CAREER COUNSELLING
Suzanne was sponsored by the BBC to qualify as a careers’ counsellor with Career Counselling Services in London. She served with the BBC’s in-house service, Careerlink, where her clients came from all craft areas and support services.
In Indonesia, Suzanne worked with Jakarta-based journalists encountering the sort of obstacles unimagined by their British counterparts – bribery, threats of violence (and sometimes real violence) while usually earning less than a living wage.
She operates on a one-to-one basis or in small groups. She has worked with individuals, companies and informal networks of friends.
For individuals Suzanne will typically cover:
- composing your resume/CV
- analysing your skills and achievements
- deciding what you want/don’t want from your career and life outside work
- setting short and long-term goals
- building a network
- how and where to look for jobs
- plotting the route to the next step
- building the confidence to take that next step
- overcoming obstacles
- preparing for a job interview
- anticipating the questions
- dealing with nerves
- interview role play
One-to-one counselling can take place over a period of weeks or months — the time-frame is entirely flexible and dictated by the client. Five sessions or fewer, of up to 1.5 hours, are usually all people need.
Formal courses
Some businesses, organisations or informal groups – such as women returners – may prefer career planning in the form of a course. The advantage of this is that it is a ready-made networking opportunity and delegates are typically very supportive of each other.
At the end of a one-day course, participants will have:
- reviewed their past achievements
- a detailed draft of a resume/CV
- have a good idea of their wants and don’t wants to achieve a work/life balance
- ideas of their short and long-term goals
- set some objectives and committed to a time frame
CAREER STRATEGIES FOR ORGANISATIONS
Besides counselling individuals, Suzanne will also act as a consultant to businesses wishing to find ways to retain skilled staff. This can involve:
- conducting a skills audit & training needs analysis
- facilitating short workshops with staff
- working with managers to introduce or consolidate opportunities for professional and personal development of their staff. These include alternatives to promotion which nevertheless encourage staff to stay and develop satisfying careers