Career Counsellors bring a wealth of diverse expertise and experience to the field. Selecting a Career Counsellor to work with is therefore a very personal choice and it should be the right fit for you, your stage of life, and the areas of your career life you want to explore and/or work on.
I wanted to respond to some of your questions and provide a few comments on the approach and perspective that I bring to Career Counselling.
I selected the top 7 questions I am frequently asked.
“I feel completely stuck, but I don’t know if Career Counselling is right for me”?
The reasons behind that “stuck” feeling vary but they are usually related to the relationship a client has with work and career: something has changed, shifted, or is currently challenging.
Feeling “stuck” could reveal waning interest in or motivation for your work. You may feel you have outgrown a particular role or occupation. You may want change and want to feel differently about work and career but feel stuck when it comes to executing steps towards change. You may be experiencing burnout. You may be having difficulty with a new job or role and not feeling confident. You could feel overwhelmed with decisions over a career choice, or immediate decisions related to a position or change in roles.
It is quite common to ask if Career Counselling is the best option to sort through these kinds of experiences and the many questions and feelings that accompany them.
Career Counselling provides a conversational space to reflect on your experiences. It can help you clarify the issues at the root of your feeling “stuck” and the impact these issues are having on your relationship with work and career. Career Counselling helps you gather information, gain perspective, see possibilities, and when appropriate, design customized approaches or strategies for moving forward.
“How long does Career Counselling typically take”?
This depends on you, the client, and what you want to explore and accomplish. Career Counselling should be flexible, creative, client-centered, personally valuable, relevant, and strategic when appropriate.
I usually recommend two sessions to start. This time frame allows for reflection, clarifying issues with customized questions, and identifying a possible framework for steps or strategies moving forward.
In my experience, clients may want an additional 2 or 3 sessions to work on something specific that has emerged during the foundational 2 sessions or they may want to work on specific strategies. This can include: labor market research, development of profiles, preparation for informational meetings, and/or interviews, a personalized approach to career maintenance, or an exit strategy. However, the initial 2 sessions can provide valuable insights and a good foundation for you to move forward on your own.
I do offer single sessions for an exploratory conversation on more immediate questions. Some examples include: “Should I consider a career change”? “I am having difficulty with an immediate work-related decision?” “I have an upcoming job interview, I feel ill-prepared and very nervous, can you help”? “I think I am experiencing burnout; can I share what I am experiencing”?
I also offer monthly check-ins, or what I call career maintenance, for clients who want the time and space to discuss and reflect on such topics as motivation, wellness, stress, aspirations, and professional or leadership development.
There are many different options to suit your experiences, questions, challenges, and aspirations.
“What is your process”?
I offer a conversational, reflective (perspective-taking), and customized strategic process. I bring existential, experiential, narrative, and career development theoretical frameworks to my work in Career Counselling. While these frameworks contextualize my approach to the meaning of work, career development, career change, and work-related burnout, I always customize the process to ensure it is relevant to you.
I work with you. I work with your lived experiences and specific context(s). I work with your unique skills, diverse expertise, and motivation. I listen to and consider the meaning work and career holds for you, the expectations you have for work and career, the challenges you have faced, and the decisions you have made or may be struggling with. I take seriously your dreams and aspirations. These are examples, but this is the personal content that shapes a customized process.
In my experience, clients seek Career Counselling expertise to gain insights, perspective, support, validation, possibilities, and strategies that are both creative and personally relevant to building out their career lives.
“What is the best format for resumes and profiles”? and “Should I focus on my resume”?
There are hundreds of resume and profile templates out there and I would be quite reluctant to say there is one “best” format.
It’s a balancing act.
You want, for example:
- Your resume and/or profiles to stand out.
- You want the documents to be relevant to your targeted professional area or the specific role you are applying for.
- You want the documents to highlight your value and connect that value with needs and requirements of a prospective role or employer.
- You want to be able to recognize yourself in the content of these documents, and you want that content to be consistent.
- You want the presentation of these documents to be well-spaced, grammatically accurate, and easy to read.
