Early Days
I've been browsing through graduate career forums and I am struck by the lack of direction and feeling of futility. Our national talent seems to be stumbling about in the dark, equipped only with Huge Potential, and a clutch of Qualifications.
Yet, careers advisor is now an established career path in itself. Every school, college and university has a department where you can go for careers advice. So what's going on?
Thinking back to my first experience of "careers advice", I'm sure things have improved slightly. In 1966, you would have found me wandering about the careers bay (two small magazine racks of college bumph) at school.
"Become a Journalist at the University of London" - now that caught my eye. I was a bit of a wordsmith. And this looked a bit quirky, new and innovative. I hadn't really considered journalism as a career before (think News of the World hack, trilby, George Cole raincoat).
Coincidentally, the careers mistress (yes, it was that kind of school) appeared. She'd never been identified as the careers mistress, but hey! you pick these things up as you go along.
"Thinking of becoming a journalist", I said, with girlish enthusiasm.
"Ha ha", she said. And walked off. And that was the sum total of my careers advice at school. A mocking laugh and a retreating back.
A careers coach would have been a very useful person at that moment. But we had to wait another 30 years for the profession to emerge.
Right then a few powerful questions might have altered my career path for life. "What do you really want? What are you good at? What's your vision for the future?" Somebody to encourage me, and challenge me to persevere.
What kind of career advice are you getting? Are you sick and tired of standard advice? Or no advice at all?
What's your Worst Career Advice ever?
That's it for now! And let me know if I can help.
We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.
Calvin Coolidge (30th USA President)
I've been browsing through graduate career forums and I am struck by the lack of direction and feeling of futility. Our national talent seems to be stumbling about in the dark, equipped only with Huge Potential, and a clutch of Qualifications.
Yet, careers advisor is now an established career path in itself. Every school, college and university has a department where you can go for careers advice. So what's going on?
Thinking back to my first experience of "careers advice", I'm sure things have improved slightly. In 1966, you would have found me wandering about the careers bay (two small magazine racks of college bumph) at school.
"Become a Journalist at the University of London" - now that caught my eye. I was a bit of a wordsmith. And this looked a bit quirky, new and innovative. I hadn't really considered journalism as a career before (think News of the World hack, trilby, George Cole raincoat).
Coincidentally, the careers mistress (yes, it was that kind of school) appeared. She'd never been identified as the careers mistress, but hey! you pick these things up as you go along.
"Thinking of becoming a journalist", I said, with girlish enthusiasm.
"Ha ha", she said. And walked off. And that was the sum total of my careers advice at school. A mocking laugh and a retreating back.
A careers coach would have been a very useful person at that moment. But we had to wait another 30 years for the profession to emerge.
Right then a few powerful questions might have altered my career path for life. "What do you really want? What are you good at? What's your vision for the future?" Somebody to encourage me, and challenge me to persevere.
What kind of career advice are you getting? Are you sick and tired of standard advice? Or no advice at all?
What's your Worst Career Advice ever?
That's it for now! And let me know if I can help.
We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.
Calvin Coolidge (30th USA President)
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