Jessie Davidson changed her career, from marketing beer to running her own interior design business. Lisa Rosenfeld, after six years in marketing, found a job in sales. And Sue Baugh finished writing the book she’d been working on for years.
None of the women acted alone. Baugh, an Evanston editor and non-fiction writer who wanted to switch to fiction, admits she was “totally paralyzed” about making a career change. “I didn’t know where to start,” she admits.
According to the Gallup Organization, one-third of college educated adults are in the same locked-in position and would prefer another career if they only knew how to get there. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 10 percent of the work force switches occupations each year. The rest of us may soon have to follow. According to job data research, the average worker may soon have as many as 12 jobs in five different career categories during his or her lifetime.
The trend toward re-careering has spawned an industry of career coaches, consultants and counselors. Their services range from free job training advice at state offices to career marketers charging up to $10,000 to ease downsized or disillusioned professionals through a career change.
In between are dozens of individuals and agencies who promise to help with career changes for $1,000 or less. Here’s what to expect when you contact these providers.
FREE OR ALMOST-FREE HELP
Before spending money on a career counselor, consultant or coach, check out what services are available through your own college or the community college in your area. It’s possible you can take the same assessment tests for only a fraction of the cost or gather similar information through a one-day seminar. The state of Illinois has added employment and training centers, staffed through the Department of Employment Security and the Job Training Partnership Act, to the state’s 53 unemployment offices.
The centers provide information on both job openings and available training programs. Services are free to all residents, not just the unemployed. For locations, go to www.ides.state.il.us or call 888-FOR-IETC (888-367-4382). Horizons, the state’s career information system, has links to dozens of career and job search sites from its home page at www.ioicc.state.il.us.
CAREER COUNSELORS
Career counselors do not have to be licensed in Illinois, but many do have voluntary certification from the National Board for Certified Counselors Inc., in Greensboro, N.C. As of June 1998, 28,000 counselors in the U.S. had achieved basic NCC certification by completing a master’s degree with 48 semester hours of counseling courses, 3,000 hours of supervised counseling experience, and a 2 1/2-hour exam.
Career counselors generally charge by the session, at rates ranging from $60 to $120 an hour, with the average client needing four to six sessions. To locate a career counselor, call the National Board for Certified Counselors at 336-547-0607 for a list of counselors in your area.
A career change at Career Directions in Rolling Meadows begins with an $80, hour-long intake interview, says president Peggy Simonsen. “Most of our clients are unhappy with their careers and don’t know what to do about it. We help them with career focus.”
Services include optional assessment testing, analysis of the client’s present job situation, help with research into new careers, as well as assistance with resume writing, interview techniques and job-search strategies. Clients may pay for services by the hour or opt for a $785 career-direction package, which includes six in-person sessions, printed materials and telephone support.
It took Brenda Cotting of Barrington two months to leave her career in social work for another job. “The Career Directions counselor helped me look beyond the obvious choices for my qualifications,” she says, “then helped me redraft my resume and built me up before each interview.” Cotting is now the marketing coordinator for an eye-care clinic in Chicago.
For years Jessie Davidson of Lake Bluff hated her marketing job, but when she was laid off she didn’t know what to do next. “After just two sessions with a Career Directions counselor it was clear to me that I wanted to be a decorator,” says Davidson, who now runs Imagination & Co. out of her home. “The critical component in a career change is understanding what you love to do,” she says.
CAREER CONSULTANTS AND MARKETERS
Illinois has no licensing requirements for firms that advertise career transition services, nor does any association accredit them. Career consultants and career marketers can be found in the Yellow Pages or in the classified sections of most newspapers. Unlike career counselors, most consultants sell their services at a flat rate, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Career experts, including the Tribune’s Carol Kleiman, warn against firms that ask you to pay thousands of dollars for services in advance.
Services are on a pay-as-you-go basis at Friedland & Marcus, the Loop career-consultant practice started by two PhD psychologists, Sander Marcus and Jotham Friedland, in the 1970s. Clients pay $500 for eight hours of assessment testing and three feedback sessions.
Most clients, Friedland says, have hit a dead end. “We give them a battery of tests, tell them what they should be doing instead, and show them how to market themselves into that new career,” Friedland says.
“They don’t let you slack off,” says Lisa Rosenfeld of Chicago, who says that Friedland and Marcus insisted that she do homework between sessions. Weeks after leaving her old job in marketing, Rosenfeld had several interviews lined up and eventually landed a job in her newly chosen sales career.
CAREER COACHES
The newcomer in the career change marketplace is the career coach, a man or woman who dispenses career advice and emotional support on the telephone.
Anyone can call herself a career coach, but the term is most commonly used by graduates of Coach University (www.coachu.com) in Brandon, Fla., and the 1,300 members of the International Coach Federation in Angel Fire, N.M., (www.coachfederation.com) both of which offer referral services.
Standards for career coaching are loose. Founded in 1992, Coach University is a $3,000 two-year course conducted through teleconferencing and the Internet.
The ICF has begun issuing credentials to members who meet certain standards, but allows practicing coaches who do not meet federation standards to keep their membership through a grandfather clause. Despite the discrepancy in experience–some ICF-listed coaches have doctorates in counseling or allied fields while others have no degree — all coaches charge clients from $250 to $500 a month for weekly phone calls.
Coach Jane Flagello of Naperville has a doctorate in adult continuing education, membership in the ICF and a Web page, www.directiondynamics.com. Flagello charges $300 a month for three phone conversations of up to one hour each, plus unlimited e-mails and faxes. If you call her, or most other coaches, the first conversation is free. To continue, you’ll have to commit to a time period of one month or more.
Flagello’s career change clients usually make the leap in three to six months. “I help them get clear on their values and priorities, then work with them through the job search,” Flagello says. “Coaching without action is just expensive conversation.”
Using Flagello as her career coach gave writer Sue Baugh “someone to be accountable to every week.”
Baugh adds, “Jane made me set specific goals and I met them. Everything I was doing on my own wasn’t working.”
