Free Career Counselling
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If you search Google for “Free Career Counselling”, you will find thousands of links and it very quickly get very confusing. Having worked in this domain for 15 years, I hope I can get you out of this confusion.
It is actually sad that you searched “Free Career Counselling”. Career is the most important decision of one’s life, however, you would rather take that decision on the basis of free advice than solid research. It is sad to see how mainstream media has messed up with our brains. I know of a parent who flew all the way from India to USA to visit an Ivy League University, and the same parent was reluctant to invest $140 on a Career Plan which could help her child figure out what do in his life. We will not buy a cheap mobile, but we will make the most important decision of our life on the basis of free advice. Anyways, we are, where we are.
99.9% of “Free Career Counselling” sites have a standard format, they will give you a psychometric test and then an algorithm / black box will churn out some recommendations. Of course, you have the option of deciding your future on the basis of a black box. However, in almost all cases, you do not, you still go with your gut feeling or with whatever your environment tells you to do. Is that any better? Not actually.
Your decision can be a result of anything: black box, gut, infatuation, family, friends, parents, relatives. However, there should be some measure which tells you how good your Career decision is. Here is what the Career Oath (https://www.careeroath.org) proposes: Once you have decided on a Career, write an essay on “Career in _____” and make sure you can write at least 20 sensible lines about it (lines which a 10-year-old will not know). This sounds logical and I strongly recommend that you keep doing your Career research until you can pass the 20 line test.
Your Career research will take time and there will be distractions. However, a child needs to understand that this decision will impact almost everything in his or her life. And, a parent needs to understand that until the child passes the 20 line test, the child is actually flying blindfolded. I strongly suggest that both the parent and the child, take the Career Oath, print it and stick it in the study. It will keep reminding you of the measurable outcome above. Here is how it looks like:
Of all the free Career resources on the internet, I believe that the Career Oath falls in the 0.1% category of resources for Free Career Counselling which is not driven by a black box, which gives you a measurable outcome, which gives you a method to keep yourself motivated for the measurable outcome and which provides a completely free solution on how to do Career Exploration, Career Selection and Career Planning.
To summarize, choose any free tool, however make sure that you pass the 20 line test for whatever you choose to do. Good Luck!
