Can we trust the Career Counseling Process?

The word Counseling means a collaborative effort between the counselor and client. Career counseling means (as per Wikipedia) a type of advice-giving and support provided by career counselors to their clients to help them manage their journey through life, learning, and work changes.

The counseling process starts with trust and should end with confidence.

When you go to a counselor you may ask all the questions you have in mind but after a discussion with your counsellor, a good judgement of whether your session was fruitful or not is that, you should have a solution at hand and a clear mind about your problem. 

Anything started with dis-trust, engages the brain in negativity. You must begin with positivity and trust that the correct result with come. 

Let me share some insight on how a career counselor analyzes and suggests the right option for the students and professionals. 

Before I start, please keep in mind if a caterpillar wants to become a butterfly, a career counselor shows the caterpillar the path that leads to the flower. 

The first time you either talk to or meet the counselor, don't ask about their reputation, try to do your homework before you proceed with contacting. You may check google reviews, their website, or any other details available. Something you should ask yourself is "What is the problem statement?"

Problem statement is the exact problem you are facing that impelled you to meet a career counselor. You can write it down on a chit and bring the same to the counselor. 

If the career counselor says yes, that they can help you, trust them and continue with the counseling process. Also, a career counselor can help a student and parents only if there is trust between both of them.

From here onwards, it's the student's and parents' responsibility to co-operate with the career counselor with dedication and answer all questions with utmost honesty.  

 

The career counselor is not a magician, and career counseling is not rocket science. It's a process to find suitable career options based on a student's 

• personality,
• interests, 
• multiple intelligence, 
• learning style, skills & aptitude, and 
• career motivators. 

To measure all these, we have various psychological theories in place. With the help of various statistical tools, we analyze the input from students and process them in the light of the theories mentioned above. 

Once the counselor has the result of the assessment, the next step would be to analyze all the details in the light of answers to the other questions asked by the counselor, like

What is your biggest challenge?

What is your life's greatest fear?

Where you would like to see yourself after 10 years?

How long you are willing to study before the first job? And so on,  

The career counselor would suggest the career clusters suitable for you based on all the above. 

Now here as parents, you may have two questions in your mind.

Is the result correct? 

And who suggested these career clusters? Maybe there could be more career clusters apart from what the counselor suggests.

To answer your questions, 

First, if you contact a reputed career counselor with a good review and who uses a reputed assessment for the student, you can trust them. Moreover, you can always request the counselor discuss the report in detail. If the report is correct, you will have an instinctual feeling that it is, as the report should be an accurate analysis and will resemble what you know or also provide more information about your child. 

Now about the career cluster, you can always validate by visiting www.onetcenter.org. 

Note: The O*NET Program is the nation's primary source of occupational information. Valid data are essential to understanding the rapidly changing nature of work and how it impacts the workforce and the U.S. economy. From this information, applications are developed to facilitate the development and maintenance of a skilled workforce.

By now, as you have gone through the details, you have an clear idea.

Once you get the suitable career cluster, you can proceed towards career fields and career options within a job. 

From now onwards, parents, students, and counselors must discuss and provide options to the child. Now that the child has options with them, give them 1-2 weeks to go through the career library and explore all options in terms of requirements, skills required, how to get admission to college for the course, does he need to appear for entrance exam or on merit basis, etc. 

After the child completes the exercise given, again child, parents, and counselor meet for the final session. 

After this, you may find that some counselors also helps the child set up the milestones, a study plan, suggest book to read, and proceed further until one reaches the goal of a career with positive psychology. Some just end up with the final career option's suggested pathways. Both approaches are correct, and taking some extra steps is always with the discretion of one's own interest. 

Career counseling is just one brick in making a career for oneself.

You need to make the final plan yourself, with milestones attached to it, as only then can you confirm that you are moving in the correct direction. Also, you need to improvise the plan from time to time to add on the additional requirements. 

Remember, children are the owners of the future. Parents, counselors, and teachers can help them on their journeys, but their dedication and determination can lead them towards a happy and successful personal and professional life. 

Note: This document aims to help build a bridge between parents, children, and counselors, and the success depends upon the honesty of all three entities. All three entities need to respect each other and share their views before coming to any conclusion. Unless we all participate and agree, we may not be able to appreciate the final decision.