How to Get Effective Career Counseling
If you really want to get serious about transitioning from an old career into one that better suits your aspirations, financial needs and job stability for the future, surfing the Internet might not be enough. You might have to get in touch with a qualified career counselor.
According to Wikipedia, career counseling has much in common with traditional counseling. Both types of counseling involve talking with a qualified social work professional, though the career counselor is likely to be specialized into vocational, industrial or organizational psychology. Also, as with ordinary counseling, the career counseling client often knows what he or she wants to get out of the process (in this case, a fulfilling and sustaining job) but not exactly how to go about it.
Assessments are a common component of the career counseling experience. You may be tested on your cognitive aptitude, your psychological makeup or where your career-related interests lie. The Strong Interest Inventory, which presents you with a long sequence of items in which you have to pick your preference from a list of five possibilities, is often used by career counselors to help steer clients down the right path.
You can take an online career test yourself, at CareerFitter.com, which promises to "find the summary of who you are at work."
Dick Bolles, author of the influential career guide What Color Is Your Parachute?, also has career tests available on his web site, Job Hunters Bible. These tests include surveys on your "transferable skills," which you accumulate during a lifetime and which go with you from job to job. You can also use this site to email a career counselor for free.
The National Career Development Association has a site where you can search for career counselors in your area. Users can search by state or by the last name of the counselor.
Additionally, if you are still in school, many educational institutions have career development offices. You can visit these offices for advice and resume tips, as well as to find out what other graduates of the school have done with their degrees.
If you are between jobs, or have been laid off from a previously secure job, you face not only the practical challenge of finding a new job but the emotional challenge of re-examining your professional identity. Talking with someone who has seen many clients in your situation might end up inspiring you toward a new direction.