YOU: The Most Important Key In a Successful Career Journey

Sushma Sharma Mar 02, 2022

Every individual has been told at least once to choose a career that is within one’s forte but unfortunately, no one tells you how! The solution seemed to be to consider all options available until one discovers their talent or skills. This methodology might have held some weight 20 years back, but it no longer does in our modern world. By the time we entered the 2020s, India’s education sector has made a paradigm leap where not only the quality of education has improved but even the number of specialized courses at various levels have also gone up. Compared to a student in 2000, it is increasingly difficult and, in some cases, frustrating as a student in 2022 to choose the right career that fits their skill set and interest and will hold good stead when they enter the formal workforce. This is where career counselling gets exceedingly important to help young students navigate the choppy waters of uncertainty.

Career counselling at the school level provides students with much-needed advice and assistance in planning their educational journey and choice of appropriate courses. Students get comprehensive advice on careers, courses, and jobs that enable them to make a proper choice and understand what they can do with higher studies after they are done with schooling. Counselling also offers proper guidance on how to deal with psychological problems which can badly impact the studies of students. It not only helps to shape a student’s behaviour but also instils discipline. Well-guided and counselled students to know what to do and how to do things in the best possible way.

Individuals are the most important key to one’s successful career journey, counsellors play a pivotal role in chaperoning students on the path of understanding one’s potential. Counsellors assist students by making them realise their passion and goals. Only after self-realisation, a student can truly begin to have a rewarding career.

Counsellors who understand this are the ones who can bring forth high performance in students by combining their ability with their purpose. Combining the ability with the purpose helps in instilling career management skills in the students, which is a catalyst for every successful career.

Hence, it is no news that counseling can be only as good as a counselor is! When the outside world is busy nurturing competition that is not working, the right counselor will not only focus on the professional aspects but also the personal and social development of a student. Combining the right fit counselor with an ideal counseling program that blends neuro-linguistic programming and personality theories will help create unique pathways for students that allow them to design and realize their career journey. Doing this in a systematic, experiential, and engaging manner will go a long way in creating winners out of each student rather than student segments. A good career counselor inculcates love for lifelong learning among its students.

Issac Newton once said, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants".

Our country today stands at an inflection point of time where unless we empower our students at school levels to discover and choose the right skill sets and careers, we are staring at a loss of $1.97 trillion in GDP growth over the next 10 years. The essential bridge between education and employment is career counseling as only this will help future-proof India’s next-generation workforce.