Did you have career guidance at school and was it any use?

c68zapdsm5i1ru

I always got the feeling that our careers teacher's hands were tied and no matter what people said they wanted to do, she had to nod encouragingly and give them the relevant information. I wonder would it have been more use if she could have said 'well to be honest, with your abysmal exam results you have as much chance of getting into Law at Trinity as I have of flying to Mars' - or something to that effect?

GenieOz

They told me what I'd be best suited to, I asked what kind of college course I should aim for to do that (as I really liked the idea of it)
They didn't have a clue.

I'm sure some guidance counsellors are good at what they do, it seems(from what others have told me in their experience) that most are overpaid tea drinkers.

username123

Our guy wanted all the boys to go into plastic engineering and all the girls to be hairdressers. When someone asked him about a degree in Trinity he snorted and claimed the likes of us hadn't a chance against the rich kids in private schools.

Connavar

I was told to do engineering because "That's where all the jobs are" and I was good with maths/physics.
Thankfully I didn't listen to that

krudler

If guidance counsellors were so good at finding good careers they wouldn't be guidance counsellors.

FouxDaFaFa

He tried to send me to Budapest.

Harsh.

GenieOz

Connavar wrote: »

I was told to do engineering because "That's where all the jobs are" and I was good with maths/physics.
Thankfully I didn't listen to that

....but they would have been right
Engineering jobs are all over the place.

La_Gordy

Mine told me education was free in Scotland. Which it is, and I blindly took it at face value. They had failed to mention any of the ways you have to apply for the grant though which meant a lot of hassle when I moved over.

Richard Hillman

Yes and no use whatsoever. He was very unapproachable for the people who needed career guidance the most. Having a disciplinarian as a guidance counsilor is just ridiculous on so many levels. A lot of students that tended to get in trouble and have poor grades (Myself included) would spend the whole week trying to avoid him. So seeking him out for post secondary options was something that people would tend to avoid unless you were completely clean of any wrongdoing. You knew if you did contact him about guidance, he would have an array of other issues that would be brought up.

Also this was a time when the internet wasnt very mainstream (Early noughties) so it would be quite hard to get relevent information on such things.

Thankfully, he is not a career guidance teacher anymore. Although if he didnt get a decent job elsewhere, he probably still be there.

Tombo2001

The most useless person I have ever come across.

The only thing I can think of that would compare for pure uselessness are the people in Indian railway stations whose job it is to lift the railing at the track, even though their particular station closed 20 years ago.

wandatowell

I was told I'd be suited to a career in Journalism. I'm pretty sure she had me mixed up with someone who had the same surname as me.

whitewave

Our guidance counsellor was one of those that loved to brag about how many previous students she had that ended up in the "best" careers (best in her opinion) i.e. medicine, law etc. Loved to push for medicine on anyone she thought would get over 550 points, regardless of whether they were interested in it, or would have been suited to it.

Connavar

GenieOz wrote: »

....but they would have been right
Engineering jobs are all over the place.

Sorry, I should have said civil engineering(which I believe from talking to friends is very tough for jobs atm)

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Wow, Guidance Counsellors aren't getting a great press on here. Maybe it's just an impossible job to do well.

Marjorie Tinkling Handbag

Marjorie Tinkling Handbag wrote: »

I always got the feeling that our careers teacher's hands were tied and no matter what people said they wanted to do, she had to nod encouragingly and give them the relevant information. I wonder would it have been more use if she could have said 'well to be honest, with your abysmal exam results you have as much chance of getting into Law at Trinity as I have of flying to Mars' - or something to that effect?

They shouldn't do it like that, but a bit of realistic direction while still encouraging people would help a lot I think.

Bacchus

Yes, and she was less than useless. My consultation with her before the CAO applications went something like this...

Her: What subjects interest you most in class
Me: Maths & Technical Drawing
Her: And what interests do you have outside of school
Me: I like building computers and seeing how they work (yes. I was a little nerd)
Her: And what would YOU like to do in college
Me: Some sort of Electronic or Computer engineering course
<a few moments of scribbling notes and highlighting courses on a big list>
Her: I think you'd be best suited to one of these courses
<she hands me the list, with pretty much every electronic or computer based college course highlighted>

... that was it. That was her expert advice. Cushiest job ever.

smileyj1987

My guidence councillor told me I would never achieve anything . My brother has a class with her now and she asked my younger brother about me . He told her I had bought and paid off my house . The look of disgust on her face was priceless .

krudler

Bacchus wrote: »

Yes, and she was less than useless. My consultation with her before the CAO applications went something like this...

Her: What subjects interest you most in class
Me: Maths & Technical Drawing
Her: And what interests do you have outside of school
Me: I like building computers and seeing how they work (yes. I was a little nerd)
Her: And what would YOU like to do in college
Me: Some sort of Electronic or Computer engineering course
<a few moments of scribbling notes and highlighting courses on a big list>
Her: I think you'd be best suited to one of these courses
<she hands me the list, with pretty much every electronic or computer based college course highlighted>

... that was it. That was her expert advice. Cushiest job ever.

That's basically it, just tell people what they want to hear, completely redundant job these days with the internet.

TimeToShine

Joke of a position. I wouldn't mind if they taught some real subjects alongside it but at my school the designated career guidance counsellor sat on her arse all day in an office and taught a careers class once a week. All she had to do was tell Junior Cert students to take a science subject and LC students to "do what you like".

Fitz*

I work in an area quite similar to what I was advised to do by my principal. To be honest, I can't remember what my guidance counselor advised me to do.

I do remember a friend tho, being told to pursue one area quite a lot, only to do a completely different course & no work in another totally different sector. Both were completely unrelated to what he was told to do.

