The French policy on careers advice at school has constantly recovered two different priorities: on the one hand controlling and planning flows of pupils and on the other hand helping pupils to build up their personal projects. The evolution of the successive governments’ decisions towards orientation services shows the hesitations between those two policies. Besides, while the autonomy of local participants was being reinforced and a strong national guidance was disappearing, careers advice services were rejected on the periphery of the system, thus revealing dysfunctions and unavoidable dissatisfactions towards career advice processes – distribution which essential role remains held by the conseils de classe.