Career Guidance for Students, Freshers & Experienced Professionals ( 2024)

1. What Is Career Guidance?
2. Guidance while choosing a career path
3. Career Guidance for Job Search
4. Mid-career Guidance
5. Career Guidance in case of Layoffs

What Is Career Guidance?

There are instances in the professional lives of almost all individuals where they feel the need for professional guidance to further their career. Professionals might seek career guidance under different circumstances or situations such as-

• While choosing a field of expertise
• Deciding if they should change the course of their career into a new field
• Re-entering the workforce
• Looking out for promotion or substantial financial growth
• In the case of lay-offs

Whatever may be the reason, professional career guidance helps to make informed decisions when it comes to one’s career. It can be defined as a comprehensive program which is developed and designed to help professionals with informed occupational and educational decisions. It helps them acquire knowledge, required skills, and experience necessary to identify possible career options, and finally narrow them down to make the right career choice which suits their interest.

Career guidance holds immense importance as it results in professionals’ financial, social, emotional, and professional well-being. In this age where ambitions are soaring, career queries are common. Hence, it is important for institutions to set up career guidance capabilities for professionals in all stages of career.

Also Read: 5 Career Resolutions to make in 2022

Guidance while choosing a Career Path

If you are a fresh graduate or an entry-level professional, the responsibility of making a career choice can be overwhelming. It could be challenging to assess your skills and map them with available career options, also keeping in mind your interest areas. Hence, it is crucial to take professional career guidance. Below are a few steps that will help you in deciding your career choice.

1. Choose your Industry or functional preference – First, identify a broad area you would want to explore. It could be an industry (manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, e-commerce etc.), or a functional preference (marketing, business analytics, research, software engineering etc.). Once you identify your field of interest, start exploring the nature of work and the skill sets that are preferred by employers under your domain of interest.
2. Narrow down by career path – Your chosen field of interest would have multiple career paths. For example, digital marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, branding and many other career paths. Make a list of all possible career paths in your chosen domain. Now, map your existing skill sets with the skills required for each of these career paths. Narrow the list down to a few viable career paths and figure out what skills you need to acquire in order to pursue one of these paths.
3. Discover occupations and jobs – Once you have a few options of career paths to pursue, start looking out for available roles and opportunities in those areas. 

By following these three steps, you have narrowed down to a few choices that you can pursue. If you feel that you cannot go ahead with this process on your own, there are many career guidance professionals who could help you choose your dream job.

Here are some of the sample questions that a career guide might ask to understand you and your needs better:

1. How do you feel when you think about building your career? – Excited, exhausted, motivated, burdened, etc.?
2. What do you think you need in order to decide on your career path? – Any specific information, skills, knowledge on a certain topic, etc. 
3. What would your dream job be like? – Your expectations with the job, the kind of environment you seek, your responsibilities etc. 
4. What could get in the way of you and your dream job? 
5. What do you need to change in your life to get you to your goal? – Any negative habits or qualities, poor time management, personality traits etc. 

 Also Read: How will Artificial Intelligence create more jobs by 2025? 

Career Guidance for Job Search

While searching for that perfect job, candidates come across many roadblocks. Career guidance counsellors help professionals to discover the right jobs on different platforms. They also help them write a stellar resume and prepare for probable interview questions that improve the first impression and chances of employability of the candidate. They will guide the candidates on how to build a professional network for a successful career and professional life throughout. Last but not the least, the career guide will also help you learn salary negotiation skills. 

Mid-Career Guidance

Mid-career guidance involves getting help with advancing your career for growth, dealing with workplace issues, and career transition into a new domain. The guidance counsellor deals with questions on the ways to get a promotion, negotiations during appraisals, transitioning to a new domain, managing job stress, and issues at the workplace: with your boss or colleagues. 

Here are some of the sample questions that a career guide might ask to understand you and your needs better

1. How was your experience at your last job? – What did you like? what did you not like?
2. What experience do you have to support your current career choice? – relevant experience, skills developed over the years.  
3. How do you deal with stress? 
4. What has been your favourite and least favourite environment?
5. What unexpected events or people have influenced your past decisions?
6. How comfortable are you with taking risks? – What kind of risks you have taken in the past and what kind of risks you are open to taking in the future. 
7. Do you love deadlines or feel pressured by them? 

Career Guidance in case of Layoffs

Job loss is a devastating experience and affects a professional financially as well as emotionally. It takes a toll on your professional identity as well. Career guidance plays an important role in assisting professionals to come out of this traumatic experience and secure a job as quickly as possible. The major impact of job loss is the income loss and hence getting professional guidance will speed up the process of finding a new job without compromising on pay, profile, or other factors.

Here are some of the sample questions that a career guide might ask to understand you and your needs better:

1. What is the reason behind your job loss?
2. How open are you to unexpected opportunities?
3. Are you open to relocation?
4. What did you like and dislike from your previous experiences?
5. What skills have you developed over the years?
6. What kind of roles are you open to considering? – Industries, verticals, designations, etc.

