How helpful is your Careers Counsellor?

tracker-man

From reading numerous threads, talking to my friends in other schools and people in general, there seems to be a real lack of good careers guidance councillors out there.
In my school, there might as well be no career guidance, the councillor is less than helpful, she is absolutely useless with regard to giving advice, alternative routes into courses and providing info on courses. Its futile going to her for help, I've had to research everything myself because despite it being her full-time job she cannot answer even the simplest of questions. I have no trust in her as a careers councillor and that is extremely disappointing.
The only good thing she seems to do is post upcoming open day flyers on the notice board, and a poster of upcoming deadlines re CAO.

Whats your Careers Councillor like?

Rossie17

Mine is ok... nothing to write home about. I go to another guy in Mullingar if I need SERIOUS advice though. He is really good but its private so ain't free.

ride-the-spiral

I hate my careers guidance teacher, I'm only in fifth year so I don't know what she's like in relation to advice for courses. But she has a real, airhead, not down-to-earth at all way of talking about things. For TY we had a module about getting a job (good CV format, interview skill etc.) which was taught by our business teacher, who used to have a job that involved hiring people. Whereas his classes were how stuff actually is, what interviewers want to see and how small things like a bad handshake can impede your chance of getting a job, her classes on it were real idealistic, as if every employer is going to go out of their way to accommodate you.

LovexxLife

Mine ok, like she nice and that and provides OK information

DancingQueen:)

Mine isn't that great imo but others seem to like her so she must be doing something right. Guess she didn't really tell me anything i didn't already know.

thetonynator

mine is useless, he's convinced that we should all go off to bulgaria or belarus to study in college, he will give you the most obscure ridiculous advice. e.g., if you ask about vetinary he will spend 20 mins to half an hour talking about courses in central and eastern europe done through english before adding as an afterthought that you can go to ucd.

BDR

Useless.

I asked to see her in 5th year and she said she didn't have time for me.
She met each of the 6th years once for about 15 minutes in November and then took leave in December and still isn't back.

Luckily we got another teacher in a few weeks ago who is lovely, but she only really came in to help out with the people who were applying to England so I still haven't seen her yet.

imo the guidance councillors need to start talking to people from 3rd year on, even for half an hour every few months. That way by the time we reach 6th year they have an idea of our interests.

I went to a councillor outside school in 5th year and she asked what my hobbies and interests were and what my brothers and sisters did.
The woman in school didn't ask anything just told me that I should do physics (I hate physics)

Really think they need to start getting to know students sooner than 6th year.

stainluss

Im actually shcoked at how bad ours is.

It feels like we should be giving him Guidance:rolleyes: Ridiculous

T-Square

My career guidance teacher was about
as useful as t1ts on a bull
as useful as an ash tray on a motorbike
as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Useless useless useless

almostnever

Current one: epic. Love the woman,words can't do her justice.

Last year: DESPERATE.

window_licker

awful woman. the stories about her amuse me, but shes awful

**Timbuk2**

My careers guidance councillor is terrible. I didn't really need him for choosing what career to do, but for anyone who has filled out a UCAS form they will know how confusing it is, especially as I completely clueless as to what a personal statement should be like. He told me to put down fee code 1 but I was almost sure it should have been 2 so I got him to ring another career guidance teacher just to make sure and it turns out I was right!

Orlaladuck

Ours you just have to tell her Exactly what it is you want. Though she'll never be taken seriously again since she decided to do an add for Denny's sausages and it ended up on youtube. Wth was going through her head when she agreed to it I don't know :L

tracker-man

wow, the poll results really speaks for itself! I think its shocking that the quality of career guidance in most schools is so bad. Don't get me wrong, there are some excellent ones out there with the knowledge, expertise and interest to get you where you want to be, or guide you and advise you along a path that would be suitable to you. Unfortunately, most of these are private. I went to a guy in mayo who was really very very helpful.

