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so i've been thinking of a change in career and thinking of seeing a career councelor

but then I'm faced with a puzzling paradox: how can a good career councelor exist? if someone is an expert at knowing the various fields which offer the best opportunities, why would such a person choose career councelor as a job? certainly there are jobs that offer a better salary and benefits, no? I just imagine someone studying to be a career councelor and once he finishes his studies goes on to do some other job having realized through the course of his studies that career councelor wasn,t the best option. 🤔

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iamnikki · 31-35, F Best Comment

I'm sure no one goes to school to be a career counselor. That's one of those jobs that kinda just happens.
Fun fact: when I was in community college bout a decade ago, I visited the career counselor. I was very indecisive all time about what I wanted to do. I briefly considered a General Studies degree.
The counselor told me, "[u]do not[/u] get a general studies degree, that's what I got and that's why I'm sitting here" 😭
So um, yeaa

reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M

@iamnikki wonderful story, supports what I was thinking, thanks for sharing. I gotta give you best answer for that one 😂

iamnikki · 31-35, F

@reflectingmonkey lol you're welcome. True story, I promise. She kept in contact a few years after I graduated. She even asked me for a pic to hang up on her career wall. I was too lazy to give her one 🫣🤪

katydidnt · 61-69, F

@iamnikki At that early age I too might've sided with your career counselor, but if she had been a good counselor she would have cautioned you to avoid generalizing based on a sample of one. The worldwide value of a general-studies approach in early life remains unchanged by one person's lack of a good result.

PoetryNEmotion · F

They are experts in helping you and providing guidance and options. You are seasoned. It is hard to start a new career this late in life. Seniority counts. It often means better benefits and top salary. Do think carefully on this.

Fluffybull · F

@PoetryNEmotion 👏👏👏👌👍

PoetryNEmotion · F

@Fluffybull I need no accolades for stating the facts. I eould have liked to finish my career as an RN and retire. I could not. So I had to return to my other career. It pays a lot less. It does have benefits and I work alone. I miss saving lives and being an RN though.

reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M

@PoetryNEmotion oh, I'm not worried about that, I am not a typical person. I've had many different carrers and I am young at heart. my Gf and my two best friends are all women in their mid-twenties. I do multiple-day treks in jungles and up mountains and I'm an extreme downhill skiier. tried paraglidding for the first time two years ago and next year going to get my scuba diving cards.

robertsnj · 56-60, M

what are you doing right now? do you have any certs, a degree?

when you say better pay and benefits / i guess blunt question (which you don't have to answer) would you say you are unskilled labor or do you have a skill that sellabe to the employment market?

Ynotisay · M

A lot of people are driven by benefits other than money. I would imagine that helping people find and access a career choice, that can change someone's life trajectory, would be pretty fulfilling.

calicuz · 51-55, M

You have a point. 🤔

ArtieKat · M

Some people (and I would count all good teacher in this bag) are not motivated mainly by cash but job satisfaction. If you have no faith in the role itself then I doubt you could gain anything from seeing one.

JoyfulSilence · 46-50, M

Maybe nobody wants the job and these people see an opening and takes it!

Unlearn · 41-45, M

Focus on yourself...

SandWitch · 26-30, F

The question you are asking yourself is on par with the job of being a Financial Planner.

Why would you go to a Certified Financial Planner for investment advise if the guy you sought investment advise from lived in a basement apartment and owed money on his credit card each month?

The truth is, Certified Financial Planners are not typically 'rich' people because they typically work for someone else, but they alleged to know how to make YOU rich if you invest with them.

Therefore, why do most people go to a bank to solicit the services of a Financial Planner if Financial Planners are not rich and they are working 40 hours a week for someone else like the bank who is their employer? If they were rich, they wouldn't be an employee of a bank, right? Yet we go to them for financial advise.

The same analogy goes with one becoming a Career Counselor. If a Career Counselor knew where all the best jobs were being generated from, why would they be content to sit in a high school counselor's office advising students in what education direction they should be focusing on to become successful in life?

Just because a Financial Planner knows how to make YOU money, doesn't mean that he knows how to make himself money. What his calling in life really revolves around is providing financial advise to others, yet not making money for himself.

The same thing applies to Career Counselors. Pointing people in what they perceive to be the correct direction is their calling in life. But it doesn't mean they take their own advise when push comes to shove!

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SandWitch · 26-30, F

@reflectingmonkey
As I have inferred in my profile notes, my first language is Swedish. I learned English as a second language which was a mandatory subject in school, but my ability to practice speaking or writing English was limited because I lived in northern Sweden at the Arctic Circle and adjacent to the border with Finland which is a rural, non-cosmopolitan environment.

reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M

@SandWitch wow, that is awesome!! it must be beautiful over there. so I imagine you get some days that are always sunlight and days that are always night? is there good downhill skiing ?

SandWitch · 26-30, F

@reflectingmonkey
That is true, some nights are painfully long (which can also be good!)and some days are painfully short (which can also be good!). Sweden is mainly a country with hilly countryside but the only true mountainous area for downhill skiing is along the Swedish border with Norway where the mountains rise about 6000 feet.

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