Why Career Counselling is Important

Introduction:

We all know the importance of directions. Imagine someone asked you to get out of the house and drive without giving any direction whatsoever. With this set of information, it is most likely you will not be able to navigate yourself nor manage time and speed. Now imagine the same person tell you to get out of the house and drive to a destination asking you to arrive at a pre-set time. With the first case where no set directions or time is given, you are most likely to take a path which is as per your interests and has lesser traffic ( more scope) but without a destination in mind, it would be worthless to keep traveling and eventually figure out that the path taken was not even conducive.

Point being, it is always advisable to get a clear sense of direction based on our strengths and weaknesses and

Here are some of the benefits which iterate the importance of career counseling

Direction to the career

Starting from the school level the students can be encouraged to pick up the right subjects, extracurricular activities, and certifications that complement the skills and talent of the individual. This direction not only helps you find out your key strengths but also guides you to work on it and most importantly utilize it to your advantage. Selecting the right subjects or streams is most likely the first step you will take for providing direction to your career and choosing the same accurately and wisely is the first benefit of the career counseling process.

Strengths and weaknesses

Human beings are born with different skills and talents. While this means that the same person can sing and calculate numbers while enjoying playing sports with friends, it is imperative to know which of these activities is comparatively your strong point. A very common mistake that many students make is to work on the weak aspects of their talents and intelligences. This may lead to a temporary benefit or even an acquired skill set but cannot match the superiority of an inborn strength for the same skillset another individual may have. Classifying all the human capabilities into skillsets and intelligence, career counselors can help you rank these in the order of strong to weak.

Job Satisfaction

We have all heard of people who have completed a certain degree and have started working in the corporate world earning a decent salary but are not happy with the profile and job responsibilities. You may have heard of terms like poor work-life balance, insufficient pay, unhelpful work environment, bad company policies. Has Sachin Tendulkar or Amitabh Bachchan complained of the same despite working for odd hours and staying away from families? The only reason is that they love their job and are passionate and talented to grow in the profession. A well-planned career can help you find something like this for yourself.

Read this article to know what Harvard Business Review has to say about it

Careers of tomorrow

Technology is progressing at an alarming rate and with the rise of automation and machines, it is expected that almost 30-40% of today’s job would never be relevant. People who started their careers as handloom mill workers, or telegram senders or even as translators have seen their jobs lost as we moved forward. The education system takes time to reflect the needs of these new-age careers and mostly the early university adopters belong to a very small group. Identifying these new-age careers, correlating your skills to them and charting a plan of action to accomplish them is done with the help of a career counselor.

Entrance exams and eligibility 

With a plethora of careers, colleges, universities, courses, and countries with each of the combinations having its eligibility criteria, entrance exam and deadlines it is a cumbersome and tedious task to know everything for you. A career counselor can not only help you with the above but also shortlist the right options among the thousands available as per your requirement. This means you can have a ready-made plan and can focus energies on your performance.

Comprehensive assessment 

A career counseling session is most likely preceded by an extensive and comprehensive analysis of the student. Apart from aptitude, there are multiple facets to selecting a career and only relying on the ability to complete a course is no guarantee that the career would be the best fit for the person. An assessment replete with personality, interest, intelligence and aptitude assessment at the very least can help shortlist careers as per these various parameters.

Learn more about the assessments here

Understand careers in-depth

While selecting a career you will also need to understand that roles and responsibilities once you start professional life. Many times, the studies, fame or money drives a student’s interest in the career and this can be devastating if pursued. Knowing the career in depth beforehand is another facet covered during the career counseling session.