The career guidance counsellor could play such a vital role in ensuring we first of all go to college, do a course we will be suited to, not drop out and get the job we want at the end of it. Its a terrible pity that the advice they offer is wrong or biased, or that speaking to them leaves you feeling worse about prospective careers than before!

gemxpink

tracker-man wrote: »

From reading numerous threads, talking to my friends in other schools and people in general, there seems to be a real lack of good careers guidance councillors out there.
In my school, there might as well be no career guidance, the councillor is less than helpful, she is absolutely useless with regard to giving advice, alternative routes into courses and providing info on courses. Its futile going to her for help, I've had to research everything myself because despite it being her full-time job she cannot answer even the simplest of questions. I have no trust in her as a careers councillor and that is extremely disappointing.
The only good thing she seems to do is post upcoming open day flyers on the notice board, and a poster of upcoming deadlines re CAO.

Whats your Careers Councillor like?

LOL is the initials of the school you got to the same letter twice? I think we have the same one, if not they must be twins! Ours only goes around asking for money, tells us of upcoming closing dates and puts up fliers. Can barely speak english, talks way too slow and has to check to make sure she has the right answer, several times.

RexMundi

Wanted to make a UCAS application so obviously I thought contacting my career counsellor was the best idea.

First tried to get an appointment just before Hallowe'en, didn't get one till just after Christmas and he didn't turn up for the subsequent meetings leaving me rushing to get a reference off one of my teachers days before the deadline.

Was worse than useless for if I was not expecting him to actually do his job, I could have gotten everything sorted months earlier and probably would already know whether or not I was accepted for the UK university I applied to.

poppygirlx

Ours is ridiculous.
SO BAD.

Ash_M

Ours are just irrelevant.. None of them seem to know exactly what's going on, or to take any aspects of the students into accounts. The extent of their job is basically when a student comes to them, with a list of courses they've looked up themselves, they google it and say, "Oh, well, aim for [course with highest points requirement] and if you don't get that you could get [2nd highest]" and so on. It's a little pointless really.

DGRulz

I haven't had one for most of the year, but I voted brilliant because from dealing w/ him in the past the guy that was there was excellent at his job. He always made sure kids were aimming for something that was both worth while & want they wanted to do. they hired some other to help w/ filling out CAOs but at that stage its too late most of my year has given up and arn;t studing because they've nothing to aim for. Another thing the old guy was good at, putting the fear of God into you and MAKING you study :L

FridaysWell

The ones in our school are ridiculous. . .
One continually gets lost on the way to class.
The other tells you to try a course that has nothing to do with what you want to do, and seems to throw what you want out the window.
I can't do medicine now because first they said I wasn't able and they came to me in the middle of January and told me I could do it. When it was a wee bit late.
Wth?

And Career Guidence should start in 3rd year, seriously, so the correct subjects are chosen....

miaowmiaow

Ok, since we have 3, you would expect at least one of them were somehow capable of doing something!

The first one is like a sheet of paper: stick thin, two dimensional and completely useless on its own except as a paper airplane.

The second is also the religion teacher, who talks loads but really really quietly about qualifax.ie, as he dreams of pilgramages. He's a bit better, but that's simply because he's likeable!

Thirdly our high energy woman sprints about, and does know what she's talking about, BUT she's hard to catch and never free because she deals with students personal traumas. Fun.

I go to a guy outside school who's amazing. He's an Irish teacher who comes by our youth centre once a fortnight. I think having someone to talk to outside of school really helps, because they're their to focus on you and your goals alone. I also think that to figure out what you want, talk to past pupils, go to open days and sneak into the odd lecture...

Chuchoter

The most useless human being who has ever lived. I am amazed she can even tie her own shoes, let alone tell me what career I should go into. She gave us all the CAT tests that basically said I suck at science and should be a secretary..but I'm great at science.

sabrinaspelman

well my careers teacher told me i should be a teacher or a nurse.

i asked her why since they are two of the least likely things i would ever want and she said "because you're a girl, there jobs girls do"

aine92

Absolutely sh!tttttte.

"Im really interested in science"
"Sure...we'll look up business courses in town then maybe?" :mad:


She forgot to remind me about the UCAS med deadline....need I say anymore.

fauxshow

Aside from accidentally giving us the wrong date for the UCAS deadline initially (!) my one is good enough; in TY and fifth year we had a weekly careers class which was good for getting an understanding of level 6/7/8s, using qualifax and just generally to start thinking about the future. We all had an individual meeting during TY to consult about choosing subjects for the Leaving Cert and again in 5th year to discuss options for the CAO. I think everyone has met with her at some point this year to discuss the CAO aswell. I used to think she was a bit useless, but at the end of the day a guidance counsellor can't make a decision for you, they can only give you info and have to tread a fine line between steering you in what they think is the right direction when they probably don't know you very well and not accidentally crushing your dreams whilst trying to get you to think realistically... so that only leaves them able to speak in very general terms and just be vague about everything really!

tracker-man

fauxshow wrote: »

At the end of the day a guidance counsellor can't make a decision for you, they can only give you info and have to tread a fine line between steering you in what they think is the right direction when they probably don't know you very well and not accidentally crushing your dreams whilst trying to get you to think realistically... so that only leaves them able to speak in very general terms and just be vague about everything really!

