Choosing a career for oneself, or for others is always a tricky situation. Seeking quality education has always been a confusing trail to walk on. To decide what career, which course & college, and what subject combinations & specialization, is indeed a challenging one without relevant information and professional guidance. Therefore, it makes sense to seek for expert guidance at every stage of life, and it is undeniably true, especially for making the right career choice.

But, how do you seek guidance from a career expert overcoming the territorial barriers, if you don’t find one in your vicinity?

The reach of career counsellors was significantly limited before digitization. Now that we have various ways to connect with the experts who can guide us in choosing the right path for our careers, it’s proving to be a great help.

On the other hand, many believe that being a counsellor is a walk in the park, but it is not so. A counsellor has to have immense knowledge, experience and be updated to effectively guide a confused student towards clarity and move ahead with confidence.

One such person who is guiding and mentoring students toward their career success is Prof. Shankar Bellur. As a certified Global Career Counsellor, he has made a significant impact and is considered an expert in the counselling industry. His experience as an academician in the education sector, where students adored him for his unique and effective teaching style, has added more value to his trade and is the cherry on the cake.

Before becoming a career counsellor and CEO of Crossroads Solutions, he was a Professor, Dean-Academics, and Principal of several colleges. Being an influential educator and interacting with students daily, has helped and inspired him to be a popular student counsellor. And now, he is considered as one of the well-known career counseling experts in India.

In a prolific interview with The Knowledge Review, we tried to cover all the essential aspects of his journey as a prominent career counsellor.

Peaks and Valleys of His Life

Prof. Shankar Bellur is an Internationally acclaimed author, a Career mentor, and an education consultant with over 28 years of experience. He is a Certified Global Career Counsellor from the University of California, Extension, Los Angles, and Career Coach by Mindler, India, in association with Career Development Alliance, USA, and The Myers-Briggs Company, USA, to administer Strong Psychometric Tests ®.

His interest and academic journey led him to explore various opportunities throughout his career. And being on board as a mentor on multiple digital mentor-ship platforms, his experience of providing mentoring services on career-related issues has helped many students in choosing the right career for them and finding success.

A rich and varied professional experience of more than 28 years having worked in Railways, IT & Academics has defined his unique and impactful style of career guidance. Being the head of several colleges, he understands the present-day challenges of our education system and the issues concerning the student community.

Explaining why he chose to be a counsellor, he says, “As an academician, I came across many instances where students had made the wrong choice of academic courses due to parents/peer pressure. As the choice was not supported by their aptitude/interests, they were not performing well in academics and consequently suffered from low confidence and no aspirations to look forward to. This trend was worrisome and made me think about the rationality of our students’ career choices and the impact on their future. I began wondering whether parents were enforcing their choice on the next generation without considering their aspirations.”

He encountered some troubling questions in such instances: “Should not students be allowed to choose their careers based on their dreams, strengths, and interests? As a system, are we providing them professional guidance to gain clarity and move ahead with confidence by helping them in making the right career choice?”

Seeking answers to such questions, he came up with a solution for all the career-related issues of the student community. Thus, Crossroads Solutions- A Technology-Enabled Classroom to Career Mentorship Platform came into existence.

Mission, Vision, And Core Values of Crossroads Solutions

Mission: Crossroads Solutions’ mission is to facilitate the process of discovering the right career choice for students and enable them to pursue the path of a fulfilling career, so they can make their unique contribution and make this world a better place to live in. To ensure youngsters are happily successful in their chosen careers and are the best version of themselves.

Vision: The vision is to create awareness and equip students to become self-aware, explore and choose their career goals in alignment with their unique personality traits, interests, and strengths. To provide them with the necessary guidance and moral support in planning, preparation, and implementation of their career plan through continual engagement and learning support.

Core Values: Building relationships based on integrity, trust, and sculpting the dreams of the students to carve out clear goals, to handhold and stride along with the students, are the core values of Crossroads Solutions.

Crossroads Solutions believe in the ancient Indian wisdom of possibility-based mindsets.

Steps to Advancing Counsellor

Crossroads Solutions aim to ensure that students make the right career choice and succeed. They help students in skill development and improve their EQ as required by their career aspirations. Moreover, they also help the students develop a robust and positive mindset to strengthen their abilities to overcome any future adverse situations in life.

Excelling In the Counselling Methodologies

Crossroads solutions mandatorily have a pre-counselling session with the student to understand certain aspects about them, break the ice and build a rapport with them. Then, they decide on an appropriate Psychometric assessment considering the academic background and the issues bothering the student in making their career choice.

After the assessment and comprehensive analysis of the Psychometric report, a one-on-one counselling session with the student and parents is conducted to help them finalize an optimal and clear career goal. They guide students in planning and implementing their plans through post counselling support.

Initiatives Taken

Have constituted a Board of Mentors, who are from various industry domains bringing in their rich industry experience & expertise to the table, to provide relevant insights and mentor the students in their respective domains. A virtual internship is a major initiative to gain more clarity so that a well-informed and rational career choice can be made.

An Expert’s Guidance

The experts train students on various soft skills like communication, collaboration, leadership, design thinking & problem-solving. Personality Development training is given to ensure that the students develop the right attitude and high EQ to perform optimally in their careers.

They provide technical support in the form of a career library for information on various careers and individual dashboards to continuously monitor their progress.

They help students by doing house visits or periodic calls to monitor their motivation levels and ensure successful implementation of the plan.

Stepping in The Future

Emphasizing the future of Crossroads Solutions, Prof. Shankar Bellur says, “As most of our population are below 30 years of age, a large number of them require professional guidance to choose the right career path and kick start their career on a bright note. With the increasing population and given the challenges of the VUCA World, this number will only increase and so is the responsibility of Crossroads Solutions.”

Further adding to the context, Prof. Shankar Bellur says, “As Career counselling service providers, Crossroads Solutions always needs to be updated about the current market developments and future trends to contribute well to an individual’s career growth. Apart from this, we have to be competent in using tools and techniques assisted by new-age technologies to guide our students towards a bright future and a great career success.”

Notable Achievements

• Shankar Bellur’s book, At the Crossroads- How to Make the Right Choice for a Successful Career, is featured on Book Authority’s list of all-time best books on career choices and is the only Indian authored book on the list.
• Crossroads’ new project to inspire the student community to explore and choose the right career option, My Career LAB, was featured in Deccan Herald.
• Shankar Bellur was selected to be part of the “Online Counsellors Workshop on National Career Services Portal Management & Career Counselling” organized by NICS, Ministry of Labour & Employment, GOI, on 04th Feb 2022.