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Are Career Meetings Really Necessary For Students?

11 March 2017

By Joseph

The conversation went like this:

“What would you like to do in the future?”

“I know exactly where I want to be in the future,” I replied, before proceeding to reveal my plans to reach that position.

“Here’s a useful website for you.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen this one before.”

She then offered up a sort of yellow pages full of job descriptions – a bit 1970s, I thought.

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No, not really.”

That’s how my recent conversation with a school careers adviser panned out. Resembling more of a friendly conversation or an episode of ‘This is Your Life’, it felt as if I was the careers adviser during our discussion. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never shirk off an opportunity to talk about myself, but need I have a meeting scheduled to talk to myself, about myself in front of an amiable, but ultimately inert nodding face?

Naturally, I left the meeting thinking: ‘Well, she was nice but, tell me again, what exactly was the purpose of all that?’ Honestly, I can’t see what kind of person would really benefit from a chat with a careers adviser – someone who doesn’t know each career and sector in enough detail to direct someone who – like me – came in on the back of years of forward career planning, nor do they know individuals well enough to adeptly send them off on any one of any number of potential career paths.

Apart from dishing out a few web links, are careers adviser meetings any more than a reassuring face that smiles back at you and tells you that you’re doing the right thing?

Maybe. But, then again, in a cutthroat world, all some people need is a smile, a nod, and wink on their way.

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