Career counseling or career counselling is a professional process that supports people in addressing questions about work, learning, career development, occupational choice, employment, transitions, and participation in working life. It may involve career exploration, career decision-making, educational and occupational planning, job-search support, career change, and the management of career-related difficulties across the lifespan.

Career counseling is closely related to, but not identical with, career guidance, vocational guidance, career coaching, employment counseling, and career education. The boundaries between these terms vary across countries, languages, institutions, and professional traditions. In general usage, career guidance is often used as a broad umbrella term for information, education, assessment, advice, and systems-level support, whereas career counseling more often refers to a counselling-based intervention conducted individually or in small groups. In practice, the terms are frequently combined as career guidance and counselling to reflect the overlap between the activities.

Historically, career counseling developed from early forms of vocational guidance that emphasised matching people to occupations. Contemporary career counseling includes these decision-making and assessment traditions, but also incorporates developmental, contextual, constructivist, social constructionist, social justice, and narrative approaches. In the 21st century, the field has increasingly recognised that career development is shaped not only by individual interests and abilities, but also by life stories, identity, culture, social relationships, opportunity structures, labour markets, and broader economic and political systems.