Do Career Counsellors Offer What You Need?
If only someone could wave a magic wand and transform you into a happily employed person with a dream job and clear career goals. Unfortunately, the career fairy exists only in the hopeful minds of discouraged job hunters that feel they’ve exhausted all means of getting where they want to be. However, there are realistic alternatives to the career fairy: professional career counsellors in private practice. They don’t magically get you a job or make decisions for you, but they can provide the advice, resources and support you need to do so yourself.
What Do Career Counsellors Do?
Career counsellors work with you in individual or group sessions to help you make career choices and decisions, find jobs or manage your career once you’re on the job. Specifically, they may offer assistance with:
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Identifying your strengths, interests, and priorities
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Defining your personality type as it relates to career and job choices
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Finding career paths and work environments that are the right fit for you
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Overcoming roadblocks to finding a direction and making tough decisions
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Deciding if a change of job, employer, career path or industry makes sense for you
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Plotting a course and establishing a timeframe for a career change
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Planning your job search strategy
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Writing effective resumes and cover letters
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Building and interacting with a network of contacts
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Preparing for interviews (some even offer mock interviewing practice)
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Troubleshooting a job search that’s going nowhere
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Evaluating and negotiating job offers
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Dealing with issues on the job, such as office politics or a difficult boss
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Asking for raises or promotions
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Mapping out a plan for your long-range career development
Career counsellors may also provide services in related areas, such as applying to graduate school or managing your time better. You’ll find that some career counsellors focus exclusively on the career choice process -- often involving some vocational testing -- while others focus on job search coaching or career management coaching. Many counsellors offer a range of these services rather than focusing narrowly on one area. You should always ask about a counsellor’s emphasis before scheduling your first appointment.
Who Are Career Counsellors?
This is a difficult question, because career counsellors have many different types of backgrounds and credentials. Before selecting a career counsellor to work with, you have to look at the education and experience each one offers and get a feel for their personality and work style.
To make matters even more confusing, career specialists go by a range of titles, including: career consultant, career coach, career strategist, job search coach, career management consultant, executive coach or some other combination of those terms. The title usually reflects the services provided and the background of the person.
Career specialists who have primarily business backgrounds, mostly in human resources or executive recruiting, tend to use terms like "strategist," "consultant" or "coach" and often assist more with the nuts-and-bolts of job-hunting strategy or career management than with the more psychological issues related to choosing a career direction. Many of these specialists have master’s degrees in human resources or in business.
Those who use the term "counsellor" in their title must have graduate degrees in a counselling-related field (like a master’s in psychology, counseling, guidance or social work) in order to use the term ethically. Some career counsellors even have a doctorate in psychology, but that is not a requirement. People who use the title of career counsellor may offer the full range of services or might focus on career choice, job search or career management. (Note that the term "career counsellor" is used throughout this article for simplicity’s sake to represent all career consultants, strategists and coaches, but a true career "counsellor" has the education described above.)
What is the Role of a Career Counsellor?
Career counseling practices are not employment agencies. Career counsellors don’t hand you a name and address and send you off on an interview. Their role is not to place you, but to do everything in their power to guide you in placing yourself. You will be dealing with your own career issues for many years, so the more you learn how to develop your career -- rather than just having job leads handed to you -- the better off you’ll be.
Career counsellors also don’t tell you what to do. Only you can decide if you want to be a software technician, an elementary school teacher or a professional clown. Career counsellors can be extremely helpful, however, in helping you identify what’s important to you and what you might be suited for. They can be useful assistants for matching those characteristics with the many careers out there.
How Much Will Seeing a Career Counsellor Set Me Back?
While fees vary widely depending on geographic location and the counsellor’s experience, you can usually expect to pay somewhere between $60 and $150 per hour for individual sessions. Some counsellors work on a sliding-scale fee basis, or will give you a discount if you sign up for several sessions. Fees for testing may be included in the hourly rate or might be a separate charge.
If these fees are out of reach for you, contact local colleges and universities, as well as social service agencies, to find out about alternatives to private practice career counsellors. And, if you’re a current college or graduate student, or attended a school that provides career services to alumni, don’t forget about the free (or very low cost) career counselling available right on campus.
Is a Visit to a Career Counsellor Worth It?
Job hunting and career decision-making can be confusing processes. Career counsellors make them more manageable by listening to your concerns, providing information, helping you gain insight into your situation, brainstorming solutions to your problems, planning strategy, acting as a sounding board for your decision-making and pointing you toward resources and leads.
Job hunting and career development can also be lonely processes. A career counsellor may help in this regard, too, by providing not only solid advice and ideas but also an objective, supportive shoulder to lean on. So, if you don’t want to go it alone and would like some professional advice and assistance, a session or two (or several, if you’d like) with a career counsellor could be just the thing you need to get yourself on the right track.