You’ve probably heard mention of careers advisor at some point throughout your academic life, but may not be sure what they do or how they can help you. This blog post will help you get your head around why it’s worth going to see the careers advisor available to you.

So where can you find them? Most schools will have one. It may be a teacher or they may have someone who fills that role specifically. And most universities will have a careers advice centre, where you will have access to many experienced careers advisors. So step one is to find out who they are or where they’re located. This information should be available online if you’re in university, or by asking another teacher at your school. The National Careers Service is another good stop, although you may not be able to speak with someone face-to-face depending on where you live.

So what do they do? Careers advisors are there to give you help with finding job information and to make sure you’re on the right path when applying. If you’re unsure of where to look for jobs, they can suggest websites, programmes or locations that might be of interest to you. The level of advice will depend a little bit on how specialised a job you’re looking for, but the careers advisors at your university will know a lot about graduate job opportunities which provide great work opportunities for when you finish. If you’re looking for something quite specific, be sure to ask a lecturer in your department too.

Most careers advisor services beyond school level will have careers advisors on their team who also offer CV checking. You can make an appointment and have someone take a look at your CV and give you advice about how to improve it. If you’re applying for a specific job you can take the job specs and your personal statement to the appointment and get some advice on that too. They can also give you advice about how to impress when you get to the interview stage.

So what don’t they do? Careers advisors won’t do all the work for you. They’re not going to write you a CV from scratch, nor a personal statement. And they won’t continuously search for and find you all of the jobs that you should be applying for. Instead they’ll give you advice on how to improve what you already have, and give you some tips on how to go about looking for relevant job posts. So when you make your appointment, be sure to take an up-to-date CV (but don’t spend days on this – it doesn’t have to be perfect) so that they can show you how you can best present your skills and qualifications. And remember, after you make some initial changes and improvements, make another appointment. They’re there to give you advice until you’ve found your job or programme, so take advantage of it.

Before you go to see your local careers advisor, though, do also have a look at the great selection of careers advice articles that we have right here at leavingschool.co.uk!