Range of opportunities.
The client should know what jobs are open to him. There has been much research on the range of occupations in which young persons express an interest. In general, the results indicate a disturbingly limited range, which can be quickly and easily extended by presenting information about additional occupations.
Sources of information.
The client should know where to get information about occupations and how to appraise its accuracy. Contrary to a popular impression among many counselors, the best sources of occupational information are not to be found in libraries, not even in the average counselor's own special library of occupational information. The client cannot be taught what he should know about sources by the sink-or-swim method of sending him to the library, unaided, to find what often is not there.
How to choose.
The client should know how to choose an occupation. The bases on which some young persons choose their occupations have made more than one counselor shudder. From some vague source they have heard that a specific occupation pays well, is expanding, offers attractive opportunities for advancement. They have seen one glamorous aspect of the occupation and are attracted by it. They wish to be like someone they admire who is engaged in this field. They have taken an interest test, and it points in this direction. They liked this subject in school or did well on an aptitude test in this area. Any one of these reasons could be a good reason for considering the occupation. No one of them alone nor all of them in combination is sufficient basis for an intelligent choice. There are dozens of other considerations which may have more effect upon the success and satisfaction of the client than any of the items mentioned in this paragraph.
How to find a job.
Vocational counseling which does not stay with the client until he has been employed is frequently futile, because the counselor is not present when the client discovers that he cannot find anyone who will pay him to do just what his counselor and he have decided he should do. At this point the counselor may need to help his client to improve his job-hunting techniques or to reconsider his objective. Few clients know the most effective channels for finding vacancies. There is much which they can and should be taught, in the counseling interviews or in a good course in occupations.
Significant specifics.
Some clients not only do not know the answers to some vital questions; they do not even know what questions to ask. The client should know many specific things about an occupation before he enters it.
