Careers Counselling

Choosing your first career path or deciding to make a career change can be difficult. It often feels easier, and even safer, to remain in the same job – even when you’re no longer happy, proud or challenged by your work. However, this can start to impact on the way you see yourself, the way you feel, and the way you perform at work.

You may feel as though you are no longer excited by your job anymore. It may be too stressful, or it may be starting to get boring and repetitive. You may be struggling to get a better position in the workplace, or struggling to find work at all. You may also feel as though you are not passionate about the field you are in but don’t know what else to do that is within your skill set. You may not have any idea about what you would enjoy doing, and feel as though you are missing the direction or judgement required to make a jump to a new career path that may end up the same way.

If you’re feeling stuck in your current position and don’t know where to go from here, a career change may allow you to feel passionate about your job again. However, it may not be passion that you are lacking, but a number of other factors which are leaving you feeling unsatisfied. It could be due to relationship clashes that you are experiencing with your colleagues, or it could be related to issues with your mood that is bringing you down at work. It could also just be an excessive amount of work, stress, or pressure that is being placed on you. So how do you work out what it is that’s making you unsatisfied with your career, and what can you do about it?

Seeing a VCPS practitioner who is specialised in careers counselling can help you with this. If you are unsure of whether you are wanting a career change, they can help you identify the specifics of what is making you unhappy at work and work out the next steps forward. This can include:

•  Assessment and identification of any issues within your current relationships, personal life and working environment
• Comprehensive assessments of your personality, values, needs, skills, and interests in order to identify potential career pathways which may be of interest to you
• Working out what skills or qualifications are required to get in to certain fields of work, how long it will take, and what that career involves
• Identifying ways to improve your work or personal life, including assertiveness training, stress management and relationship building