Would You Pay for the Advice of the Career Counselor?

During the final stages of a student’s educational life the biggest decision the student has to make is to choose the career he or she will pursue. It is one of the most defining points in one’s life as the rest of the life depends on it entirely. Utmost care has to be taken while taking this decision. Any wrong decision taken can mean the difference between a lifelong comfort and a lifelong struggle. A person can make the most out of his career only if it suits his personality in the right way. But when it comes to choosing the right career path, it often proves to be a big challenge for a student who is yet to understand all the options that are in front of him.

One way in which a student can get help in choosing the right career path is through the advice of a career counselor. A career counselor is someone who gives students an idea about all career options he can take after the completion of his education. They even give the students an idea about the careers which best suit the student’s personality. This is mostly done with the help of career aptitude tests, which are evaluated by the counselor and analyzed. On the whole, taking the help of the career counselor may seem to be foolproof. But one must also consider that in the practical life nothing can be perfect, not even the advice of a career counselor while choosing the right career. There have been many cases where a person has not been able to do well in his career even though he chose it with the help and advice of the career counselor. This raises the question whether the career counselor is of any help at all. Or will the considerable money spent on career counseling actually be worth it. The answer to these questions depends on the student’s choice and his expectations from the counselor.

Whether to take the help and advice of a counselor and do what he says is a big choice to be made by the student in itself. The biggest concern is if it is alright to give such a vital responsibility of choosing one’s career to a person who is literally a stranger. One might think that going for career counseling is a complete waste of time and money because of the belief that no other person can understand your personality and choose the wrong and the right for you better than yourself. This is, in a way, absolutely right. A human being does a job in the best way if he enjoys doing it. And what a person enjoys is directly dependent on the person’s interest, which can only be truly understood by the person himself. No matter how complicated the procedure of determining a student’s aptitude may be it will still give far less understanding of the person than what he knows about himself. Apart from determining the aptitude, it is also impossible for a career counselor to determine if his client will actually enjoy doing the job he chooses for him. A counselor can only tell the strengths and weaknesses of a student through tests and other methods. For example, whether a person is good or bad at math or essay writing, whether his reasoning skills are strong or weak, etc. But when it comes to choosing a specific career, the accuracy of a counselor’s advice is highly doubtful.

However, a career counselor cannot be taken as completely useless. There are ways in which the help from a counselor can result in making a perfect career choice. A student must consider properly how much and what to expect from a counselor. A counselor cannot make the perfect choice for a student but he does have an in depth knowledge of all career options available better than anyone else. And this aspect of a career counselor can be utilized in the proper manner to give the best results. A student, no matter how well informed, cannot have an idea about all the career options he can take. There may be many options, which might be better for him but are unknown to him and so, he might end up taking up a career in which he may not be able to do as good as in those others. In this case the best way to get a complete idea about the options is by taking the help of the career counselor. A counselor after taking an aptitude test and further analyzing the student can figure out his strengths and then lay all the options in front of him. He can also give the student detailed knowledge about these options. And once this is done, the choice of the exact career path has to be taken by the student himself. In this way the student gets the double benefit of knowing about all the options for him and also in the end making the choice according to his desire. By undertaking this method one can be assured that he has not missed any opportunity and has chosen the work he personally thinks he might enjoy doing.

In the end, the choice of going for the help of a career counselor is up to an individual. If he feels that he has chosen the career, which he in his own opinion is related to his passion, then he should not look for any further help. However, if a person has even a slight confusion about the choice of the career, money spent on the career counselor would do much good. But if one does decide to go for a counselor, he must remember to make the final choice himself. The main aim of visiting the career counselor must only be to get an understanding of all the career options and not letting the counselor make the actual choice for you. So my answer to the question of whether I would pay for the advice of the career counselor is, yes. There are numerous options which are available today for the students and everyday new types of high paying jobs are being created and it is impossible for anyone to stay updated about all types of jobs, especially for students who already have a tight schedule due to their course syllabus. So, it is definitely worth the money to take the help of a career counselor and get a complete idea about the jobs available before making any choice. The only condition is that the final choice must be made by the student himself.