Career advices can be very helpful in making important career decisions and in following through those decisions as well. How effective and useful a particular career advice is dependent on its type, source and relevance to a person's individual situation. There are some things that you should inquire about before going for career advice. Let's take a closer look at them.
Kind of Career Advice
Career advices can be generic such as those found on internet or career advice books or personalized as in case of career advice consultants or agencies. Depending on the situation one or the other kind of career advice would be more suited for you.
- Generic Career Advice
These career advices are general purpose and are not suited to a particular person but targeted to a wider audience. As these do not take in account the individualized characteristics of people these are better suited to situations that are not much affected by, or vary with, different persons. For example sample questions relevant to a job interview or resume building tips. These can also be useful for providing career related information such as names of best colleges in a particular field.
- Personalized Career Advice
Some career advices, for example those about choosing a career line or a particular job profile have to be tailored to the needs of an individual. For these, it is best take the help of some career consultant or career advice agency. These are not free but more often than not worth their price if they can help you guide in your career.
You should take special care when going for personalized career advice and consider following points.
- Authenticity
There are an unfortunate of career advice agencies that charge a lot of money and provide little return in terms of useful career advices. You should enquire about the authenticity of the agency before choosing one. The best way to select an agency would be to select one that has been referred to by someone you already know. You can also search online for additional information about the agency. Also do not pay much attention to any thank you letters or achievements they show or tell you about in the agency unless you can verify it independently.
- Method
Personalized advises are tailored to individual and there are several test and other methods that a career expert can use to determine what would be the right career advice for you. Knowing what methods an agency or expert uses to determine the appropriate career advice for a candidate can give you an idea of its reliability. In general you should be careful if the career advice does not involve face to face or at the very least telephone discussion with actual expert.
- Source
You should consider the source of the career advice. You should enquire if the said expert has the right qualification and also if he has experience related to your career field.
Need for Career Advice
When going for career advice you should also consider the need of the career advice. The source of career advice that is right would depend on the purpose of the career advice as well. Let's see some of the situations wherein we may require career advice and consider the right source of advice for them.
- Choosing a Career Line
Choosing a career advice is a highly personal and important decision with very long term impact. For this you should gather as much information as you can and seek professional advice as well if think it is appropriate. But in the end you should make the decision that seem right to you in light of all the information, as you will be the one who will have to live with the decision, and when all is said and done there are good prospects in all career lines.
- Selecting a Job Profile
When choosing a particular job profile you should pay more attention to advice of experts and your seniors as this choice is more related to jobs available in market and also changing a job profile is comparatively easier than changing a career line.
- Choosing Course / College
You can find enough information on the internet and by discussing the matter with your seniors or friends to choose the courses relevant to your job profile. The choice of college would depend to a large extent on your own abilities and other conditions. If you can find some affordable professional career advice for choosing the course and college, it would not be a bad idea to take advantage of it.
- Searching for Job
For finding a job you should join some career consultancy as well as keep searching yourself. Never rely on a single agency. Register with multiple career agencies to get the best results. Make sure that they inform you before sending your resume to the employers as getting your resume from multiple sources can irritate your prospective employer. Also, there are agencies that charge the companies or employers and you have to pay only a token registration fee or sometimes not even that. So, be sure to register with them as it'll cost little and will only improve your chances of getting an interview call.
As for the agencies that charge the candidate, be very careful of those that demand payment before getting you a job. The job consultancy that charge you the equivalent of your first month's salary, before giving you the joining letter are much more reliable as getting you a higher paying job is in their interest as well and you do not have to pay them if they don't get you a job.
- Resume
The right form of resume for a particular job would be same irrespective of the individual, and you can find more tips, tricks, advices etc about writing resume. Sample resumes are as well available on the internet and they are for free hence use these. As always, you should not rely on a single source. So, check multiple websites and get second opinions from your friends as well.
- Facing Job Interview
The job interviews are the most important part of the job selection process. You can find lots and lots of articles about how to prepare for specific job interviews, listings of personal, behavioral and technical questions expected in a job interview, how to conduct yourself during a job interview, etc. Take advantage of them. The important thing is to make sure that the tips or advices that you are considering to follow are actually relevant to the job you are applying for. There is little requirement of professional career advice as long as you spend some time and effort on preparing and practicing for interview, and in any case without this personal effort, professional advice won't do you any good either.
- Salary Negotiations
Although career advice can be of help in salary negotiations, you'll be much better of taking advice from your colleagues, friends or seniors.
- Career Change
Professional career advice can be useful in career change if you can afford it, so just keep in mind that you'll be one affected by the decision, so do not rely blindly on the career advice.
Overall we see that there are several things that we should consider before going for career advice. In all cases however you should seek second opinions whenever possible and consider all the advices but in the end, make up your own mind.
