actions.

StefanJechel · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:23 am Post subject:

Career counselors / professional counselors are certainly helping a lot, but just as long as you don’t expect from them more than they can offer.

They can't obtain the job for you; they can only help you understand what your strong and weak points are and help you understand what your alternatives are and which one of them fits you better.

But let's hold on a moment and see exactly what a career counselor is and what he does.
A career counselor is a person with a degree in counseling, specialized in career counseling. They help people in making and carrying out their own decisions and plans related with their careers. They also help and assist people in the quest of learning new skills which are related with their career new direction.
- First of all they should help you identify your career goal and help you understand exactly what you would like from a job (ex: are you searching for safety and comfort or challenges and competition?).
- Next they should help you understand what mistakes you have done far now in your career and why you have failed or at least why you didn't reached your goal yet. This will help you in the future don't make the same mistakes again.
- Analyze your skills and abilities and help you identify your strong and weak points and also help you understand which your viable career options are.
- Gives you explanations about all kind of jobs you're interested / qualify for and help you identify which one fits you best.
- Help you improve your skills and correct your weak points.
- Teach you different strategies for job hunting, help you in writing your resumes and cover letters
- Teach you how you should act at an interview

"Career counselors" vs. "Master Career Counselors"
"Master Career Counselors" are way expensive that the standard career counselors, but if you can afford it I highly suggest you to chose them. And here's why:
They have achieved the highest level of expertise in this domain and they meet a lot of criteria:
- They earned at least a master's degree in counseling from a recognized, accredited institution.
- They are members in National Career Development Association for a minimum of 2 years.
- They have at least 3 years of experience (full-time) in career counseling.
- They spend at least half of their time in career counseling (so it's not just a part time job).
- They completed a minimum of 18 credits hours (at a graduate level) in a specific career counseling field.
- They have credentials as either LPC, NCC, RPCC or psychologist.

wondeman15 · Guest

Hi,

I wanted to address your Career Counselor question.

I went through several job changes and was finally tired of doing something that I didn't want to do. I ended up going to a career counselor a friend recommended to me.

At first I was skeptical because I felt that they might recommend a job like "Couch Potato" or something to me. Even after going through all the tests I still couldn't figure out what to do. It wasn't until a couple months after I finished all of the tests and counseling that it hit me.

The Career Counseling sessions really made me aware of the type of person I was and the things I valued in a job. Everybody has likes/dislikes and expects different things in a job. These sessions helped me figure that out. Then, it was up to me to figure out what I wanted to do.

Check out this website. My friend just forwarded it to me. It's a website of real life job experiences. If I had this when I was looking for the right career, it would have sped up the process for me.

www.jobpodge.com


	CvTips.com is a complete job search info centre. CV, Cover Letter and Interview guide. Here you can find CV Examples and information on how to write a CV.	Join our Newsletter Email:

Join our Newsletter
CopyRight © 1999-2008 cvtips.com This material cannot be published under any form or condition.