Feeling overwhelmed and distressed with career choices? As students join higher education, there is an increased confusion about subjects to choose from. Good news is that you are not alone! Career counselling for students can help you figure out your interests, market trends, and future possibilities.
Career counselling for students has evolved as a department within institutions to provide professional guidance. The college counsellors are trained to provide support for personal growth as well. Since, the selection of career is inevitably a life-altering decision, the role of effective advising can have a profound impact on the students.
Career counselling for students can also greatly affect students’ enthusiasm, capability, and success metrics. Keep reading this blog to find out the benefits of career guidance and consultation.
What is career counselling?
Career counselling is a service that helps you understand the world of work and find your place in it. Choosing a career is a complex process that requires sorting out a number of factors that influence your career development. These factors include but are not limited to your:
- Interests
- Abilities
- Values
- Personality
- Background
- Circumstances.
Through talking and guided consultation sessions, you will find out more about yourself and the nature or work you want to do. Thereby you will gain sufficient information in order to make career, educational, and life decisions.
The goal of career counseling is quite broad and aims at equipping you with knowledge and skills you need to make future career and life decisions.
Need of career counselling for students
Career counselling for students is needed the following situations:
#1 Students need to know the market trends and current job markets
Students are mostly confined to classrooms while studying for a professional or academic degree. A student counsellor can help students by arranging for one-on-one consultations or group sessions to spread the awareness of the current market trends.
For instance, the IT industry and freelancing has the highest potential of growth at over $300 billion of IT exports. Pakistan is currently ranked as the fourth fastest growing market for IT enabled services and the third largest for the freelancing services.
Counsellors are trained to stay abreast of such market trends and current job opportunities.
#2 Students need to choose the right subjects to pursue their future career
Career choices are linked with subject choices. For instance, if you are planning to join development economics as a career, you might want to know which subjects will help you go forward. Wrong subject choices can be a result of misinformation of pre-requisites of certain careers. Career counselling helps you steer into the right direction.
“Career development is more than just deciding on a major and what job you want to get when you graduate”, offers Boise State University. In fact, career development is a lifelong process as you navigate through work-life challenges and situations.
#3 Students need confidence in career choice
“I am not sure if this is for me”. We often hear this when discussing our career choices. That is again because of the enormity of the decision to be taken. So, students are naturally looking around for assurance and confidence in their career choice.
#4 Students need to develop better learning habits
Career counselling for students plays an important role in helping students learn and adopt better habits. That is because habits are inextricably linked with one’s skills and ability to progress. For instance, time management is an achievable skill to excel in future careers.
#5 Students need to change their attitude or learning habits
“I will do that later” is usually the culprit behind delayed work at college and eventually missed deadlines at work. Career counselling is responsible for engaging students in productive conversations and workshops to share research-backed tips to overcome hurdles in better work habits.
Career counselling for students in Pakistan
A career counsellor usually has a professional degree in counselling or a related field. He/she also has expertise in career development theory, counselling techniques, administration and career information.
You can find career counselling for students in Pakistan in senior secondary schools after FSc or A Levels. You might want to consider attending career fairs at universities and organisations to receive the counselling you are looking for. In case you do not have access to free career counselling at your institution, you can consider talking to your teachers to get guidance on your future prospects.
What can a counsellor do for you?
Summing up, a career counsellor will do the following for you:
- Help you figure out who you are, who you want to be, and what you want out of your education, career, and life.
- Be there for you to talk to about your concerns about your career and educational choices. The role of the counsellor is to help you process your thoughts and ideas.
- Help you identify the factors influencing your career development. While you assess these factors, you will be talking about your interests, abilities, and values.
- Help you find resources for career information.
- Assist you to determine and develop a plan to achieve your long and short term goals.
- A counsellor will not tell you what to do, instead you will reach conclusions about your career and life on your own with the help of a guide.
When to know that you need to meet a counsellor for career consultation?
We suggest that students should meet a counsellor for career consultation who are confronting the following thoughts:
- “I have no idea what I want to do with my life.”
- “I don’t know which subject will be my main area of study.”
- “I’ve narrowed it down to a few career options, but I’m having a hard time choosing between them.”
- “I know what I want my main subjects to be, but I have no idea what I want to do once I graduate from the university.”
- “I have heard that my subject has very few career options afterwards. Is that true?”
- “I think the job I want belongs to a saturated job market. What should I do?”
- “I don’t know enough about the job market I am interested in.”
- “I want to know about the global job market in my area of interest.”
- “I am simply confused about what I am doing and where I want to be!”
What to look for in successful career counselling sessions?
#1. Developing a therapeutic relationship with your counsellor
As a student, you should find a counsellor who is able to form a meaningful connection with you. You may come across a career counsellor who may use career aptitude tests and personality tests as means to figure out the situation you are facing.
Still, an outstanding and qualified career coach would be an expert in mental health. Clinical practice is a plus! Ideally your counsellor will understand you at a deeper level and will be able to work around your worries, thoughts, and interests without a bias.
#2. Defining goals and setting expectations
When searching for the right coach, don’t forget to look for someone who places a high priority on setting specific goals with you. Your goals are very important in directing yourself towards a solution. Remember to not book a coach who tends to drift off in a direction where you don’t want to be. Always stay comfortable in a therapeutic relationship and timely communicate your unease.
Defining goals means that you can expect to respond to questions about how you see yourself 5 years from now and what are the most important things to you in your life. What is your ideal work-life balance and so on.
#3 Creating room for self-exploration
With the right coach, you will have the space and ease to talk through the issues affecting you. In a good career counselling session, you are the one in charge of the conversation and the outcome. In other words, it is a gateway to self-discovery through a counsellor’s guided skills and navigation.
#4 Job market skills
A good counsellor will not turn your hopes on for a dead career line or a dying tradition in the market. The scope and pursuit have to be in line when you make the perfect choice for your future. Also, a counsellor tries to know your special skill set to guide you in the direction where you seem well suited.
A counsellor’s job is certainly one with responsibility. Therefore, they pay close attention to the changing economic trends, organisational automation and when to expect it, outsourcing, downsizing, and global competition.
Are you ready to share your favourite takeaways from what is career counselling and how it can help you? Go ahead and post the most interesting findings in the comments below! Don’t forget to download the Noon App and keep learning.