The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: socaso on August 05, 2014, 01:33:31 PM
-
I am feeling very stalled in my career path and have been considering hiring a career counselor. I have done a bit of research but I was wondering if anyone on the forum ever used one and if they thought it was worth it or a big waste of money. I've been stuck in dead end jobs since the recession hit and the area I live in has been slow to recover. I feel like I need to reboot my career!
-
DW does this for a living. From what I have seen, her clients seem to get a lot out of her help. But it is important to do your due diligence. There really is little licensing, so these folks can range from totally unqualified to extremely well qualified. DW has two Ivy master's degrees in counseling plus 20 years experience and competes against the equivalent of a used car salesman sometimes.
-
DW does this for a living. From what I have seen, her clients seem to get a lot out of her help. But it is important to do your due diligence. There really is little licensing, so these folks can range from totally unqualified to extremely well qualified. DW has two Ivy master's degrees in counseling plus 20 years experience and competes against the equivalent of a used car salesman sometimes.
I read about this when I was researching career counselors and it was one reason I wanted some feedback. Thank you for your response.
-
I haven't - though I have thought of it, and know someone who raves about his career counselor that helped get him his dream job (I think she went by a slightly different name like "coach"). Agreed with brewer that quality counts.
Before you go that route, you might want to look at some of the better career self-help books at the library. Even if you do end up hiring someone, you get a head start on introspection. :)
-
I haven't - though I have thought of it, and know someone who raves about his career counselor that helped get him his dream job (I think she went by a slightly different name like "coach"). Agreed with brewer that quality counts.
Before you go that route, you might want to look at some of the better career self-help books at the library. Even if you do end up hiring someone, you get a head start on introspection. :)
Thank you! I've actually been reading a lot of self help books on my Kindle and I've gotten some good advice but I feel like I could use a physical push as well as a psychological one. I'll keep up with the reading, though.
-
Meh, I just had a session with a career coach. I had some testing done and the follow up coaching session. My company paid for the whole thing. The company is looking for people to promote. I told the guy I was going to FIRE in 2018. I told him my investment income has exceeded my jobs income. He admitted that he himself had FIRED at 45, he is now 50 only works 8 hours a week and is making the most money of his life now. Even though we were both being paid to benefit my employer before I left he told me to call him when I quit my current job. He has a plan for me as well.
-
Meh, I just had a session with a career coach. I had some testing done and the follow up coaching session. My company paid for the whole thing. The company is looking for people to promote. I told the guy I was going to FIRE in 2018. I told him my investment income has exceeded my jobs income. He admitted that he himself had FIRED at 45, he is now 50 only works 8 hours a week and is making the most money of his life now. Even though we were both being paid to benefit my employer before I left he told me to call him when I quit my current job. He has a plan for me as well.
That's awesome.
-
One way to see if a person has been through a decent amount of training is to look for certification from the International Coaching Federation: http://www.coachfederation.org/
I know some great coaches that don't have that, but it is one screening tool.
-
Meh, I just had a session with a career coach. I had some testing done and the follow up coaching session. My company paid for the whole thing. The company is looking for people to promote. I told the guy I was going to FIRE in 2018. I told him my investment income has exceeded my jobs income. He admitted that he himself had FIRED at 45, he is now 50 only works 8 hours a week and is making the most money of his life now. Even though we were both being paid to benefit my employer before I left he told me to call him when I quit my current job. He has a plan for me as well.
So I take it this is something you would not have sought out on your own? Was participation mandatory?
-
I have, twice, at ten year intervals. You have to be specific about what you're looking for. Me, I was looking at a change in careers and wanted advice into what other jobs I could look for with the skills I had at the time.
It was interesting to do the tests and finding what kind of work my interests lined up with, and which I had good aptitudes for, but that's basically all I learned. Practical knowledge or advice that would steer me towards making that change, zip. Final recommendations were to go back to school for more training, which I knew already but couldn't be undertaken.
In the end, I got better help from a psychologist I was consulting with on a different matter not long after. He digged at the reasons why I was unhappy in my job, and it wasn't what I was doing, but the people I worked for that were the problem.
-
Meh, I just had a session with a career coach. I had some testing done and the follow up coaching session. My company paid for the whole thing. The company is looking for people to promote. I told the guy I was going to FIRE in 2018. I told him my investment income has exceeded my jobs income. He admitted that he himself had FIRED at 45, he is now 50 only works 8 hours a week and is making the most money of his life now. Even though we were both being paid to benefit my employer before I left he told me to call him when I quit my current job. He has a plan for me as well.
So I take it this is something you would not have sought out on your own? Was participation mandatory?
It was mandatory as is the promotion. I've been promoted several times in my career against my wishes. I'm making a little more money but my happiness factor has dropped each time. My first 12 years I was a chemical laboratory technician. I loved that job. Now I'm a control board operator sitting behind 16 screens. I run a 100 million dollar plant using a 1.4 million dollar Emerson DCS. Some call this a dream job with its six figure pay. For me it's just too busy and stressful. I love chemistry and controlling a giant chemistry set should be exciting. Personally I rather my beakers and flasks.
