Career Counseling
Do any of these situations sound familiar?
- Burnout and job dissatisfaction
- Stress, unhappiness, conflict at work
- Frustration negotiating the corporate ladder
- Boredom or lack of challenge
- Indecision, anxiety, and procrastination
- Difficulty setting and achieving goals
- Unsuccessful job search
- Unemployment or underemployment
- Mid-life change, lack of direction
Or how about these?
- Trying to balance work and home life
- Two-career couplehood
- Returning to the world of work
- "Empty nest"
- Retirement
People seek career counseling for many reasons.
Sometimes it's as simple as polishing up some interview skills. Some practice interviews and some confidence-building exercises may be all that's needed.
Sometimes there's a desire to improve workplace relationships or to make more of an impression in a current job or field of employment. It can be tough to deal with a difficult supervisor or a difficult employee. Learning new communication techniques can make all the difference.
And sometimes you realize that your current work just isn't the real you. Career change is a big step that's a lot easier with professional career counseling.
Counseling for career change has many dimensions.
It examines what matters to you most about work. Is it high income? Meaning? Personal relationships? A pleasant setting? Predictability? Excitement? Steady income with a low impact on home life and other interests? Understanding what you really want has a huge impact on work satisfaction.
It also looks at your strengths and natural gifts, including those you may not have uncovered yet. It clarifies your values and sense of purpose in life. It looks at the day-to-day routine of potential careers and explores how they fit your individual profile and temperament.
Exercises that measure your interests and values give you more insight into your "work personality", including areas of your personality that may be under-expressed in your current occupation. Data on personality types and job satisfaction compiled from people employed in hundreds of occupations help point you toward likely choices, often in careers you haven't previously considered or even heard of.
Once you're ready to make some decisions, career counseling helps you plan the path from where you are now to where you want to be. A good plan not only makes it easier to get where you're going; it makes each day along the way more interesting and enjoyable.