Transforming the aspirations into a role you’re most passionate about often requires one to wear different hats during one’s career to explore the opportunities and to learn with them. “And I think this can help a lot of people to feel happy, and of course happiness will then lead to a success story. If you’re feeling content, you will be able to do things better for others and ultimately that’s what we are here for”, says Gargi Sen, a proficient Career Coach, and Academician.
In her pursuit to guide students and teachers in planning their career, leadership, and professional development, Gargi entered the academic sector about 30 years ago as a Mathematics & Physics teacher. Her persistent efforts of upskilling herself have been her elixir of progress in the field of education as a teacher, international accreditor & trainer, counselor, and present-day career coach. We got to learn about Gargi’s journey as a learned Academician turned Career Coach and here’s a peek into our conversation.
Gargi, we would like to know a little bit about your background, where are you based, how long have you been in this space altogether?
“I am based in Kolkata. I started teaching as I completed B. Ed and later moved on to become an Accredited Cambridge Trainer for Teaching and Learning. I have also been counseling teachers of International schools in India and South-East Asian countries. Although I have been in the teaching profession for three decades with over 15 years of experience in counseling, career coaching was simultaneously a part of the journey as I entered administration as a Principal in the initial stages of my career. On conducting various school consultations including parent and student counseling, I realized that Career Coaching was my main area of focus.”
Why Career Coaching?
“Over the years, I have learned from the majority of people that they regret the career path they have chosen, and wish they had known more about careers during their pivotal years. Our society isn’t aware of the pool of prospective career options available for them. Mostly, we all revolve around the very few conventional career options, so much as the students who can do well in some other career options don’t get the advantage of pursuing them. So, career guidance or coaching could help a lot of students to get onto a successful and happy life path. Students get the life they expect is the most important thing for me.”
What has the role of ICCC been in your career coaching profession?
“The ICCC program has immensely supported me. It has helped me bring back the focus on time and the finer elements of career coaching that are touched upon by the Experts. I’d say that my analytical reasoning has evolved with the program. The ICCC course is designed in such a way that it equally benefits a professional from psychology and non-psychology backgrounds. Starting with the ICCC Advanced level you can define who is a career coach, the roles and objects of career coaching, and how to start your venture. The meticulous feedback received in the process and shadow sessions have let me recapitulate and self-reflect. So, through the Advanced level, I could introspect and identify my weaknesses and strengths as a career coach. More importantly, it is talking about your passion as a career coach and your readiness to research careers. The ICCC Master’s has further broadened my horizons toward a global learning environment and brought structure to my practice. The credentialing of NCDA and CDA gave me the credibility of a globally competent career coach, along with inculcating the habit of learning more every day.”
How have your past experiences benefited you in Career Coaching?
“I’m a mathematics person who moved on to psychology and career coaching. So I always look into a lot of numbers and try to figure out my calculations. Mindler’s comprehensive Psychometric Assessment report gives me a lot of thought in the process. I can ideate ways to counsel the student with the help of the report, but the stanine scores, graphs, percentages mentioned in the reports enable me to do a lot of deductive reasoning as a practice. This further helps me logically explain and connect the students with their assessment report to continue the career coaching process.”
As you’re also using Mindler’s Partner platform, would you like to share your experiences and any difference that the platform has brought in your service?
“The platform has organized my career coaching sessions and given my practice a focused direction. I feel that Mindler’s Partner Platform is dynamically designed to give a structured report with the freedom of ideation in connecting the report with the student. I would say that the platform is very user-friendly for both career coaches and students, giving you all the tools along with a huge amount of resources for you to explore and learn from. This has definitely given a balance between me as a career coach and a structured directional platform, which is a very good achievement for me!”
What has been the most useful tool for you apart from the psychometric assessment on the Mindler’s Partner platform?
“The feature of Career Profile or Complete all the activities area for students in the Partner platform stays my favorite section. As a member of the Cognix Knowledge Group, we divide career coaching into two parts. One is where I look into more details of the student as a person, to know how their innate qualities and abilities can be brought up and the other as a career guide by looking into more technicalities of colleges, examinations, and scholarships. As a career coach, I would normally ask questions to know the student’s behavior and routine but your platform is helping me to get these answers very easily through the additional activities.
Also, the diagrammatic representations fortify the suitable career suggestion with data that even the parents can easily understand. In situations where I’ve come across strict parents, these pie-charts and data representations have supported me to make everybody aware.”
What are the two achievements that you’re proud of as a Career Coach?
“On completing my Master’s level, I was given the opportunity to check the next ICCC batch’s assignments. This made me feel honored and privileged as it was also a test for me to practically apply all that I had learned during the course. I have always believed that one learns much more when practicing the concepts. As I was given the chance to practice, I’ve considered this as my achievement.
Last but not the least, my second achievement is that through this fantastic platform I got to connect with like-minded people, fellow career coaches, academicians, and the whole team of ICCC.”
Conclusion
We were humbled by the kind words of Gargi and are in awe of her passion to guide students towards a happy and successful life. She is one of the most talented alumni of the International Certified Career Coach Program who has completed all three levels to earn her Certified Career Service Provider credentialing from NCDA. Gargi continues to guide students in identifying their strengths, discovering top-matched careers, and helping them achieve their career goals. She is associated with Cognix Knowledge Group and is also Mindler’s partner in Kolkata.
Have you been looking to structure your career coaching passion with professional training, industry-relevant research, and tech-enabled tools?
Register for the ICCC Program and try Mindler’s Partner Platform for free!
