1 Life is short
A huge chunk of your life is spent at work. Don't just put up with 'OK', 'It's alright' or worse 'I hate it'. Work with a career counsellor to plan and implement the life you want to lead. You only live once.

2  Exploit your talents
Work with a career counsellor to assess your strengths and identify your transferable skills. What work do you want to do in the future? The clearer your vision is for the future, the easier it will be to get there.

3 Add a career counsellor to your team
You may be an expert in your job, but it's unlikely you are an expert in job-hunting, for example, or how to change careers. Successful people surround themselves with a successful team to help them to achieve their goals.

4 An independent point of view
Working with a career counsellor means you can be totally honest about your ambitions. You don't have to tailor it to what you think your boss, work colleagues, friends or even partner wants to hear.

5 Invest in yourself
We all spend money on clothes, holidays, cars and houses. How much do we spend on investing directly in our success and fulfilment? Hire a career counsellor to work out your values and what you love to do.

6 Reach the top and stay on top
A career counsellor can help you become more successful and continue being successful. Top sports people have them, so do musicians and dancers. Career counsellors work with you to challenge and support you to be your best.

7  Measurable targets
Work with a career counsellor to fine tune your CV, practise providing answers to difficult interview questions and present yourself in such a way as to demonstrate your passionate interest in the job for which you are applying.

8  It doesn't have to be this way
Life doesn't have to be a drudge…Monday morning blues…. Sunday nights getting tense again. You can do something you love to do, live the life you want to live - you only get one chance.

9 The new world of work
Things have moved on from a job for life. It's unlikely we will stay with one employer for all our working life. The increase in contracting and flexible working gives us the opportunity to shape our working life closer to how we want it to be. Organisations are not duty bound to manage your career - it's up to you.

10  Times are changing
Technological advances mean new jobs are created and old ones can disappear altogether. Work with a career counsellor to reinvent yourself as the marketplace changes.

Career counselling isn't therapy

Although the word 'counselling' is included, it does not mean that careers counselling is some kind of therapy. There are strictly no couches in this kind of counselling, it is a very focused short-term process aimed at helping you move forward with their career and to make the specific changes that they have identified. A career counsellor will act as an objective expert, but will not find jobs or tell you what to do.

Tell it like it is

We find that people will tell career counsellors things that they might not tell their boss - or even their family - about their job. Career counsellors are independent, confidential, impartial, non-judgmental and don't have a vested interest in you the way that colleagues and family do. You can be totally honest with a career counsellor and that can help you face up to changes without undue pressure.