IvyTheTerrible

Over here, you have people paying up to 400 euro to private guidance counsellors! It's nuts!

bluefinger

http://www.timtripcony.com/blog.nsf/Images/TTRY-9CV6RQ/$File/ibecameeverything.jpg

irishrook

Mine told me Id end up in some ditch dead by the time Im 21.. Just because I had a few piercings and tattoos

The Backwards Man

Our careers guidance 'teacher' wasn't interested in guiding students who were eligible for a university grant. Thought they were scum tainting the colleges for the privileged. I never needed a third level education for anything I've ever done or will ever be interested in doing, I more or less just got one out of spite for that bastard.

Toto Wolfcastle

The one in my school was useless but I worked with a fantastic guidance counsellor. She was so dedicated and went out of her way to make sure she could be there for every student who needed her. She was well liked and respected by the students and staff.

I don't think people realise how much work is involved in being a good guidance counsellor.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Yeah mine was beyond ****e too. Basically told us all to do science because that was the party line at the time. What they didn't mention was that all the jobs in Ireland are Q.C (aka boring as ****) jobs. Joy.

shruikan2553

Mine didnt question my choice of architecture.....in 2009. Thanks to the internet we can get a list of courses in colleges and pick from there. They can only tell you course exists, you still have no idea what its like, what areas it focuses on etc.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

mariaalice wrote: »

They shouldn't do it like that, but a bit of realistic direction while still encouraging people would help a lot I think.

I agree. A lot of young people have very unrealistic ideas about what's involved in certain careers, or the aptitudes required, or just get very glamorous portrayals of them on television which airbrush out the boring bits, or the many years of hard slog to get to do the exciting work.

I think an important part of a careers teacher's job should be to ensure that students have a good idea of what they're signing up for and genuinely show some aptitude for that kind of work, before encouraging them to apply for courses and university places in that area.

burnhardlanger

Career Guidance is a waste of time as whatever the prevailing booming sector at the time will be interesting as a career path but may not necessarily have long term prospects.

Did the Leaving Cert in 98 and IT/Computing was booming and needless to say that's what I ended up doing. Graduated 4 years later to a tech sector nursing it's wounds after the market crash in 2000 and risk averse employers after 9/11.

I never did a transition year but I'd like to think that if I did one, we would have been exposed to a variety of different projects and root out anything I was good at or perhaps more importantly enjoyed.

I would then pick subjects for the leaving cert that focused on those skillsets and pick an appropriate third level course instead of the hackneyed go with the flow approach as I have done.

After all that is the purpose of choosing to do transition year?

Career Guidance officers for me are more middle agents to help you through the administration side of choosing a career path as opposed to providing advice.

Marjorie Tinkling Handbag

Marjorie Tinkling Handbag wrote: »

I agree. A lot of young people have very unrealistic ideas about what's involved in certain careers, or the aptitudes required, or just get very glamorous portrayals of them on television which airbrush out the boring bits, or the many years of hard slog to get to do the exciting work.

I think an important part of a careers teacher's job should be to ensure that students have a good idea of what they're signing up for and genuinely show some aptitude for that kind of work, before encouraging them to apply for courses and university places in that area.

Don't forget that careers are as subject to fashion as anything else, a few years ago Architecture was very popular now it has dropped like a stone.

Another interesting point is despite the changes in society the nursing/teaching combo is still very popular with girls and the engineering/technology combo with the boys.

jimgoose

Why yes, yes I did. It was the late 1980s, and it was overseen by a rather silly man who blathered on at great length but to little utility about the CAO, matriculation exams and the fact that various insurance companies in Dublin were "Recruiting".

Ilyana 2.0

We had to have one-on-one chats with our guidance counsellors at the end of fifth year.

GC: So what do you think you'll be doing after the leaving cert?
Me: Probably arts or something like that
GC: Have you thought about which colleges you'd do arts in?
Me: NUIG or UCD I think
GC: *spends 20 minutes asking me about grades, subjects, hobbies etc*
GC: Ilyana, I think you should do arts in NUIG or UCD
Me: Erm, thanks.

That was that.

Antar Bolaeisk

Our career guidance teacher had us do an aptitude test thing to help us decide our career path, only problem was mine came back with 98-99 percentile results across the board (except for speed and accuracy at which I was only average ruling out a long and prosperous career as a typist) and pretty much listed every profession going which I should consider based on what I was good at.

Thankfully he was also good at helping me along my chosen path (which I ended up hating and left to do something else anyway, although still in the same discipline).

With him I think you only got out as much as you were willing to put in which I think is the correct approach for matters like these, there's no point in them pushing what they think you should do.

DyldeBrill

Yeah I did had one and she was pure evil! Now I'm no oil painting myself but this one had a face like a well chewed toffee...proper scary! Other than that we had an hour class with her every Thursday which consisted of...absolutely nothing. Waste of time!

Mysteriouschic

We did an aptitude test an also some online career test. I got told my strengths are in practical or business , the only practical career I was sort of interested in was computers I got pushed to do that as there are loads of jobs. I wasn't sure what I wanted. I ended up picking a IT Business course I was terrible at the IT software/programming side hated it and dropped out of that course switched to pure business. It took me trying out the course to actually realise that the computers wasn't something that I wanted to do but it helped with finding the general career area to look in to.

herisson

My one kept pushing nui maynooth on us. And told me I should go for a childcare course, because it suited me. I hate children. And she kept staring at my tits.

Shge was useless. Didn't know what she was talking about. If you said you wanted to go to a certain college, say ucd, shge would go out of her way to find the equivalent in maynooth.