Which way to go next? (Career Advisor / Counseller in General)

Member Name: Motley

Product:	Career Advisor / Counseller in General
Date:	16/08/00 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can offer alternatives

Disadvantages: Can be too many choices which all need specialist qualifications

I have always been dubious about careers advisers. I think that they are graduates of something indistinct who can't decide what to do with themselves after college and so go into careers advising, not the best people to advise you, really.

However, my own bias aside, they can be very useful. I never found them very useful at school as I wanted to be an actress in my teens and all they told me was that I wouldn't earn any money, have a pension or get redundancy. They have changed a lot over the years though .....

These days, if you are unhappy with your job and/or your company and you really don't know whether you want more of the same or a complete change of scene, they can help firm up some ideas in your mind. They are especially useful if you need to re-train as they can help you with course and grant applications.

Usually linked to job centres, careers advisers can input all of your details (experience, qualifications, interests, hobbies, anything you are particularly good at) into a computer package and it can print out a list of careers that may interest you. I have to say that many of them require specialist qualifications so you would have to retrain, but often they are simply jobs for companies that you hadn't thought of, or hadn't thought you would be very good at.

Careers advisers aren't the best for people who want jobs (note the difference between a career and a job). I never wanted a career in admin. but I do have an intersting job in admin. My careers adviser wouldn't have told me to follow a career in admin. but it suits me well enough.

If you want a job, read the paper. If you want a career, think about re-training and contact your local job centre.

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