Pause for thought on Centigrade

On Monday it was my turn for the Centigrade interviews. The expereience had quite a big impact on me and since then I've spent quite a bit of time reflecting on the whole thing, thinking about what I've learned both about myself and the guidance process. Apparently the interviews went well, the feedback was good and both students seemed to get something useful out of the experience, the question was how did I feel about the whole thing. The reality was that initially I wasn't quite so sure ,I felt it could all have been alot better. The pupils I saw were bright and articulate and I greatly admired their honesty and openess, for example the first young person I saw within minutes of sitting down may no bones about the fact that although it may sound shallow her number one motivating factor in choice of further study and future career was the potential to earn alot of money, as she was fairly materialistic. I was blown away by her honesty and the potential risk she may have seen herself taking in telling me this, I think it's something that perhaps many would not emphasis so boldly through fear of being judged in some way. I didn't find myself judging her but I did catch myself feeling a little sad that this played such a big part in influencing her thinking, but that was my stuff coming in, my values and life experience and I realised that. I told her that it was good that she has realised that financial rewards were very important to her but encouraged her to continue thinking about the other factors that were also important to her in a future career and this is where I would have loved to use the self characterisation exercise, instead we continued our discussions thrown up by the results of the Centigrade Report. I have to say though, the findings did trigger her to identify some of the other factors that would be important to her so I have to say although I didn't particularly enjoy using this type of tool in a guidance interview it seemed beneficial for this particular pupil.
The second interview was a complete contrast to the first, in that they didn't have any fixed ideas about what they wanted to do apart from knowing that they wanted to go to university and they wanted to study for a degree that would have good job prospects on completion. The Centigrade Report was useful for highlighting areas of interest that the person had never considered and I think it was quite a revelation to them,it really opened things up,he asked so many questions, I didn't know the answer to all of them ofcourse but we made a start and I'm sure he'll continue.
So what have I learnt from using this type of tool in guidance, I have to say I didn't particularly enjoy explaining lots of information it seemed a bit of a dry repetitive process which at times I felt got in the way of the guidance process, maybe though that was because of the focus I was giving it . There are ofcourse as we have experienced over the past few weeks many different tools we can use to help poeple move forward in their thinking and I think I have a preference for those that are more creative and encourage free thinking . Having said that I can't deny that the pupils I saw seemed to find Centigrade useful and worthwhile . What else have I learned? I've learned not to rush and I've learnt that silence is golden, that some of the best things happen in this space. I don't find this easy though, and I can feel the panick rising at times (especially when we're being assessed) but one of the best things I did on Monday was at times not say anything , just giving the person a space to think and take things in, and although I sometimes get the overwhelming urge to spout lots of premature advice or information I know I need to stop and ask myself for whose benefit am I doing this is it mine or the clients. Maybe just maybe I'm beginning to learn what guidance is all about .