What do you do if you're seeking guidance in Career Counseling?

Assess your own career counseling needs by reflecting on interests, strengths, values, and goals. Consider past experiences, skills, and areas for growth. Conduct self-assessments, research potential career paths, and identify challenges or uncertainties. Seek feedback from mentors or advisors and explore resources for career exploration. Evaluate personal preferences, work-life balance, and desired career outcomes to determine areas where guidance and support are needed in career counseling.

Assess your professional situation in order to clearly identify gaps. Getting great answers will require the ability to ask honest meaningful questions. Often, this means confronting an uncomfortable truth.

While approaching career counselling, the first question is why, is it because of the want to change the career, change of location, change of industry or need for the professional growth. The needs might be career transition, skill development, and identifying job search strategies. It is always nice to review the previous experience, figure out transitional skills, understanding what change is needed in the current career. When it is clear what is working and not working for us, it gets easier to work with the experts to understand the situation and provide with better career pathway.

Define what you are seeking before looking for career mentorship is importante step for you to be more sure what you want to achieve. Separate a moment and ask questions for example: What services/support do you need? Desired Career milestones and timelines What is your Expectations, outcomes, roles and responsibilities from mentorship? Once you define this will be more easy for you to explain what is your needs and what the Career Consultant can help you in your Career Journey.

Your strengths, values, interests, abilities, and overall personality should all be able to be made known to you by the counselor. Self-awareness gives your vision the necessary focus. You cannot create a successful career path until you are aware of your goals and abilities.

Any time can be a good time to hire a career professional to help accelerate your career progression, mentorship becomes more meaningful when you have a career goal in mind and/or want faster results to pursue a career challenge or opportunity. Career goals can range from overcoming knowledge, skills, confidence or resource gaps, to gaining clarity on career choices, to identification and application of core strengths, to explaining gaps in resume, to pursuing your dream career, or to having a better work-life balance. A mentor can help you efficiently arrive at your own internal answers.

Con la información clara sobre tu objetivo principal, podrás identificar más fácilmente a la(s) persona(s) adecuadas y que estén alineadas contigo, con tu estilo, tu personalidad. Algunas personas ofrecen una llamada previa sin costo, justamente para tener la oportunidad de conocerse, entender cada caso, y aclarar dudas. Puedes aprovechar esas oportunidades para entender de qué se trata su servicio, revisar si conectas con esa persona, y tomar tu decisión de manera más informada.

After identifying your goals, the next step is to find a career counselor who can help you navigate the career landscape. Look for professionals with credentials in career development or counseling. Many counselors offer a free initial consultation, which can be a great opportunity to assess their approach and see if it aligns with your needs. Remember, the relationship you have with your counselor is crucial, as trust and communication are the foundation of effective guidance.

When choosing a career mentor, be aware of the types of career mentors and what they offer, as they range on various focus points from different career stages, skill sets and mindsets. An early to mid-career mentor may focus on finding the right role or employer, career transitions, promotions or gaining visibility within your organization while an executive coach may help with creating a narrative/brand to help you stand out as a leader.

Some topics that you might want to discuss and get a clarity. - Specific aptitudes or abilities. Which careers could they be useful for? - The level of education needed for different types of employment. - The possible pay for different professions. - The working environment. While some people thrive in fast-paced or outdoor work environments, others may prefer the solitude of an office. - The training and credentials required for a desired profession.

When choosing a career mentor, be aware of the types of career mentors and what they offer, as they range on various focus points from different career stages, skill sets and mindsets. While common mentorship services include resume/LinkedIn/cover letter/elevator pitch review and drafting, interview preparation and practice, job application strategies, transitioning roles/career/industry and negotiation tips, a mentor can also be needed for more behavioral aspects of your career, like how to be more effective on your role. So be open and ask questions to choose the Best Career Advisor for you.

Engaging in sessions with an open mind and willingness to participate is crucial. During these sessions, your counselor will work with you to explore your career options, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and help you develop actionable plans. Be honest about your experiences and be prepared to step out of your comfort zone. The insights you gain from these sessions can be transformative, as long as you are ready to listen and apply what you have learned.

Taking action between coaching sessions is essential to get the best out of your coaching sessions and to move your career forward. Progress does not happen by magic you need to put in the hard work.

Mentorship is a two-way street. While mentees gain mentor’s expert guidance, saving them time in reaching their career goals, mentors gain leadership and management skills while helping mentees from diverse backgrounds and temperament hit their Key Performance Indicators (KPI) milestones. Often the best mentorship comes much later, initially starting with reaching out and building a solid relationship. Also do what was ask by your Career Mentor is essencial for your career success.

Career counseling is a process, not a one time event. It's both a personal and a professional exploratory journey. Along this journey you will gain insight and knowledge about new trends in the job market, different types of approaches in job search, building a strong CV and so on. At the same time you will explore with your counselor what are your personal needs, your current values and beliefs, where you feel stuck and where you navigate with ease. You will discover new resources or maybe new development paths more suitable for you at the present time. Trust the process and commit to it if you want to make consistent and durable changes in your career and even your life path.