Who Can Benefit From Career Counselling?
- First-time career planners – high school and post-secondary students
- Post secondary students looking for assistance in choosing a major, or those graduating and needing help as they transition to the world of work
- Mid-career changers unsatisfied in their career. This may be a result of changes in the business or marketplace, no longer being challenged or fulfilled in the role, or simply feel a change is needed
- Stay-at-home parents out of the workforce now returning to work
- People facing retirement – post-career life and work redesign
Steps in the Career Planning Process
Typically a career counsellor will guide you through the steps needed to develop a career plan in 5-7 sessions. We follow a process that can be customized to your specific needs so you can develop a career plan that’s right for you. Once you have a career plan you can also gain help implementing your plan from our Job Search and Educational Advisor.
STEP 1 Self-exploration and Awareness
We use a series of customized career assessments and in-house tools we developed to help you explore your strengths, work style, personality, interests, and values to understand what type of work will best suit you.
For mid-career changers and people facing retirement, identification of your skills and abilities that are transferable from past career experiences to new career-life opportunities is often particularly relevant.
You always have to take into account your current life circumstances. Discussion of your unique financial, life and career situation may affect your career choice. We’ll help you explore all the factors that help you make a healthy well-informed career choice.
At the end of this first step you create a career profile, or overview of who you are and what you need from work in order to feel satisfied and motivated in a career. You are really creating a list of criteria for your ideal job.
STEP 2 Identify Career Options
Your career assessments, discussions with your career counsellor, and focused research help you identify career options.
STEP 3 Researching Your Career Options
The research stage is carefully guided by your career counsellor, so the process is manageable. We do encourage you to set-up meetings or job shadows, that allow you to see what an occupation involves on a day-to-day basis, so you can really gain a clear understanding of whether an occupation is a good fit for you.
STEP 4 Decision Making and Goal Setting
We typically find that when our clients have taken the time to clarify who they are, what they need from work and have carefully explored their occupational options, making a decision is easier. Our career counselling can then help you with setting goals. Reaching your career goals often involves job searching or gaining further education, or both. Our Job Search and Educational Advisor, can provide practical support for you to make your plan happen.
If you have any other concerns with your emotional well-being or psychological health, there are a number of services we can provide you. Click here to look at our Personal Counselling services.
If your organization can use some help fostering a positive productive work environment Click here to look at our Organizational Services.