Career counselors — Most college students would never think to go to one, and some may not even know what they are. Truthfully, in today’s economy, they may be your ticket to the first job you’ve been searching for since the new year began.

Career counseling is quite similar to traditional counseling. However, the difference is that career counselors generally focus on issues like career exploration, career change and career development. They know exactly what they want, but are unsure of how to get there.

Career counselors work with all kinds of people who are exploring career options. These counselors usually have a psychology, vocational psychology or industrial and organizational psychology background.

Melissa Fireman, founder and CEO of Washington Career Services, a D.C.-based career management firm, has found business to be up 200 percent from last year, a fact she believes has to do with the economy. Fireman’s business works with people to make their careers what they desire it to be.

“We work with them on self assessment, career exploration, career search strategies and resources such as resume, cover letter and marketing,” Fireman said. “We help individuals understand who they are, why do they like to work, what they want to do and where may they do that.”

In career counseling sessions, Fireman works collaboratively with clients to understand what their needs are and then sets goals to get them where they want to be.

About one-fourth of Fireman’s clients are college students, she said. A particular success story she names involves a college student who was trying to find the answer to the age-old question: “What do I want to be when I grow up?”

“I concentrated on getting him to talk about his interests and combine that with his talents and desires,” she said. “I wish that someone told me at that age that I don’t have to pick one thing to do for the rest of my life.”

According to Fireman, exploration early on in your career is key. “He refocused on his love of helping others and science, and decided to go back to school for nursing.”

Fireman advised those in college and about to graduate that differentiation and understanding now is the time to explore what you want.

“As in the success story, it’s important to refocus on yourself instead of trying to fit into a job or mold,” she said.

An article from the San Francisco Chronicle reports that career counselors said the key to finding a job is flexibility.

“If students are serious about landing a job, they need to think about relocating to a different geographical area, working at an entry-level position and earning under $45,000 a year,” said Jack Brewer, career center director at San Francisco State, in the article. “At this point, we’re telling students to grab onto what they can get and hold onto it as long as possible.”

Alyssa Richter, a senior at Asbury College, said that career counselors are going to be important to her in the fall. “Come the fall, as a senior, I’ll be transitioning from college to getting a job,” she said. “It’s new territory and they give resume and interview help which makes the whole idea of getting a job a little less scary.”

Career counselors typically provide assessments for students that include interest inventories, cognitive ability tests and personality assessments.

Amanda Johnson, a 2006 Baylor graduate, thinks career counselors are great to go to. “I went to a career counselor who gave me a series of tests and asked me a few questions, and said to come back in a few days,” she said. “In the few days that I was gone, I realized that I wanted to do journalism, and then when I came back to her office, her test results said that it would be the best field for me.”

Johnson, 24, now works full-time as a journalist in Washington, D.C. “Honestly, career counselors are such a great, useful tool,” she said. “It’s not like you have to do exactly what they say either, it’s just advice.”

Of course, career counseling does come with a price. Christine P. Bolzan runs Graduate Career Coaching to help soon-to-be and recent grads navigate the transition from school to work, the Boston Globe reported. She charges $2,250 for personalized coaching that includes approximately six 90-minute sessions as well as coaching on resume writing.
Typically, an average college student takes about three months to find a job but Bolzan said now many should plan on six to nine months.

Many job fairs are now including career counselors in their line-ups of participants. Students at UNCW went through a job boot camp in mid-April, where students got the tools they needed to succeed in the real world, WECT TV reported.

Students were coached on skills such as resume building, cover letter construction and job interviewing. Career counselors were there to help students through job searching and personal finance planning, which is a great tool to develop, as the unemployment rate for young bachelor’s degree holders is expected to rise to 4.1 percent, WECT TV said.

The director of the Creighton University career center said that there are jobs out there for those who start the search early and look hard to find them, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Career counselors reported that jobs remain available in lots of specialties, including nursing, accounting majors and teachers, the World-Herald said.

For more information on career counseling, consulting your advisor would be the best option.