It is extremely crucial for the youth of our country to have a proper direction in shaping their career and future.
Career guidance is a form of counselling and needs the clients to open up in front of the counsellor and share their interests, likes, dislikes and other information. After getting all the details, career counsellors analyse every aspect and come out with better career suggestions.
Today, the career counselling industry is booming. Career counsellors are some of the successful professionals in the country. But the journey was not that easy. Career counsellors had to face several challenges in their careers.
Let’s discuss the challenges that a new career counsellor could face and their solutions.
Information Gathering
Career counselling is a long process. However, students and parents take it as a mechanical process. They think that taking aptitude tests and showing results could only help them. However, personal guidance is equivalent necessary. Parents and students really need to open up to their counsellors and talk about their likes and dislikes.
- Being heard is the main source of career counselling. It does take time to gain trust.
- Making mistakes in our initial counselling sessions makes us learn in future counselling.
- Many times, we all are not on the same platform students, counsellors and parents. So, we need to maintain it.
- Many clients have doubts. They think certain interest is not at all for them. They think that this part is not for them. So, we, as counsellors, need to open such fields for them.
- Youngsters blindly follow the family pressure, peers who go with certain career subjects. They plunge into the same field without knowing the consequences. So, there is where career counsellors role comes into action.
What you need for career decision making is to know yourself, to know the possibilities and to think it in a way that is convincing.
Career Development Myths
Career counsellors hear a lot of things that can signal the presence of unhelpful myths regarding career. There are myths about certainty and change.
For eg. students say “If I don’t know what I want to do after I graduate, I must be a failure.”
“All I have to do is graduate, then there will be a job waiting for me.”
“I’m still in my 10th grade it’s too early to think about my career”.
These myths need to be cleared from students, parents and many of the educational heads as well.
There could be ample reasons eg. fear of the counselling process, fear of rejection etc.
The Tradition
In India, still, many students and parents take a career as an ancestral entity of profession. For eg, a doctor’s son/daughter has to be a doctor or an engineer kid should be an engineer and so on. Therefore, children end up choosing the wrong career which needs one-on-one counselling.
This is the time where career counselling is all required. We need to make parents and children understand that there are a lot of career options available. Children should choose their careers as per their interest, abilities, likes and dislikes. No one should force them to opt for any profession.
Unawareness
Some parents are still not aware of career counselling. They don’t even know about it. They are only aware of some professions like medical, engineering, teaching, etc.
Hence, awareness is a crucial part that needs to be work upon as a counsellor I would say still we need our profession a recognition.
Institutions Lack in Career Counselling
Some institutes are still lacking in considering career counselling necessary. Schools should hire school counsellors to guide the students.
Marketing strategy
In setting up one’s own counselling set up marketing plays an important role. Lack of marketing will ensure less promotion of your set-up. Therefore, one needs to be handy in resources essential to help the students building careers.
You can take up any online marketing course to polish your marketing skills. Be active on social media platforms, post your experiences, engage people, and most importantly, let people know that you are a career counsellor to whom they can reach out.
These are some of the problems faced by new career counsellors and the best way to overcome them.
If you want to enter the recession-free industry of career counselling or polish your skills, become a Global Career Counsellor. Univariety’s Global Career Counsellor Program in Collaboration with UCLA Extension is Asia’s 1st comprehensive online program for individuals passionate about Career Counselling. It helps individuals to learn advanced career counselling skills and become successful career counsellors.
To know more about the Program,
Ms. Shagufta Mulla
Ms. Shagufta Mulla is a non-practising B. Physiotherapist, a full-time mother, and a housewife from Surat, Gujarat. She is a Green Belt Certified Global Career Counsellor by Univariety and holds a record of participation by UCLA Extension and trying her hands in freelancing career counselling.
Parul is an enthusiast writer, currently working at Univariety. Despite being from a technical educational background, she started her career in writing because of her passion. She loves sketching and doodling while enjoying a cup of black coffee. When she is not writing, she likes watching movies, travelling, and exploring new places.
2 Comments
This is very helpful for me as i am not able to decide what options are important for me after 12th i will definately take help from counselling. This can help me for my better future.
Thank you for finding this informative. Thank you Ms. Shagufta for writing such helpful blog 🙂