- Work with an experienced career counselor who can help you understand what you've discovered about yourself.
- Link your self-assessment results to carefully chosen resources and activities that can help you create an Action Plan.
- Create an Action Plan with specific goals and strategies to achieve them.
- Develop a support system including an experienced career counselor who can help guide you through your process.
Many individuals are finding that receiving effective career counseling is often challenging as it relates to busy schedules and geographic barriers. For this reason, distance career counseling has emerged as a productive method of delivering beneficial counseling and guidance. Distance career counseling takes the best practices of face-to-face counseling and adapts them for delivery via electronic means. By utilizing the telephone with Internet based support, counseling and guidance can be conducted in the comfort of the client's own surroundings at times most convenient for them. Based on positive, constructive, and useful feedback gained from clients, and drawing on their own insightful evaluations, professionals in the field recommend the following specific distance career counseling practices.
A clear and comprehensive website, which fully informs potential clients about the design and delivery of services, ethical and legal issues such as privacy and confidentiality, fee structure, the professional counseling relationship and other issues relevant to informed consent. This information helps clients to develop realistic expectations as well as a level of comfort and confidence about the counseling they will receive.
A comprehensive, technology-assisted pre-counseling in-take registration and assessment protocol, which includes the use of validated Internet instruments and open-ended questionnaires. These approaches allow clients to share expressed interests, skills and values as well as additional qualitative information, which is based on their actual employment experience.
Personalized selection and assignment of a well-matched counselor, which helps to ensure the building of an effective working alliance. The client may begin establishing a relationship with a counselor who is competent in, familiar with and able to anticipate individualized, specific career counseling needs.
Technology-assisted strategies, which facilitate efficient and personalized communication between counselor and client. The use of e-mail, telecounseling or video-conferencing technologies allow for various types of welcome messages and session planning contacts, which prepare both client and counselor for the actual counseling sessions.
Maintaining counselor-client contact between sessions, which continues to support the counseling relationship. Using technology-assisted means such as e-mail or personal page message posting, both counselor and client may share information, clarify questions and make progress towards counseling goals. These practices extend the counseling over time and space in an efficient and convenient manner. Clients do not have to wait for office hours or next week's appointment, if they need more timely assistance.
Providing clients with thoughtful, written feedback from their counseling sessions, which allows for a meaningful and insightful review of the counseling experience with implications for follow-up action. Clients receive a summary of the counseling contacts, which may include stated goals, to what degree and how they were met, barriers and challenges to these goals, specific action steps as part of a plan with a timetable, and a synthesis of career assessment that is appropriately related to resources and strategies for exploration, decision-making and/or self-marketing. Such a document keeps the client on course and may continue to provide motivation even after the counseling comes to a close.
There are no quick tricks or magic wands when it comes to making good career decisions. It takes hard work, a mind that is "ready" to think and explore and perhaps the help of a professional. But as you begin to get results you will feel empowered, less uncertain and most importantly, you will begin to learn the career self-management process. It is one you will be engaged in for many years to come as you continue to make your career and educational choices. Remember, it's about your future, your life, your talents, and your dreams.
Written by ReadyMinds Staff. For further information about ReadyMinds, a distance career counseling organization, or the service offerings they are providing, please click here.
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