Benefits of Career Counselling

Benefits of Career Counselling

 (By Rounakshi Dey ) 

Image By:- Darshika Singh

Role of Career Counselling:

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” — Confucius. How do I know at the age of sixteen, what is the work I will love doing once I am 35? How do I know my inclinations, since childhood? What if my aspirations change? Can I change my stream when I wish? A number of questions get muddled inside the brain of a teenager. He is confused. He has seen his siblings complaining about wrong career choices. He has heard that job satisfaction is a myth. We have all been in this position at least once in life. We were confused about what should be the right step. This is the point where Career Counselling steps in. Counselling in itself is a broad term. Career counselling refers to giving proper guidance to a person’s career keeping in finding his desires, ambitions, strengths and weakness. 

When is this required?

Honestly, career counselling is not a one-time process. Rather, it is a continuous one. We have people switching their job roles after 10 years of service. Previously, professional career counselling was an unheard term. But as the competition stiffens, professional career counsellors are coming into action. The first time career counselling is required is when a student is in class nine or in class ten. After our class ten boards, we are required to choose one stream out of the three, namely- Arts, Science and Commerce. Within each stream, nowadays, we can take a combination of subjects. When we are in class eight or nine, we understand our inclination towards some particular subjects. Depending on our likings and capabilities, we choose our stream. Many students, who are afraid of Maths, choose to switch to Arts. Here, many parents, pressurize their wards, into taking Science. But, unless we are genuinely interested in pursuing Science, we should never agree to pursue it. After class ten gets over, we just have two years in hand, after which we are supposed to decide the graduation degree we will be pursuing. We choose a single subject among the ones we are presently studying, to pursue as our honours subjects. We require a big help after class twelve, deciding our subjects on graduation. Sometimes, we have students switching their careers from one stream to another before entering college. Some take up technical courses like Engineering or Polytechnic or BBA. Some Science students shift to Medical courses. Now, the students enter different colleges with high hopes and ambitions. College life changes the career path of many students. After college life, students are given choices to either pursue a job or continue with higher education. In the case of higher education, many Science students change their stream to MBA. A lot of stream shifting occurs after college ends. Career guidance is required for all college students. Once the students start working, they still may want to change their job profile or return back to their studies. Career guidance helps at this stage too. Practically, we require career guidance through a number of years of our life.

Whom to approach for career guidance?

The first person to approach is oneself. We are our best friends. We know our strengths, weakness and aspirations. Today, we can know any topic by just a mouse click on google. We should first trust ourselves regarding our career choices. We can do thorough research on the career path we want to pursue. Next, in line is our parents. They are more experienced than us. Maybe we can find our parents in the same career path we want to pursue. We can form an opinion after consulting with our parents. Teachers are a great support system. Their knowledge of career paths is immense as they regularly interact with a lot of new as well as old students. We should always consult our teachers in case of any confusion. We can also speak to our elder siblings or seniors in school and college seeking their opinions. Professional counselling is also available. Sometimes, schools, organize professional counselling sessions in order to help students make a more informed career choice.

Benefits of Career Counselling:

• It helps us identify our strengths and weakness. Once, we know about them, we can spend time sharping our strengths and working on our weaknesses. Career paths can be chosen depending upon our strengths. 

• It helps us in setting a direction and a goal towards which we will be taking baby steps. Once, we have a long term goal in front of us, it becomes easier to work towards them.

• It helps us understand the nature of the work we will be actually doing. It provides us with a range of job options available and helps us in getting a broader perspective of our job role.

• Once, we know our aspirations, we can know of the choices available to us. We come to know a number of unconventional jobs too. We can work towards our goal once our choices are known to us.

• It helps in enhancing ourselves. As, we know our future job role, we start preparing for it at a very early stage. We are much ahead of others if we start early. We can improve ourselves in every possible way.

Career Counselling is the requirement of the day. Whenever a student or a working professional is confused about his career, he should definitely ask for career guidance. Job satisfaction is never a myth if we make the right informed choices. Parents should never pressurize their children by putting a burden of their aspirations on their wards, rather they should give unbiased opinions who their children require them. Our career spans more than three decades. We should always take the decisions wisely to enjoy a happy blissful life. In the end, Find out what you like doing and get someone to pay you for doing it.

 

Disclaimer:-

The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.