The lowdown


Career counsellors assess people’s interests, personalities, abilities and skills, and help them explore career options. They help one learn how to explore and investigate university and college programmes and occupations and match one’s aptitude with various career options. Interest inventories and career tests used by counsellors help students organise their thoughts and ideas about majors, careers and occupations. It is very important that a person chooses a field in which his talent and abilities are utilised the best, so that he can get the maximum output with the least effort. It is here that career counsellors play the most vital role

Clockwork
8am: Rush to school for workshop
9am: Session with students/parents
11am: Discussion with principal
12pm: Meeting with another school
1.30pm: Review appointments
2.30pm: Have rapport-building talk with students
3pm: Conduct psychometric test
4pm: Hold counselling sessions
5pm: Research; information collecting and updating
6pm: Plan out further activities with the team
7pm: Call it a day

The payoff
Entry level: Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 25,000 per month; Middle level: Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 60,000 per month; Senior level (especially if you are self employed): Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh per month

Skills/TRAITS
* More than academic qualifications, counsellors must have the emotional stability and maturity to handle the problems
* One should be able to work independently or as a team
* Well informed

Getting there
Take humanities or science in Class 12. Do graduation in psychology, followed by a postgraduate diploma in guidance and counselling. People take up this career without a good grounding in psychology but they need to learn how to administer psychometric tests

Institutes and URLs
* University of Mumbai
    www.mu.ac.in
* Karnatak University, Dharwad
    www.kud.ac.in
* Panjab University, Chandigarh
    puchd.ac.in
* TISS, Mumbai
    www.tiss.edu

Pros and cons
n Challenging & fascinating career
n Varied skills can lead to a number of job opportunities
n Little investment required
n Upcoming field, hence low awareness level

The work involves travelling to different places and conducting workshops. Money is good, once you have made a name for yourself -- Jitin Chawla, a career counsellor based in New Delhi