Career Counselor | How to Find and Choose a Career Counselor or Coach.

Career Counselor
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Getting a career counselor or coach may be an excellent idea for career success. Career counseling is a type of advice-giving and assistance procured by career coaches to their clients to assist them in managing their exploration through life, understanding, and work changes (career).

This involves career research, making career selections, managing livelihood transformations, lifelong career development, and dealing with other career-related matters. 

Career counseling typically takes place between an individual client and counselor. However, many of them further engage in faction counseling, especially in academic environments in which several prospects struggle with mutual developmental challenges.

Career Coaches deliver beneficial tools to help examine and drive the career paths of their clients. Contracting a career coach is an investment in your success and your future, and it is becoming increasingly essential in all levels of career development.

The objective of Career Counseling is not just to assist you in making the decisions you need to make now but to provide you with the knowledge and skills you require to bring about the future career and life decisions you need.

How can a Career Counselor help?

  1. Help you figure out who you are and what you expect out of your education, your career, and your life.
  2. Assisting clients to make career choices is presumably the most prominent impression of career counseling. It involves aiding clients in deciding among several career paths as well as educational or discipline options that may include career relevance.
  3. Assisting clients to identify viable career options, with few if any firm ideas about which direction they might like to pursue.
  4. A person you can talk to basically about your opinions, impressions, sentiments, and skepticism about your career and academic choices will help you sort out, orchestrate, and bring about an understanding of your thoughts and perceptions.
  5. Work adjustment difficulties, such as getting by with discontentment with one’s job or problems with job socialization or execution. These difficulties may be apodictic at any step after work entry. Occasionally, they happen during the initial time of transitioning from university to work as people realize that their recent job is not really what they wanted or discover that they are having a tough time meeting their employer’s goals. Hence, here are 10 things to do if you hate your job
  6. Career coach also helps their client recognize the things affecting their career development.
  7. Evaluate counseling rests, abilities, and values as well as helping them to infer the next steps and formulate a strategy to achieve their goals.

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N/B: Your counselor won’t tell you what to do or tell you what career you should pursue but instead will guide you towards your decision-making process.

How to find a Career Counselor

  1. Ask friends, family, colleagues, or professional acquaintances who may have a helpful connection. 
  2. Check the National Career Development Association’s (NCDA) and National Board for Certified Counselors if you’re looking for one who works privately. 
  3. Check online for anyone near you, and you may find an online career counselor.

How to choose the right Career Counselor 

  1. Check the Career Counselor Accreditation: While many of them possess master’s degrees and counseling certifications, some do not have. Because this office is not overseen at the state or federal level, it means that anyone can allege to be a career coach. So to find someone whose coaching best aligns with your goals, look for counselors with national or international certification.
  2. Access the counselor’s expertise in your area of interest: If you are uncertain about the path you want to get on, most certified career coaches should be competent enough to guide you. Regardless, if you have a particular career in mind, you may incline towards a career coach who has experience assisting people with similar goals. If a professional has been counseling people for years with a fundamental principle that doesn’t fit your career aspirations, you may want to go on searching for a counselor who has better experience in your field.
  3. Look for a counselor who strongly matches your personality: Mastery, credentials, and counseling schemes are vital to assess when deciding the right career coach for you. But, it’s also substantial to find a counselor whose individuality best commends your own. Some people may prefer a counselor whose method is straightforward and understandable, while others may be more drawn to a counselor who carries a few sessions to assess individuality deeply. Whatever your particular preference, a counselor should be counseling, practical, informed, and skilled to give actionable advice.
  4. Ask questions: Research online to find out information about your professional counselor. Like checking out their work-related social media account, professional website, or online ratings from previous clients. This information is certainly advantageous in narrowing your directory of possible counselors, but you should also speak with the person before contracting them as your career coaches. Ask them questions to know if they are a good counselor for you.

READ ALSO: How To Become A Career Counselor | Job Description, Salary, Skills & More.

How to make the best out of your Career Counseling

In as much as your counselor is here to help you, you can do the following to ensure that you make the best out of your Career Counseling.

  1. Set Reasonable Goals: Know precisely what you want to get working with your counselor. Think ahead of time and identify the goals with your counselor so that you both can work together as a team and working towards the same objective, and as a good counselor, he/she will help you sort out things you should work on.
  2. Do not hide anything from your career coach: Honesty is very vital when working with your counselor. Be open to him/her because the more transparent or honest you are with him/her, the more effective he/she can be for you. So do not hide anything from your Career coach.
  3. Be open to criticism by your Career coach: One of the vital roles of your career coach is to be both your motivator and your cheerleader; nevertheless, he/she can give you negative feedbacks in areas he/she thinks you should work on. So don’t feel bad when they correct you or gives you negative feedback. Instead, be open to it, learn from it, and grow from it, and when this is being done, positive feedback is definitely on the way.

 FAQs

Who is a Counselor?

Before this, you might have come across various definitions of who a counselor is. Well, yes, every definition you might have come across is correct, but here’s my definition of who a counselor is. 

A counselor is an experienced person who counsels people, especially on personal problems. A counselor, in a layman’s view, is someone who counsels. 

Over time, a lot of people tend to worry about a whole lot of things ranging from what to study, which career path to go for, how to survive, how to do this, how to do that, and so on, then this is where a counselor comes in.

A counselor now helps to assist in the resolution of personal difficulties.

What is a Career?

Now we know who a counselor is. Let’s get the meaning as to what a Career is before we put the two words together.

A career is one’s calling in life, a person’s profession or occupation.  As individuals grow, choosing a career path can be quite overwhelming, so that’s where a counselor comes into play. A career counselor is a professional who helps people in different phases of life by disseminating pertained career advice.

Career counselor generally holds advanced degrees in counseling; they use their education and skills to help those in need of professional guidance. He/She is experienced personnel who counsels people when choosing their career. Such a counselor gives career counseling. 

How will I know if I need a Career Counselor?

When you’re confused about what career path you should go for, then you need a counselor for your career.

How much does it cost to get a career counselor?

Typically, a career coach costs between $89 and $150 for a 90-minute session, which includes services like one-on-one job search and interview prep.

What does a Competent Career Counselor do?

1. Asks Questions about your Career Choices: Your career Choice didn’t just metamorphose out of the blues. Instead, it came about either positively or negatively influenced by our childhood perceptions that are the careers our parents and siblings had, their limitations and opportunities, etc.
But this kind of reasoning will only limit you. So the work of the career counselor is to question your career choices as well as bring about new choices that match with the perfect future you want to create for yourself.

2. Pushes you to be the best version of you by helping you discover what your true strength, goals, and desires are

3. Guides you to the way that works on you: Everyone wants to or chooses a career path that they think will be super easy for them. But a career shouldn’t just be what you’re good at; it should as well expand your potential hence the work of the career counselor. To reveal the career path that shows your potential

4. Helps you win your dream job: After guiding you towards the career path that shows your potential, he/she should be able to help you win your dream job without leaving you confused on what next to do. If not, he/she is not for you.

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