A Career Counselor Can Provide You With Helpful Information, But They Can't Pave The Way For Your Future

The moment you arrive at college, you begin to realize how important career planning truly is. Whether it's creating a worthy resume or finally making a Linkedin account, the career planning process begins early, so that in theory, by the time you graduate, you have a concrete idea of what path you want to take. If you're anything like me, you strive to be ahead of the game and make use of all the resources your university provides to you, including the career services office and career counselors.

A career counselor's job is fundamentally to guide college students through the career exploration process, provide them with useful websites where they can learn about career clusters they may have never considered, analyze personality test results and review resumes and cover letters. As someone who has never been sure about what they want in a career, going to a career counselor seemed like a logical step in the process of planning out my future.

During my appointment with my career advisor, it quickly became clear to me that although their job was to point me in the right direction and help me understand what I want to do, their guidance is limited. I came to the appointment with the expectation that they would be able to work their magic and hand me a perfectly crafted roadmap that would jumpstart my career. Ultimately, they could only point me to resources for more information and give me general advice to take courses that I was interested in.

Even though I left more confused about my future after I left the office than when I had initially made the appointment, I came to the conclusion that although the career process seems sequential and clear-cut, it is complex and should be viewed as a highly personalized journey. There's no such thing as taking the easy way out and no one appointment will give you all the answers that you may be looking for. Rather, it is your own personal responsibility to seek out resources, internship experiences, talk to people in different fields that interest you and take initiative. No one's plan will look exactly the same and even when you feel secure in where you want to go in the future, it's okay for your goals and aspirations to change.

At the end of the day, it's important to keep in mind that while the trek to the "perfect career" may seem impossible, it should be rewarding and enjoyed.