5 Career Resolutions to make in 2022

A new year has begun and we’re sure you’d be ready with your list of resolutions! And yes, we know some of you would want to get fitter, some would like to quit a bad habit, but the majority of you would like to upskill yourself.

Why do I say that?

Well, as we know that the last year was all about adapting to new situations: be it the regular work from home, or not seeing your colleagues for months, there was 1 thing that was constant for us all. We all had to learn more in our respective domains, not just because there were job security concerns due to the businesses being affected by the pandemic, but also because we all had a LOT of extra time in hand! And what better way to spend that time than by learning something new that would assist in achieving your professional goals.

So, as we are in 2021 (yes, finally!), how about creating a list of career resolutions?

Start the year by pledging to spend at least 21 minutes in a day learning a new skill you’ve always wanted to. 

Why #21For21?

Because 21 minutes are short enough to focus without being overwhelmed and can contribute towards learning a new skill! We’ll be happy if you can devote more time with practice. With this thought, here are the 5 career resolutions to make in 2021 to make yourself proud of your work by the year-end.

Here I’ve listed down 5 career resolutions to make in 2022 that will help you make the most of this year:

• Learn a new skill: You should always aim at strengthening your soft and hard skills at work. If you are looking forward to expanding your knowledge base, read about topics of your interest on the internet, watch videos and take up courses that will help you get better at your career. Learning a job related new skill will help you build expertise in your field.

• Grow your career – Employers are on a constant lookout for employees who aim at growing in their job role. It is not just about filling in the work hours but about really making an impact on your work. You can make an impact by learning what is dominating the industry you are in. It will not only increase your confidence but also bring professional satisfaction to you. Furthermore, it will open a pandora box of better, high paying jobs.

• Join an online program – There is a whole world of online learning, waiting to be explored! All you need to do is take advantage of the resources available to you. And what better way to do the same than by joining an online program that sharpens your skillset! It will give you a fair chance to polish your resume, and develop a reputation as a professional who is a problem solver. It is because of this growing adoption of online learning that the global corporate learning market is expected to grow to $50 billion by 2026, with an annual growth rate of 15%.^[1]

• Stretch your role – What’s the point of doing a monotonous job where there is no exposure to a challenging situation? But, as it happens at times, that we are not ready to look beyond a job description we signed up for! Don’t fall into that zone and always be ready to stretch your role, by taking on new responsibilities to gain experience.

• Find a mentor – You must be thinking: I don’t need one! I am doing fine the way I am working currently. But we don’t want to stagnate at our jobs and grow, right? Working with mentors will transform your life. A number of studies have stated that mentoring offers multiple benefits to the mentees, including improved attitudes, better motivation to work and get better career outcomes. 

Final words

As you decide to learn a new skill, you want to be sure that it is in demand in the present market so that you actually benefit after taking up an online program. As per Linkedin Emerging Jobs Report 2020, the roles in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science have ranked amongst the top 3 in every region of the world.

Thus, even if you are a newbie or a professional in these domains, you can upskill yourself by taking up the AI programs: Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Business Applications OR Post Graduate Program for Leaders, offered by Texas McCombs, in collaboration with Great Learning. These are the best artificial intelligent courses online. For data science, you can take the Post Graduate Program for Data Science & Business Analytics, offered by Texas McCombs, in collaboration with Great Learning. This data science program is one of the best online data science courses that will allow you to learn data science.

These programs follow a structured learning approach with lectures by the faculty from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, which will give you comprehensive knowledge in the chosen field. Also, there are mentoring sessions every weekend that will introduce you to leading industry experts in the field of artificial intelligence and data science. You’ll be able to learn from their experiences and also gain valuable insights from their experience, which will help you grow in your career. Interacting with mentors can set you up on the right path. By the end of these programs, you’ll be rewarded with a certificate from The University of Texas at Austin.

The one thing that sets these courses in the field of AI and data science apart from others is that they offer a dedicated Program Manager, who will be your go-to person regarding academic queries. Not only this, your Program Manager will also handhold you through the entire learning and upskilling journey. 

The end product of this, as you can visualize, will be a wholesome learning experience that will definitely help you tick all the boxes of making your professional life better in 2021. So, to this I say that: NOW is the time to make a change in your career trajectory by joining the domains which are the most popular in the current times and are only expected to grow as the year rolls by.

Which course have you resolved to take up and upskill yourself in 2022? How are you planning to apply the habit of #21For21?

Do let us know in the comments.

Source:

[1]: Stratistics Market Research Consulting Pvt Ltd. (2019). Corporate E-Learning – Global Market Outlook (2017-2026). 

At Great Learning, we help you with one on one career guidance sessions where industry experts guide aspiring professionals with the right moves to secure a highly rewarding job. Our team assists professionals with effective resume building, inform them about available roles and organise mock interviews to prepare them for their dream job. If you are a fresh graduate, an entry-level employee, or an experienced professional looking for growth or career transition, upskill with our courses. We have tailored some of the best in class programs in the field of data science, business analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. 

Also Read: What is Career Planning