Career counseling services have been around in Italy for a while now, which is great news, but if you look closely, they've often been left out of the list of services offered by big companies, or they've spread in ways that are still too focused on basic services, like resume reviews or help with finding a new job, maybe when someone loses their job, which is called outplacement.
But it is not in times of difficulty that we need to focus on our career path; it is not when we lose a job that we need a career advisor. On the contrary, it is when our career path is working and seems to be on the right track.
An event such as losing your job is, in fact, just a variation in your career path. To explain this, I will give a practical example: we are in the car and heading towards a place we know, using a map, our navigator. The voice tells us to turn right, but halfway down the road there is an obstacle, roadworks: will our journey stop at that point? A famous quote by Seneca says, "There is no favorable wind for the sailor who does not know where to go," and that is precisely the point. If we have structured our own path, if we have built our own map and our own goals, any unexpected event will only be a variation, which will certainly not be able to undermine our path or call our direction into question. For this reason, career paths cannot and should not be conceived solely as tools for overcoming obstacles or for restoring our image in the job market. It is something deeper, more structured, and more long-term, an investment that guarantees professional and, why not, significant economic results in the future.
In a complex context such as the contemporary world, every professional needs to have a mentor, advisor, coach, or whatever you prefer to call them, by their side, because even kings have always had someone to consult with when making crucial decisions.
So, unless you have supernatural powers—which is highly unlikely—perhaps it is worth considering building your own map and setting your own direction. It's worth it.
Career counseling should therefore not be seen as a tool for achieving a specific, temporary goal, but as a broad plan for your professional path, which partly coincides with your individual development. In fact, it is not possible to achieve certain goals based on what we have available at a given moment in terms of training, soft skills, individual aptitude, and experience. If we have not achieved a certain goal, there is a very concrete reason for this, and we need to understand what it is. Opportunities for professional growth are not often offered to us for objective reasons. It is true that it is essential for someone to give us the right opportunity to prove ourselves, but that leap in growth must be based on concrete elements that have been developed, otherwise it will be like building on sand.
For this reason, we need to radically change our approach to professional consulting and start applying broad, structured, and scientific models that can lay the foundations for in-depth analysis and planning, capable of generating "natural" career progression, i.e., as a spontaneous consequence of a career path. In this regard, there can be two approaches: an assessment of skills in the here and now and accompanying a professional to their next professional opportunity, or, following an assessment, planning a 360°, permanent, and solid progression, made up of new elements that are grafted onto the professional profile. The writer's opinion is that the first case is a fragile progression, which does not lead to real professional development, but only to a new job offer.