The guidance on what to study, where to study, and how and when to join courses are very difficult to answer, but getting an appropriate answer is very important and essential for any student. Even educated parents are hesitant to provide it to youngsters. They ask the students to turn to their teachers. One of the weak points in Indian Education — both at school or higher learning institutions — is the lack of a structured career guidance system for students.

The educational guidance is a process of helping students to achieve self-understanding and self-direction necessary to make informed choices and move towards personal goal.

The basic principle of career counseling and guidance is that the person is better equipped to make occupational plans after determining his own characteristics and examining the requirement of various occupations and matching the two sets of facts.

Regarding the placement, getting the right response, keeping in mind your latent talent, is no longer just a matter of forwarding the application with a covering letter. A host of factors like the right resume, interaction with the company prior to the interview, the interview board, communication skills etc. influence upon your selection. To meet these requirements, online job sites offer you an array of free and paid services.

Resume writing (mostly a paid service): Apart from getting your CV and covering letter handled by experts, the job portals offer services like forwarding your resume to, say, 1,000 placement agencies in India.

Placement directory: One can get a complete directory of leading placement consultants in India as well as abroad.

Expert write-ups: There are articles on job-related topics, be it salary negotiations or dressing up for the interview.

Preparing for the interview: Apart from write-ups from experts, you could go in for mock interview sessions online.

Newsletters: The users are showered with weekly and monthly newsletters.

Most popular portals have their in-house salary, resume and interview centers and employer profiles; they even offer consultancy services.