This text is part of the special booklet Trades, professions and careers
It’s never too late to change jobs, trades or careers. To help yourself better understand this beautiful mix that forms our aspirations and our aptitudes in the light of reality, it is preferable to meet someone whose expertise is in this. At the UQAM Career Clinic, you can consult counselors graduating with a bachelor’s degree in career development or a master’s degree in career counselling.
As a young person, but also as an adult, we have everything to gain by undertaking this process of reflection before making important decisions for the rest of our professional life.
“A counseling process is focused on the individual and incorporates many facets to allow for a better understanding of their potential to be able to make better-informed decisions in our world full of uncertainties,” says Emmanuelle Desrosiers, guidance counselor and principal manager of the Career Clinic at UQAM.
A global approach
This better self-understanding integrates many factors of the person: values, aptitudes, skills, personality, reality factors and mental or physical health issues. The Clinic receives people who have already had, in the past, diagnoses of burnout, depression or anxiety, among others. The process will take into account the person’s family and financial background, the region where they live as well as other factors and issues to consider in order to come up with a project that holds up.
“It’s a process that is intended to be global and that brings in-depth reflection that you don’t always have the chance to do when you find yourself doing research alone in front of your computer,” adds Emmanuelle Desrosiers.
Regardless of our age, this process can only prove beneficial. The Clinic even receives people who are approaching retirement age and are a little confused by this approaching new stage of their life.
“There is no age to choose,” says Louis Cournoyer, professor of career development and counseling, and director of the master’s in career counseling. At all stages of life, we seek meaning in it, and that is counseling. It is a personalized career-oriented counseling relationship. When we are young, it can be in relation to our place to take in the world; in mid-career, it may be because we no longer really know if what we are doing is right for us; and as retirement approaches, we can help people find a realistic, achievable and meaningful project for them. »
On average, a process may require six to eight meetings. At the Career Clinic, the consultation fee is $50 per meeting, offered in person or virtually. A first evaluation meeting will allow an intervention plan to be drawn up.
“The goal of the process is that in the end, the person will know not only what they want to do and be, but also why, adds Louis Cournoyer. It’s very important to be able to explain it to ourselves, to understand our choices in the light of our personality. »
In 2023, the discipline has evolved and uses a multitude of approaches that go far beyond personality tests. “What is central in contemporary approaches is that they give full power to the person. We are far from simply taking a test that tells people what to do. It is assumed that the advisor is the process expert, and the client is the content expert. They must form an alliance, and the role of the counselor is to help the person to better explore and understand themselves. »
Shortage of counselors
In these tumultuous times in the professional world, when the pandemic has made many people question their previous choices and change their plans for the future, guidance counselors are not idle, and as is the case in many areas, there is a shortage. It is therefore full employment for these graduates, who have only to choose their workplace.
Indeed, if we often have in mind the image of a guidance counselor in a school, in fact, it is a minority who work in the school environment, according to Louis Cournoyer.
“There are guidance counselors in professional integration organizations, in health and social services, in private practice in companies. In short, our students can do their internship and work in these environments,” he says.
To use the title of “guidance counsellor”, one must have a master’s degree in counseling and be a member of the Ordre des conseillères d’orientation du Québec. Bachelor’s graduates carry other titles, such as career development, employment, or academic training counsellors.
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.