- You want these documents to capture the reader’s attention and not be loaded down with jargon.
Every resume, profile, and preparation for informational meetings, networking, and/or interviews starts with good content.
Re-assessing your experiences, the meaning work holds for you, and your skills (both natural and learned) are key to identifying the unique story or narrative at the foundation of your current expertise.
Some questions to reflect on might include:
- What kind of expertise and value do I currently hold? What have I learned from my experiences?
- Can I describe how I work? What do I bring to each role, task, or job?
- How would I connect the dots between my value and the needs of a prospective role I am interested in?
- What do I want to contribute to that prospective role or profession?
- What do I want to develop further in my career life? What do I want to learn or gain further experience in?
“What is the best career for me”?
I am asked this question frequently by young adults. This question always has some context. The person asking is often overwhelmed and feels that they must make that one “right” career decision.
I understand these feelings so let me re-frame this question because it is simply too big and too daunting to answer – and it often leads to decision paralysis. Remember, you are building a career life and this building process takes time and includes different experiences and stages.
Consider instead the following sample questions:
- How do I want to start building my career path?
- What are some good options that I am interested in, and can commit to, at this stage in my life: working, further education, a training program, volunteer work, or an internship?
- What issues in the world, or within my community, am I drawn to and why?
- What would I like to learn more about, or gain more experience in, at this stage in my life?
If you are currently a young adult, you will likely have more than one career in a lifetime. This is a reality. Exploration, engaging in different experiences, discovering new skills, regularly reflecting on your experiences, being open to life-long learning, and building and leveraging a flexible and portable skill set are key ingredients to building a robust career life and experiencing a meaningful relationship with work and career.
“I think it might be time for a career change, where do I start”?
Many clients I have worked with feel that something about their work environment, their role, or their engagement with their current profession has noticeably changed but they haven’t had the opportunity to explore whether the “shifts” they are experiencing mean career change is the answer.
For those who have experienced job loss, the answer is clearer. For others, this may be a situation where one or two sessions are needed to clarify the client’s experiences and current questions, gauge the client’s motivation for change, and contemplate possible next steps.
Career changes do include some very practical steps. Some examples:
- Clarifying what is important at this stage of your career life? What are your prominent questions?
- A reflective conversation about your work experiences and your relationship with work and career. What are your expectations of work and career? What has changed? How do you want to work going forward? Which skills and/or aspects of your expertise do you want to carry forward? What interests you at this stage of life? Are there concurrent issues in your life that will influence the choices, decisions, or direction of a career change? Are there financial or familial considerations?
- Conducting labor market research and possibly organizing informational meetings.
- Re-assessing skills, expertise, and your current value.
- Re-designing resumes and social media profiles.
- Preparing for job interviews.
Any combination of these steps might be suitable for you. But once again, any change starts with clarifying your current context and identifying your key questions. It includes your current motivation, expectations, and aspirations since these invariably influence the creation and execution of any strategy.
“I am over 60, am I too old for a new career”?
Increasingly many people are not “retiring” after age 60. There are financial considerations along with a desire for new careers and new opportunities to engage in and contribute to.
Are you too old? No.
Consider the following questions:
- What draws you to continue working or to engage in something new?
- What talents, skills, and expertise do you want to contribute and/or express at this stage?
- What unique experiences, knowledge, wisdom, and perspectives could you draw upon to create new career opportunities?
- What does work mean to you at this stage in your life?
- How do you want to work at this stage?
Is ageism a reality? In some sectors, it does persist, but it isn’t a standard across all possible avenues for work. The world is changing, and aging populations are increasingly working well past 60.
This is where reflective work helps to clarify your position and to gather information. Reflecting on your experiences, and the perspectives, knowledge, and wisdom you possess after decades in the workforce is a valuable source of information. Getting creative with this information and layering this with research and informational meetings can help identify further possibilities for crafting the next steps.
Interested in learning more about the services available at Canvas Career Counselling? Contact [email protected] to book a complimentary consultation. I look forward to hearing from you.
