When to Hire a Career Counselor

The time to see a career counselor is when your career is fairly stable. Don't wait for the ax to fall – you can't make good career decisions in a crisis or when you're motivated purely by survival.

Rather than thinking of career planning as a problem-solving process, think of it as a creative process. When an artist goes to the canvas, he's not trying to solve a problem, he's trying to create something. Likewise, your career is your own work of art – a reflection of your personal values, interests and skills. Career counseling helps you create your personal vision of where you want to go with your working life, and it guides you in developing a strategy for getting there.

If you think you could benefit by talking with a career counselor or coach, start by assessing what type of help you need. Do you have a career focus, or is your future blurry? Do you need help marketing and presenting yourself more effectively? What are the specific results you want to achieve?

The better you can articulate your needs, the better you'll be to identify the appropriate resource to help you.

To help you take inventory of your career development needs and priorities, here's a sample questionnaire that many career counselors use. Ask yourself:

1. Who am I? What are my interests, values, likes and dislikes?
2. What have I done? What are my transferable skills, training and experience?
3. Where am I going? What's my knowledge of alternatives and options for my career?
4. How will I get there? What's my strategy for reaching my career goals?

Click Here to Read Part 3 of 3 for this Article:How to Find A Career Counselor