What is "career counseling"

n. counseling on career opportunities

Career counseling and career guidance are similar in nature to other types of counseling, e.g. marriage or psychological counseling. What unites all types of professional counseling is the role of practitioners, who combine giving advice on their topic of expertise with counseling techniques that support clients in making complex decisions and facing difficult situations. The focus of career counseling is generally on issues such as career exploration, career change, personal career development and other career related issues.

There is no agreed definition of career counseling worldwide, mainly due to conceptual, cultural and linguistic differences. This even affects the most central term counseling (or: counselling in British English) which is often substituted with the word guidance as in career guidance. For example, in the UK, career counseling would usually be referred to as careers advice or guidance. Due to the widespread reference to both career guidance and career counseling among policy-makers, academics and practitioners around the world, references to career guidance and counselling are becoming common.