Of course, a guidance councillor should NEVER tell you what career you are suited to. But they should give you the means for you to discover what career is right for you yourself. They should also know the CAO inside out and have a general idea of what a career in each sector of the workplace entails from business to science to tourism to plumbing. Unfortunately many Guidance Counsellors can do neither

fufureida

RexMundi wrote: »

Wanted to make a UCAS application so obviously I thought contacting my career counsellor was the best idea.

First tried to get an appointment just before Hallowe'en, didn't get one till just after Christmas and he didn't turn up for the subsequent meetings leaving me rushing to get a reference off one of my teachers days before the deadline.

Was worse than useless for if I was not expecting him to actually do his job, I could have gotten everything sorted months earlier and probably would already know whether or not I was accepted for the UK university I applied to.

You think that's bad? She didn't help me at all with my personal statement. I was working on it since tge beginning of the year and got it finished before the Christmas break. Asked her to check if x amount of words are ok because I wasn't too sure about the word lenght. She said it was fine. I decided to leave applying till the last day ( because everything was sorted I just needed more time to think ) and then WHAM I copy and paste it in and it was 4000 characters over the limit. Spent the whole day cutting it out. Jeez you think a careers guidance counsellor would have more cop on on these sort of things!

Then she expected me to thank her for my references... It was full of grammar errors!!! Took me forever to correct it!!

Sl!mCharles

Pretty horrendous but such a nice chap
which is hard to fault in this cruel world

Nicolala

Our one is wonderful, she'd bend over backwards to help you out! Any information you want, she'll get it for you. Definitely couldn't praise her enough.

Delta Kilo

Sorry but I couldnt resist the urge to step in here and give my opinion.

I did my leaving cert last year and this very same debate was brought up last year too. Lots of people thought what you think now too, but when you move on from the leaving cert and secondary school and go to college you will realise where I am coming from.

Your Career Guidance Counsellor is not you. You are the person who shapes your own destiny. It is up to you to find out what you are interested in and what you like. Then the Guidance Counsellor will be able to assist you in your research into your chosen career, by helping you find related courses and finding people who work in that field that you can talk to.

To think that one person could know every course (How many are there, 1,000?) off by heart is just naive and wrong, they are human too, believe it or not. There are on average 60 people in leaving cert and more if you include LCA. Every person is different and will want to do different things. Your Counsellor is there to help, he/she is not a fountain of knowledge that just finds you a career that will make you millions when you walk in and say, I like science.

Take the initiative guys, dont depend on somebody to find you a course, that is up to you, the counsellor will help you but at the end of the day it is your choice.

Not to pick at any one poster but saying something like "My guidance Counsellor never helped with my personal statement" is a prime example of this naive attitude. So what, the counsellor doesnt know your life and Im sure has better things to be doing than helping you come up with lies so you can bluff your way into doing something that you probably shouldnt do in the first place.

Get used to figuring things out for yourselves guys, welcome to college!

/Rant Over

PS, what you chose now is likely to have little effect on your final career choice in the future as once you complete a degree, you can diversify into ANYTHING by doing post grads such as grad. diplomas, so dont worry about it.

dee o gee

Mine was actually very helpful, took ages to get an appointment with her initially when she was taking everyone in one by one at the start of the year. After that if you had any questions you just stopped her on the corridor, and if she had a spare few minutes she'd answer any questions, if not she'd tell you to come back later. If she didn't know the answer to something, she'd have no problem pickin up the phone and ringing the college or sending off an email. Gave me plenty of alternative routes to put down on the cao that I would never of thought of doing. Im pretty focused on what I want to do so it was more a case of just her giving me more info on it, instead of actually suggesting careers. Couldn't fault her in any way.