Career counseling involves expert guidance to students in undertaking informed decisions to thrive in their careers with the necessary education, training, and other activities like internships, on-the-job training, etc.

It aims to support the aspirants to explore their potential areas, weak points, skills, and behavioral traits and thereby determine the best career-related goals for them matching their strengths and choices. According to Harit Gaba, career counseling is a compressive session that can be characterized in five stages. To explore them, keep reading 

The Career Counselling Process

The process of career counseling involves five important stages, and each phase plays a vital role in facilitating students to achieve their career goals successfully. Pursuing these steps in appropriate order is vital to get optimal results. The stages are stated below 

Initiation Phase

• This is the primary stage when students are required to get associated with career counselors in order to develop a good rapport and stay easy to work in conjunction.
• For a counselor, the collection of relevant data through questionnaires, or forms is crucial to gain a thorough insight into the background, educational and professional qualification, experience and present situation is important. 
• The objective is to develop awareness and make sure both the student and counselor gain a clear snapshot of the career objectives.

Exploration Stage

• Based on established connections, the exploration phase digs into more comprehensive analysis while assessing different aspects of the student in terms of his/her interests, personality, skills, career choices, etc. 
• In this phase, a career counselor may consider tests to gather deeper insights into the social skills, interpersonal skills, and career-centric experiences of the candidate.
• During this stage, face-to-face interactions are the key for the candidate and the counselor to explore possible career paths and feasible choices for future job prospects of the candidate.

Decision-Making Phase

• Backed by a thorough understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, interests, and available opportunities, this phase helps in making informed career choices. 
• A counselor guides a student in assessing different career paths available for him/her, knowing the pros and cons, and thereby reaching unanimity on the most appropriate direction.
• Also, in this phase, a counselor addresses the potential obstacles that may obstruct the student from reaching the chosen career path and formulate seamless strategies to prevail over them.

Preparation Stage

• This is the stage when the career planning takes place. It involves the development of an action plan to trail the student’s chosen career path.
• The counselor delivers guidance, resources as well as support to assist a student in getting ready for reaching the desired career, involving acquiring the necessary education, skills, special training, etc. 
• According to Harit Gaba, a backup program can be developed to deal with unforeseen challenges or contingencies that may occur along the way.

Implementation Phase

• The final phase involves the execution of the action plan and carrying out endeavors as per the guide to accomplish the career goal.
• This stage requires active participation, perseverance, and the adoption of the strategies, approaches, and skills that are formulated during the counseling process. 
• Goals are broken down into short and long terms with deadlines and milestones to reach backed by continuous support, review, and guidance of a counselor.