Myth 1: A certain age is required to take career counselling :

There is no strong foundation behind this. Career counselling is important for any student who has an understanding of careers and is eager to know what is best for him/ her. Definitely, small kids are not given career counselling because they are not at an age to decide a career for themselves. However, all the students after grade 6 are suitable to take career counselling and get to know about their interests, passions and skills while understanding what kind of careers are available. These students can also take advantage of career counselling to know the advancements taking place in the career field and what new opportunities they will be having by the time they are ready to take up a career. Older students can use career counselling to take their decisions in an informative way.

Myth 2: Only school students are suitable for career counselling :

This myth is considered to be true many educated people as well since they find career counselling to be related to education. The truth is career counselling has no relation to studies, in fact it helps an individual to know his own strengths and weaknesses. This realisation can be important for any person whether he is a student, a graduate or a professional. People have been using career counselling to explore different career fields that they can go to with their skill set. Many professionals use career counselling to understand what kind of skills can be beneficial for them to seek promotion. Many professional find their career unsuitable for them and thus need to change their career. At this time, career counselling helps in mapping an ideal career for them and tells them how to pursue it with their current education levels.

Myth 3: Career counselling is only for unconventional careers :

Many parents have a perception that career counselling basically pushes their children towards artistic fields or sports. It is widely assumed that career counselling is a kind of revolting process to stop students taking conventional and traditional career aspects. However, this is again not true. Career counselling follows a scientific process of psychometric testing. Every student has an individual report and they are not pushed towards any specific field but they are told about their inherent kills and what kind of careers can be good for them. Further, students are not forced to take up those career options, rather they are given a session where their aspirations and aims are discussed with them and a professional career counsellor suggests the career fields which matches psychometric testing and aspirations of the students.

Myth 4: Anybody with an access to internet can become a career counsellor :

This is absolutely not true. A career counsellor needs to be trained to understand the psychometric test and to deduct information from it. There are several courses, diplomas and training through which an expert career counsellor goes through and in fact, their regular training keeps son going through different seminars and webinars. This is one of the reason that career counselling is now being accepted as a separate element of studies and students are not supposed to rely on their parents and teachers for career advice. The Internet is certainly important for career counsellors so as to remain updated and get to know about emerging career options, yet everybody with the internet cannot become a career counsellor. Apart from an educational background, career counsellors need to be passionate and sincere towards their work and be unbiased towards any particular career stream.

Myth 5: Career counsellor is focussed at getting jobs and placements :

This is the point where many people take career counselling on the wrong road. Career counselling has nothing to do with helping students in placements or jobs. Career counselling helps students to realise their potential and select the right career accordingly. Also, it guides students about the scope in that particular career and what kind of job profiles they can expect to get. However, career counsellors are not related to recruitment agencies most of the time and their major target is only to help the students in selecting the right career. It is focussed on informing students about different career prospects and how they can improve their skills. The difference between career counselling and recruitment needs to be understood by the student as well as their parents and they should have any wrong expectations from the career counsellors.

All these myths have long resided in the minds of people and they have impacted many students in the country because of wrong perceptions about career counselling. Career counselling is an essential element for a growing student as they should have a knowledge about what they want to do as a job in their life. They should be knowing about all the career options that they have and where they can achieve their goals.

MYTH : The Career Development Office can give me a hidden list of jobs that would be perfect for me.

FACT : While we have online job board and work to uncover hidden opportunities for students (which we make public for all STU students), our expertise is working with you to discover, clarify, and prioritize your own values, priorities, interests and skills so that you can develop your own unique vision of what you want for your future.  We can then teach you how to identify hidden opportunities that are consistent with that vision.

MYTH : Everyone else knows what they want to do with their lives, and I should too.

FACT : Every person’s career journey is different.  Because career development is a lifelong process, it is normal to feel uncertainty and anxiety about career decisions at various points in your life.   While uncertainty can be scary and overwhelming for some folks, we’re here to help you work through the ambiguity. We encourage you to be kind to yourself and remember that you’ve already made career decisions successfully in the past (finishing high school, choosing STU) and you will make many more career decisions in the future.

MYTH : The Career Development Office can give me a bunch of tests and then tell me what I’m meant to do.

FACT : While career assessments can help quickly identify traits about yourself, we find that students rarely base career decisions solely from assessment results. Additionally, career development is complex because people are complex.  There is no one occupation that each person is destined to fulfill, which we know can be both a disappointment and relief.  Humans are much more flexible and adaptable than that, and multiple occupations could make you happy. Lastly, we also don’t “tell” you what you “should” do (as you are the only person qualified to make career decisions for yourself) but we help you explore yourself and your options with the goal of co-creating a plan for your future.

MYTH : I must go to graduate school: you can’t do anything with just a bachelor’s degree.

FACT : While for some occupations graduate school is required, many of our graduates have entered the workforce in the private, public and non-profit sectors right after graduation and have had rewarding careers.