04:35
Noman Ikhlaq
Article by Karan Naidoo
Most schools have career counseling services, a resource that’s often severely underused. Many students struggle to find what their passion is and agonize over deciding the path they want to take in life, but they still don’t ask for directions. Now, a career counselor won’t necessarily tell you all the things you need to do or provide you with a surefire life trajectory. Rather, career counseling services are intended to guide individuals so that they have an idea of the options out there and they can better prepare for the great unknown.
You can find some career counselors in high school, where their role is mainly helping students to get into college. College is an important vehicle into the job market, so career counselors provide advice regarding things like what universities the student might be interested in and the requirements for admission into those institutions. The counselor will dispense information like when to sign up for standardized tests like the SAT and which schools focus on specific fields of education and where they are located.
Career counseling services in college are more directly career oriented, because at that point graduating students are either looking for a job or pursuing further education to receive a higher degree that will help them procure a job more easily in the future. To help college students, a career counselor might help them look for graduate schools and prepare for tests like the GRE, kind of like the SAT all over again.
Career counseling services can also provide the notorious career test, an examination intended to determine which careers would be best for you based on your strengths and interests. Career tests have often been spoofed in mainstream media, portrayed as providing ridiculous results that send test takers down the wrong path. In contrast, real life career tests can be fairly useful, but of course they’re not to be sworn by. Only you can really figure out and decide what’s best for you.
The same skills and interests can apply to many different fields-for example, majoring in psychology can lead to working as a counselor, a business person or even a lawyer. Or you might decide to pursue a career that has nothing to do with what your studies emphasized-things aren’t set in stone and you can still change your mind. Remember that it’s your life, and the path you take ultimately depends on the choices that you make.
Most schools have career counseling services, a resource that’s often severely underused. Many students struggle to find what their passion is and agonize over deciding the path they want to take in life, but they still don’t ask for directions. Now, a career counselor won’t necessarily tell you all the things you need to do or provide you with a surefire life trajectory. Rather, career counseling services are intended to guide individuals so that they have an idea of the options out there and they can better prepare for the great unknown.
You can find some career counselors in high school, where their role is mainly helping students to get into college. College is an important vehicle into the job market, so career counselors provide advice regarding things like what universities the student might be interested in and the requirements for admission into those institutions. The counselor will dispense information like when to sign up for standardized tests like the SAT and which schools focus on specific fields of education and where they are located.
Career counseling services in college are more directly career oriented, because at that point graduating students are either looking for a job or pursuing further education to receive a higher degree that will help them procure a job more easily in the future. To help college students, a career counselor might help them look for graduate schools and prepare for tests like the GRE, kind of like the SAT all over again.
Career counseling services can also provide the notorious career test, an examination intended to determine which careers would be best for you based on your strengths and interests. Career tests have often been spoofed in mainstream media, portrayed as providing ridiculous results that send test takers down the wrong path. In contrast, real life career tests can be fairly useful, but of course they’re not to be sworn by. Only you can really figure out and decide what’s best for you.
The same skills and interests can apply to many different fields-for example, majoring in psychology can lead to working as a counselor, a business person or even a lawyer. Or you might decide to pursue a career that has nothing to do with what your studies emphasized-things aren’t set in stone and you can still change your mind. Remember that it’s your life, and the path you take ultimately depends on the choices that you make.
