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Your career is probably the biggest financial investment you'll ever make – representing as much as 80,000 hours of your time.

Time squandered on poor career decisions can cost thousands or even millions of dollars in lost income over the span of your working life. But with professional career counseling or coaching, you can improve the return on your investment.

Career counseling is in greater demand in the wake of recent economic turmoil and layoffs. But the stereotypical middle manager, in his 40s or 50s and downsized into despair, isn't the only one seeking career counseling these days

After years of corporate restructuring, re-engineering and reorganization, few people still expect to keep a job with a single company for life. Instead, many in today's work force are taking more active roles in designing their futures.

Often, people who seek career counseling are planning for the next job, the one after that and the one after that – linking professional growth and development activities along a continuum of career steps.

Added to this is a greater emphasis on meaningful work, personal fulfillment and balance between life and work – values that have gained significance since the terrorist events in the United States on September 11, 2001. Sure, people want to earn decent incomes, but they want to have lives, too.


Related Career Coaching Tools: From the Experts.


What Career Counselors Do

Career counselors can help people create and carry out plans related to their lives and career directions. They can guide people toward suitable fields, assist in job searches or help resolve career challenges that are holding them back. Because clients pay for these services, they can expect counselors or coaches to work for them, supporting their best interests.

Counselors' strategies vary, but they usually do one or more of the following:

* Conduct personal counseling sessions, with individuals and groups, to help clarify life and career goals
* Administer and interpret tests and inventories to assess clients' interests and abilities and help identify career options
* Provide information on career planning and occupations
* Help improve decision-making skills
* Help develop individualized career plans
* Teach job-hunting strategies and skills and help develop resumés
* Teach human relations skills that can help resolve potential personal conflicts on the job
* Help integrate work with their other roles in life
* Provide support for people going through job stress, job loss or career transition

Click Here to Read Part 2 of 3 on this Article:How to Find A Career Counselor

Related Career Coaching Tools: From the Experts.