Giving advice

Many years ago, I was trying to pick between a couple of jobs. This was my first job change and I was very confused and anxious. So I asked a few friends for their advice. 

Most friends jumped to tell me to pick Job A or B because they have heard such and such about Company A or something bad about Company B etc. They didn't even ask me about the roles or offer package. 

One friend, on the other hand, just asked me questions - what's different between the roles, the companies, the pros/cons that I see, what I value in my career and in my next job etc. Whenever I didn't have a clear answer, he asked more questions to help me clarify or shared some opinions. He succinctly and clearly summarized and played back my answers. He later checked in with me as well to see how I was leaning and why. He refused to give me an answer on A vs B, even when I asked for it, because he felt that it was my decision to make and his opinion may not fit my situation or goals. 

The first flavor of advice just confused me more - many opinions were ill informed or contradicted with what others said. The latter flavor gave me a lot of clarity and enabled me to make the decision and future job decisions as well. 

Good advisors are mostly listeners, clarifiers, and sounding boards. They don't jump to tell you what to do. Good advisors just enable and empower people to come up with answers.