I would like to share with you, my personal experience on why I feel career counselling is essential and can help you enjoy your career!
This is my story and I hope to convey the importance of Career Counselling.
My mother was a very hardworking career woman and to balance work and home she used to cook breakfast and lunch in the morning before she rushed for work. Those days, we didn’t have refrigerators where cooked food or even marinated food could be stored, so we children, didn’t have much of a platter for lunch! On Saturdays, when we children had a holiday, I wanted to bring flavour to the food, so, I experimented on small chutneys to the great delight of my brothers and that was how my interest for cooking was nurtured. I collected recipe books by writing to the companies like Weikfield and Nestle responding to the prompt on the packets of custard powder, milk maid and so on which said, ‘Write to us for a free recipe book’. I sent them post cards, with my address and waited patiently for the postman to deliver me the priced recipe books. From Woman’s era, Femina, Maharashtra Herald, I wrote down recipes and experimented on them with great enthusiasm. I knew the names of all the ingredients be it cumin, cardamon, dill, asafodita and so on!
Another interest I nurtured those days was to be a news reader, Rini Simon was my favourite news reader and I dreamt of being one too. I watched the English news on Doordarshan and picked up poise and diction from her. I loved gardening too esp. growing herbs of medicinal value and always referred to J.B Lobo’s Home Encyclopaedia for home remedies.
But sadly, I didn’t score very well in the X boards and without a murmur took up commerce at the advice of well-wishers. Midway, I developed a liking for English and psychology and read voraciously on these subjects but didn’t muster the courage to change my stream.
I went to management school and even though I got a degree from a premier institute, I didn’t really enjoy my career. Having waded through many jobs, I decided to follow my heart’s prompting to be a career counsellor and to my delight, discovered my suitability for this field. I had a demo assessment done for career counselling for myself and the comprehensive report having measured my personality, interests, values and emotional intelligence revealed a shocking truth – Home Science, Journalism, Content writing, Counselling, Ayurveda were my top choices for careers.
These were the ones, I nurtured in my heart as a young girl but due to lack of career counselling, I waded through a wrong career, wasted a lot of opportunities and productive years where I could thrive and enjoy.
Having gone through this learning experience, I ‘m glad that today, I’m able to contribute to the careers of my children as well as to many other young boys and girls, even to professionals in guiding them to careers where their personalities and interests match wonderfully whereby, they can have Fruitful Careers!
What I want to state here, is that a comprehensive Career report guided by the counselling of a Certified Career Analyst Can V A L I D A T E what you or your child is naturally good at or what – they- are- not – suitable at all. And if you have no clue of career choice, then a Career Analyst can help you tremendously. Everyone is blessed with a unique personality, value systems, skills and abilities. We have our own learning style which will help us grow in the field that we are called to honour! So, let’s stop chasing the rat race and instead follow careers where are S T R E N G T H S lie
As for me, I feel it’s never too late to follow one’s dreams, I’m happy to delve once again in the areas where my passion lies. What about you?