Your career decision is yours and is rooted in your own identity consisting of your interests, values, skills, experiences, and goals. You may be certain about all or only a few of these aspects. To increase your self-awareness, career counseling offers an opportunity to discuss your life and career goals. Counseling may include assessment, which is available to help you identify and organize your interests, abilities, and values as they relate to career fields. Career counseling will increase your awareness of career options, reinforcing those options you’ve already considered and expose you to the ones you haven’t yet considered. Discussing connections between your self-knowledge, experiences, and your vision for your future can lead Begin by thinking about where you are now, where you want to be and how you’re going to get there. Once you have thought about where you are at now and where you want to be, you can work on getting to know your skills, interests and values. Begin by asking yourself the following questions:

• Where am I at now?
• Where do I want to be?
• What do I want out of a job or career?
• What do I like to do?
• What are my strengths?
• What is important to me?

At the end of this step, you will have a clearer idea of your work or learn goal and your individual preferences. You can use this information about yourself as your personal ‘wish list’ against which you can compare all the information you gather in.

This step is about exploring the occupations and learning areas that interest you. Once you have some idea of your occupational preferences you can research the specific skills and qualifications required for those occupations.

• Explore occupations that interest you and ask yourself how do my skills and interests match up with these occupations?
• Where are the gaps?
• What options do I have to gain these skills or qualify for these occupations?
• What skills do I need?
• Where is the work?

At the end of this step, you will have a list of preferred occupations and/or learning options. 

This step involves comparing your options, narrowing down your choices and thinking about what suits you best at this point in time.

Ask yourself:

• What is my best work/training options?
• How do they match with my skills, interests and values?
• How do they fit with the current labor market?
• How do they fit with my current situation and responsibilities?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
• What will help and what will hinder me?
• What can I do about it?

At the end of this step, you will have narrowed down your options and have more of an idea of what you need to do next to help you achieve your goals.

Here you plan the steps you need to take to put your plan into action. Use all you have learned about your skills, interests and values together with the information you have gathered about the world of work to create your plan. Begin by asking yourself:

• What actions/steps will help me achieve my work, training and career goals?
• Where can I get help?
• Who will support me?

• A plan to help you explore your options further (e.g. Work experience, work shadowing or more research); or
• A plan which sets out the steps to help you achieve your next learning or work goal.

 

Decide which step is relevant to you right now and start from there. There are some useful tips which should be followed by all:

1. Make the career plan and review it from time to time. This will make you secure and will open some new doors as based on your past experience.
2. Review your choices, likes, interests and dislikes because these play a vital role in career appraisal.
3. Review your past accomplishments
4. Check if you want to get involved in some new skills
5. Watch out current job trends
6. Make three or five-year career goal or short and long term goals. Accomplishing goals is rewarding and very satisfactory.
7. Explore new education/training opportunity. Keep adding on new skills in your resume which can open doors for new opportunity.
8. Investigate career alternatives related to various fields of study.
9. Explore interests through courses, volunteer work, student activities, and job shadowing. Consider taking a career decision-making course.
10. Develop a broader appreciation of diversity through study abroad, foreign languages, community service, multicultural courses and cultural activities on campus. Record your activities, accomplishments, and achievements.

 

We learn through our own experience as well as others. Channelise your potential, broaden your group, share your experience with others and hear them as well. One should have broadened outlook to picture your future. If one feels, he or she can always take the professional help. There are many consultancies which  work in this area with expertise. Your future is only in your hand so plan it carefully and enjoy the journey.