This article aims to explore perceptions of learning outcomes, central professional competence, and the profession among students graduating from the higher education programme in career guidance and counselling in Sweden. The empirical data consists of semi-structured interviews with 22 students graduating in career guidance and counselling. The students consider individual career guidance counselling to constitute the heartland of the professional practice and emphasise practical competence, or know-how, learned in courses in conversation methodology and workplace learning. They find that the substance, or know-what, of career guidance counselling, such as knowledge of education systems and the labour market, needs to be learned in professional practice as it is specific to the organisation and workplace. They argue that their profession has a low status in society and that career guidance counsellors are expected to display professionalism and establish a basis for trust and legitimacy in the workplace.