-
I was part of a corporate merger where we were offered a multiple session career counseling benefit. I took advantage of it and was pleasantly surprised. They did some personality testing, helped identify weaknesses and even helped if a person was thinking of a drastic career change. They had a well developed system staffed by a good mix of seasoned business people and "psychology" type touchy feely people. Not normally my thing but again I gained some useful info into hiring practices and the psychology of "winning" an interview.
-
I consulted a career counselor once who was recommended to me by a therapist. I spent $100 plus paying for an aptitude test to find out that (a) I was underemployed for my intelligence level and (b) I had great aptitude for what I was already doing. I enjoyed talking with the person but it didn't help much in any practical sense.
-
I have, twice, at ten year intervals. You have to be specific about what you're looking for.
That's not very encouraging. Isn't the whole point of going because you probably don't know?
I've got an appointment next week at the university where I work. We'll see how it goes.
-
An alternative to paying a career counsellor might be to talk to recruiters, either ones working in your industry or in an industry you are interested in getting into - they are usually looking to put people in the most lucrative jobs possible, and even if they don't have jobs for you, you might gain some insight from them into what you could do next.
-
Check with the community college in your area. Often they have master's degree level career counselors and the services are free to the community or for a low fee.
-
Check with the community college in your area. Often they have master's degree level career counselors and the services are free to the community or for a low fee.
Great advice! I'm going to look into this option. Alike many on here, I make a solid income, but absolutely hate my job. It's been like this for awhile, but after working somewhere for over a decade, it's hard to make a transition into a career where you would have some passion for the work. It seems to be almost like starting over.
-
DW does this for a living. From what I have seen, her clients seem to get a lot out of her help. But it is important to do your due diligence. There really is little licensing, so these folks can range from totally unqualified to extremely well qualified. DW has two Ivy master's degrees in counseling plus 20 years experience and competes against the equivalent of a used car salesman sometimes.
Brewer - I tried sending you a PM but you can't accept them now. I'd like to find out how your DW got into that as a job/career because it is my DW's dream job!
-
I'm not sure I would ever hire a career counselor. My high school career counselor in 1985 advised me against pursuing a computer programming career. "Computers are a limited field with limited applications and there are far more people pursuing a career in them than will ever be demand." I was way too trusting then and not great at math and believed the idiot. But maybe private sector counselors are better.
-
I have and it has been worth it, but it will only help you if you are willing to put in the work. I was able to book 4 hours for 40 euros thanks to government funding, and what we did were exercises to discover why my job at the time wasn't suiting me and I was running into repeated problems. All this will do you no good though if eventually you are too scared to go and change things.
As with all counselling it helps to have a plan beforehand. You may set this up as part of it, but it will still help you if you know before you go in what your goals are or what you perceive as your main problems. The more specific the better too. Feeling you are in the wrong field is much more vague and will take more time to untangle than if you can say specifically you despite 9 to 5 culture or you would rather have an office than an outdoor job.
-
I saw one through the university I attend part-time. It was very helpful. I already have an idea of what I'm good at and what I'm motivated to do. He helped me to consolidate that information, and gave me directions on where to be looking.
-
They really vary in quality. I've had some that were terrible, one that was OK and one that was fantastic. If you're going to pay for it (I did and think it was worth it) you should ask about their methods.
The first few ones I used that were free were related to school and their motivations were to improve school stats, not help me.
The middle one jumped into my ideal employment day too quickly. I had a really hard time with the visioning exercises which is an indicator that I wasn't ready for that.
The most recent one has been great. We started at personality types and examined why my previous careers were or were not good fits. After that we graduated to looking at careers and jobs.
You certainly get out of it what you put into it, but make sure the coach's methodology lines up with what you already know, or don't know, about yourself.
-
I wouldn't do this without reading all of the career-related posts on Ramit Sethi's blog and making an attempt to act on those first.. and if it still doesn't work, maybe fall back on a Career Counselor.
-
I took the plunge and hired a career coach. I interviewed several people and went with the one who made me feel most motivated. I have scheduled the first session for early next month and have been doing some serious goal making and career researching. I'm also very happy that the person I hired plans to teach me how to do things like network and prepare a better resume. It's a birthday gift to myself to get my career back on track.
-
I took the plunge and hired a career coach. I interviewed several people and went with the one who made me feel most motivated. I have scheduled the first session for early next month and have been doing some serious goal making and career researching. I'm also very happy that the person I hired plans to teach me how to do things like network and prepare a better resume. It's a birthday gift to myself to get my career back on track.
I would love to hear how your future sessions go, this sounds really interesting and a great birthday present that could have a lasting impact on your long-term happiness (at least, career related)!
-
I took the plunge and hired a career coach. I interviewed several people and went with the one who made me feel most motivated. I have scheduled the first session for early next month and have been doing some serious goal making and career researching. I'm also very happy that the person I hired plans to teach me how to do things like network and prepare a better resume. It's a birthday gift to myself to get my career back on track.
I would love to hear how your future sessions go, this sounds really interesting and a great birthday present that could have a lasting impact on your long-term happiness (at least, career related)!
Very well! I'll report back here.