What is a Career Counselor?
Career counselors hold a graduate degree in counseling with a specialization in career counseling. Services of career counselors differ, depending on the counselor’s level of competence, the setting, client needs, and other factors. Fellows, Master Career Counselors, Master Career Development Professionals, Registered Professional Career Counselors (California only), and other professional career counselors help people make and carry out decisions and plans related to life/career directions. They also assist people in learning new skills and abilities related to managing and directing their careers and work life.
A career counsellor is someone who assists clients in finding out what their career passion is, and then the career counsellor also helps that client put together a viable plan to help them get where it is they want to go. Now in many states it’s very important to know that licensure or certification is required to be a career counsellor, so if you are going to work with a career counsellor or you’re thinking about hiring a career counsellor, make sure you ask if that career counsellor have the proper credentials, because it is important that career counsellors are licensed, certified, and/or bonded in many states. And career counsellors will also provide the types of assessments that you need, they’ll give you that third-person feedback, that objective opinion, to help you really determine what is going to be the best career direction for you to take.
The CEC has a team of professional counselors who specialize in career development. Each counselor at the CEC has a graduate degree in counseling or a related field. Most are also licensed by the State of Texas as Licensed Professional Counselors. The Center also has a counseling intern program where master’s and doctoral students are trained to provide career counseling at the CEC. What Do Career Counselors Do?
A career counselor is an educated, trained professional who coaches clients in researching, selecting, planning, entering, developing and changing careers. A career counselor is also known as a placement counselor as he or she helps clients get placed into a suitable career or at least placed onto a compatible career path. Different clients have different needs, so the career counselor’s duties will be different with each client. A career counselor’s client may be a young person just beginning a career or an older adult wanting to make a career change. In order to begin coaching clients, a career counselor needs to understand the client’s history and what motivates that person. The client’s personality, interests, skills, values and purpose in life offer a good start in narrowing down career possibilities. Familiarity with personality and aptitude tests is a must for a career counselor. These tests can help reveal the client’s personality traits, skill sets and values both as important
