Today’s world is becoming more and more digital, smart, innovative and at the same time, trying to be more mindful, healthy and environment friendly. This has opened up a host of new career opportunities. Today’s youth is opening up to the idea of entrepreneurship, freelancing and the parents are also more open and supportive than ever before. Exposure to various media sources, globalisation and urbanisation have led to the availability of a wide range of unique, creative and uncommon careers, which were completely unheard of before.

At such times, the older generation is sometimes at a loss when their child wants to pursue a career which is unheard of. It also becomes confusing when a person wants to switch careers. These scenarios call for expert guidance. This is where a career counsellor comes in.

A career counsellor or a career coach is basically a facilitator who will help you identify and achieve your goals. They help students to explore various career options depending on their aptitude, professionals looking for a career change, women who wish to resume work after a maternity or any other break or even veterans looking for retirement.

Some benefits of having a career coach include-

Personalised inputs-a career coach will conduct aptitude tests and based on your results, guide you about your strong areas. These results vary individually and are a great tool to find out the potential strengths and weaknesses. This is helpful while making a career choice.

Setting goals-it becomes easy to achieve your dream if you have set goals. Setting long term and short term goals helps in creating the right path and your career coach will help you to stay focused on it.

Exploring options-with the plethora of career choices available, it is possible that you may not be aware of many of them. But a career coach is updated about these. Depending on your interests, your career coach will help you explore these options. They will also assess the options that you present and discuss the pros and cons of each. Their knowledge and insights will help you choose the one that suits you the best.

Completing the formalities-once the career path is decided, there are other formalities like applications, preparing a CV, interviews, etc. Your career coach will help you prepare for all these and guide you about the latest guidelines for the same.

It is not possible to keep changing the careers frequently, since it often requires a new skill set to be acquired. Thus it is essential to take an informed decision and choose wisely. A good career consultant will guide you to take the right path and develop your career.

Kedar Takalkar is one of the best and most experienced Career Advisors in Pune. He is the recipient of Times of India’s Best Career Counsellor Award and he, along with his team have been offering career counselling for students based on their interests, qualifications, skills, family structure, etc.