Career counsellors bring diverse experience and expertise to their work. Choosing one to work with is a personal decision and finding the right fit matters. Look for someone whose approach aligns with what you are currently experiencing. Consider the questions you want to explore, your current life and career stage, and the specific areas of your career you want to address.
For this 6-part Q&A series, I have selected a sample of the questions I am most often asked.
“Why should I pay for career counselling when AI can provide career advice and strategies?”
This is an interesting, increasingly common, and dare I say, alarming question.
A simple answer is that the choice is always yours.
AI is here, and we are using it. Its impact and influence are increasingly felt by us all. And yes, because of the ease of access to AI-generated information and “advice”, we increasingly turn to it before consulting specialists in various professional fields. This is also true in the career development field.
And yet, you are the one who experiences work and career. That continuous embodied “experiencing” is neither static, uniformly structured, nor algorithmically designed.
From my perspective, what still deserves personalized space, time, attention, and conversation is your unique experiences and relationship with work and career; the meaning(s) work holds for you at different stages of your life; and how you want to live, express yourself, contribute, sustain your life, and feel you belong in the world.
This is a space to reflect on the intersections among your interests, aspirations, the current job market, and the world’s future needs.
This is a space to reflect on your desire to be creative in shaping your career; the decisions you weigh and the choices you make; and the contexts that influence and shape it.
This is a space to reflect on your motivation, engagement, and commitment; how you work; the personal approach you bring to your role, job, or position; and how you contribute to your work environment and collaborate with colleagues.
This is a space that moves from reflection to collaborative idea testing, the exploration of possibilities, and the design of personally relevant next steps to help you navigate and discern the course of your career in a rapidly changing world.
These are conversations from an experiential lens. They reflect human encounter, creativity, and expression.
