Why do I need career counselling?
Sales professionals receive training in sales, customer service and customer loyalty. Marketers have certainly been to conferences on digital marketing, consumer behaviour, brand positioning etc. Manufacturing professionals have certainly heard speakers talk about Lean, Six Sigma, supply chain management, theory of constraints. In short, almost all of us attend the training, and at least several times a semester. The question is, have you ever tried career counselling? Were you trying to find out how to reach your career goals faster, or do you even know what those goals are? Is it less important than building up professional knowledge?
What is career counselling?
First of all, it would be necessary to define what a career counsellor is, because this job requires two different competences. First of all, a career counsellor must have a long experience in recruitment. At the same time, it would be ideal if he or she is still working in recruitment. In this way, the career counsellor will not be detached from the day-to-day recruitment process and will know exactly how he or she can help the jobseeker to achieve his or her career goals faster. The second competency is experience and the ability to systematically communicate information to the job seeker. Career counselling involves a particularly large amount of information. This information is often unique and unheard of for the career counsellor, so clarity of presentation is essential. So, once we know what a career counsellor should be, we can answer the question of what career counselling is.
Career counselling is one-to-one support from a recruiter to a jobseeker in terms of drawing up a career plan, setting career goals, providing practical advice on the job search process, and discussing the whole job search cycle, outlining the steps the jobseeker needs to take in order to achieve the highest career goals.
How does career counselling work?
Career counselling takes place during a live interview, when a career counsellor provides career advice to a person planning a career change, prepared in advance. A full career counselling session typically lasts between 1.5 and 2 hours of structured conversation. The person taking part in the career counselling session may prepare some questions to ask. But an experienced career counsellor must work through all the questions without the person’s help. In short, the career counsellor must provide the counsellor with all the advice he or she needs, without the counsellor having to ask questions.
During the career counselling session, the overall structure and content guidelines of the CV, the importance of public information about the candidate, the structure of the interview and possible forms of answering questions, and the steps to be taken after the interview are discussed. The candidate’s financial expectations, market opportunities in relation to expectations, short and long-term career goals are also discussed.
When do I need career counselling?
If you are planning to look for a new job or to take a look around the job market and your last job interview was six months ago, it would be a good idea to attend a career counselling session to update your knowledge. If you attend interviews but fail at the final stage. You should get help from a careers professional, as you could waste a lot of time with no results. Of course, if you send your CV and your dream position is filled by candidates other than yourself, you definitely need the help of a career counsellor.
