Top 10 Checklist for a Good Careers Advisor

Making sure that you are on the right career path and managing that is a very important aspect of one’s life.  When seeking professional help and advice to ensure that you are going in the right direction and that you can achieve our goals successfully – it is crucial to feel that the person you are talking to is the best. 

How do you know if you have a good career coach or careers advisor?

Check through the following points when considering working with someone on a career challenge:

1. Understanding – do they get you?  Do they know you?
2. Feeling comfortable – can you talk to them openly and easily?
3. Experience – have they been there, done that? Check that they can relate to your situation and have had actual career experience
4. Knowledge, skills, insight – that they can transfer to you.  Is there knowledge to draw from? Are there skills that they can teach you and help you with? Check that they are in a position to really help you move forwards
5. Connections – are they well connected and can they help you with all aspects of your world.  Your career, health, finance and more.  A good careers advisor or careers coach will consider all aspects that affect your work, not just your job on its own.
6. Whose interest do they have in mind first? To get the best professional help your careers advisor needs to have your best interests in mind, not theirs.  If they are keeping you clinging on for more and more endless help – they are not really helping you.  If they give you a quick fix such as the first job that comes to mind, handed on a plate – that isn’t having your true interests in mind
7. Listening – are they really taking careful note of what you say and what you are looking for? 
8. Long-term outlook – when planning career goals and helping an individual, to do it well one should consider the long-term.  This means building a long term relationship and looking out for your future as well as current interests. Make sure the career coach or career advisor you work with knows this. 
9. Creativity – you do not want any biased or restricted views.  Finding what you are after is best done with creativity, exploration and openness.  A rigid outlook will not help you.
10. Trust – when working on something as important as your career it is crucial to have trust between you and whom you work with.  You need to feel as though they care about what you are working on achieving and trust that they are the right person to help you get there

If you are looking for a change in careers or a new way forwards - you will have some challenging career choices and decisions to make. In many cases you will already have the skills needed to make a successful career change. You just need a good Career guide to help you make your move. In other cases, you may want to look at further studying. If you are in the US, one place to check out is the South University in Florida, which offers accelerated MBA programs which may be of interest to you.

If you want to talk to one of our advisors contact us to make a free initial discussion now: enquiries@positionignition.com.  Learn more about: what we do and the career advice  we help with.  

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