Once a professional attains the status of a counselor, from an institution, they generally work with people who have finished college, even though some may be involved with advising students who are seeking to start a career immediately. Career, guidance, school and educational counselors both campaign for students, or other organizations and individuals, to promote career, social and academic development.
Particularly, educational, vocational, guidance and school counselors, analyze a student's abilities, personalities and interests to establish realistic career and academic goals. They employ interviews, aptitude assessment tests, counseling sessions and interview sessions to evaluate and direct students. They also run a career education program, as well as, work with younger students with social development and academic problems or other specialized needs. Those who seek a school counselor degree would help in finding agencies, special education programs or organizations that would help in preparing them for a future occupation in spite of their disabilities.
However, career counselors also offer career advice outside the contemporary school setting. Their main focus is assisting in the making of career decisions; the counselors evaluate and explore the client's work, education, skills, interests and personality traits. In addition, they may organize for an achievement and aptitude tests to aid in assessing the best career options for an individual. The counselors work with groups or individuals to develop their job-search resumes and skills and help individuals in their job hunt. A major part of a career counselor's task is to guide and support those experiencing job stresses, job loss or other career transition issues. As such, a vocational, educational, school and guidance counselor should posses high knowledge of the performance and behavior of an individual as well as the individual differences in performance and ability, an individual's personality traits would also come in handy, since it would help determine the mode of counseling.
