Career counseling and career coaching are similar in nature to traditional counseling. However, the focus is generally on issues such as career exploration, career change, personal career development and other career related issues. Typically when people come for career counseling they know exactly what they want to get out of the process, career counseling would usually be referred to as careers advice or guidance.

Career counseling is the process of helping the candidates to select a course of study that may help them to get into job or make them employable. A career counselor helps candidates to get into a career that is suited to their aptitude, personality, interest and skills. So it is the process of making an effective correlation between the internal psychology of a candidate with the external factors of employability and courses.

Career counselors work with people from various walks of life, such as adolescents seeking to explore career options, or experienced professionals contemplating a career change. Career counselors typically have a background in vocational psychology or industrial/organizational psychology.

The approach of career counseling varies, but will generally include the completion of one or more assessments. These assessments typically include cognitive ability tests, and personality assessments. Two commonly used assessments are the Strong Interest Inventory and the MBTI.

Challenges of career counseling/guidance

One of the major challenges associated with career counseling is encouraging participants to engage with it. For example in the UK 70% of people under 14 say they have had no careers advice while 45% of people over 14 have had no or very poor/limited advice.^[1]

In a related issue some client groups tend to reject the interventions made by professional career counselors preferring to rely on the advice of peers or superiors within their own profession. Jackson et al. found that 44% of doctors in training felt that senior members of their own profession were best placed to give careers advice.^[2] Furthermore it is recognised that the giving of career advice is something that is widely spread through a range of formal and informal roles. In addition to career counselors it is also common for teachers, managers, trainers and Human Resources (HR) specialists to give formal support in career choices. Similarly it is also common for people to seek informal support from friends and family around their career choices and to bypass career professionals altogether. Today increasingly people rely on career web portals to seek advice on resume writing and handling interviews; as also to research on various professions and companies. It has even become possible to take vocational assessments online.

A history of career counseling/guidance

Frank Parson's Choosing a Vocation (1909) was perhaps the first major work which is concerned with careers guidance. While until the 1970s a strongly normative approach was characteristic for theories (e.g. of Donald E. Super's life-span approach) and practice of career counseling (e.g. concept of matching), new models have their starting point in the individual needs and transferable skills of the clients while managing biographical breaks and discontinuities. Career development is no longer viewed as a linear process. More consideration is now placed on nonlinear, chance and unplanned influences.

Need for career counseling

Career Counseling is helpful for people of all ages and in different stages of life. As a fresh graduate counseling is required to inform him about the career choices available to him. Also all those who want to change their job the counseling will help. A career counselor can suggest a change in career of only change in job for the persons who are stuck in the mid of their career

Professional Career Guidance/counseling Centres

There are lots of career guidance and counseling centres all over the world. They give services of guidance and counselling on higher studies, possibilities, chances and nature of courses and institutes. Also that these services are offered either fixing up a meeting with the Experts or having telephonic conversations with the guide or even the online guidance which is very common these days with the people getting services on click of their mouse. There are many such service providers all over the world providing online counseling to people about their career or conducting a psychometric test to know the persons aptitude as well as interests.

[Career Testing

An objective form of career counseling is through an aptitude test, or a career test. Career testing is now usually done online and provides insightful and objective information about which jobs may be suitable for the test taker based on combination of their interests, values and skills. Career tests usually provide a list of recommended jobs that match the test takers attributes with those of people with similar personalities who enjoy/are successful at their jobs.There are various ways to test an individual for which field he is suitable Psychometric testing being one among them.

Psychometric Testing

Psychometric testing covers a wide range of skills and implementations. Testing can also be used for such applications as mentoring individuals or setting workers up with a “life coach” to guide them through work-related issues and how to handle them.With psychometric testing, there is no pass or fail. Different test companies have their own methods of testing. Usually, there are multiple sets of questions relating to personality type, how the test taker would handle aspects of work and home life, what his or her goals are for the future and his or her strengths and weaknesses. If the test taker is truthful, then results should be fairly accurate.The results of psychometric testing are usually issued in booklet form or sent by email and printed. Psychometric testing uses in-depth psychological profiles to assess personality and intellectual levels. Different test companies use different theoretical approaches to testing, such as the psychometric approach, the psychodynamic approach, the social learning approach and the humanist approach.

Benefits of career counselingAn expert career counselor can put a person's qualification, experience, strengths and weakness in a broad perspective taking into consideration schooling, desired salary, personal hobbies and interests, location and job market. It will help to greatly to find the current position as well as the future direction. A person may have to answer some basic questions asked by counselor. On the basis of the answers, the career counselor will give career options to choose.The career counselor with his vast knowledge of careers can open the doors of a new world. Only a career counselor can tell the pros and cons of various careers. By taking career counseling one can make a long list of career options, which suits the qualifications.

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