Why should I hire a career consultant?

No matter what career situation you may find yourself in, you will find an enormous benefit from hiring a career consultant.

Are you dissatisfied with your current job?

What about being unemployed?

Are you about to enter the working world, and unsure of exactly what you want to do?

Or maybe you’re satisfied with your career, and just interested in what else is out there?

How about this: you love your job, and would never consider changing it, but want to make the most of it? To take it to new heights and move upward but don’t want to make a mistake?

No matter what career situation you may find yourself in, you will find an enormous benefit from hiring a career consultant.

What does a career consultant or career coach do?

(The terms “career coach” or “career consultant” have been used interchangeably at different points in time, but they all basically refer to the same thing: a person who guides another in planning, choosing and managing their career. While the specific title doesn’t matter so much, the expertise and execution of the specific consultant do.)

A career consultant is not just a person you hire to help you find a job. Instead, it is someone who helps you find and develop your ideal career. It is a very involved process. They take the time to learn about you comprehensively: what makes you tick, what you’re good at, what you’re bad at, what motivates you, how you like to work, how you relate to others, and on and on.

What methods do career consultants use to help me? Which is best?

This is done through a variety of methods. Some career coaches uses pure coaching or counseling techniques that enable you to clarify your direction through conversations… but this can take some time, and you run the risk of missing key ‘hidden’ aspects within you. Others use career tests. Most career consultants have access to a set number of career tests for which they have undergone the necessary training to interpret the complex results tailored uniquely to you.

The best career coach is one who uses both methods. From the tests, as well as pointed conversations with you, the career consultant will be able to tell a great deal about who you are as a person and about your current circumstance, needs and drives. They are trained to use this information to locate career opportunities and present them to you in accordance with the results they’ve gathered.

Should I use a career consultant to review my test results?

Absolutely!! The outcomes of the career tests they administer give lots of useful information, but to effectively extrapolate it takes a lot of training and knowledge. This is an important point.

There is a common misconception that anyone can just buy these tests and read the results like a map to their dream career. This is simply not the case. Definitely not! Most people who simply read their own results complain that the test didn’t help them at all, when, in fact, they never sought the services of the career consultant who offered the tests.

Bottom line: you simply can’t do it on your own.

You can’t get the full potential out of these tests without a career consultant’s help

The results and data from the tests provide a great deal of help, but can only be utilized to their potential when interpreted by someone trained specifically to do so. They will draw out hidden aspects of who you are, provide a fuller picture of the often simple labels used in the test to describe you, and most importantly…

apply the results to your needs – advancement, career idea, career direction, employment targets, etc, so you can use the results to accomplish your goals and dreams.

Career tests are just tools. They are like a map that lays out the topography of who you are. It’s a very complex map, and so you hire a Sherpa, or a guide (your career consultant), to help you read it and show you where to go and why. Even though you’re looking at the same piece of paper, the guide has been there before and can read it much better than you.

And, besides, reputable tests include a career consultation at no additional charge.

So is that the point of hiring a career consultant – just to interpret some complex career personality or interest career test for me?

Yes and no. It’s definitely part of it, but not the end purpose of their job. A test alone can’t and doesn’t change your end destination. You want the right career for you. That is the end destination.

Should I hire a career coach help me find a career (or new one)?

The main reason you hire a career consultant is to help you find the best career for the person you are and the situation you are in.

That applies to many situations:

• You’re in a career you love but have been there so long you yearn for something more. This is the “been-there-done-that” syndrome. A career coach will help you identify your strengths and passions to hone in on an exciting new niche.
• You hate your job. A career consultant will, with top-of-the-line tests, quickly identify what is missing and what is wrong, and set you on a path to a career you’ll love.
• You might just hate your boss or co-workers. A career expert will help you devise a strategy to manage your situation while you engage in a super-fast job search to land a position in an environment where you’ll thrive.
• Maybe you just need to find a career. You’re starting out in or after college without a clear idea about your ideal career.
• You’ve just gotten “jobs” and now you want a “career”. “Jobs” didn’t ever pan out into the career you were hoping for.

These are all reasons to use a career consultant.

Whatever your situation, you will benefit from the expertise of a knowledgeable, trained and experienced career consultant, because they will solidify and lay out your key objective. They will use the right mapping tools (career tests) to give “the lay of the land” that is – YOU. They will read the map for you so you can find the treasures of who you are for the career that will make you smile every day you wake up. And most importantly, they will navigate the map and terrain so you don’t just wander around needlessly for years.

So, to bring things back from the world of metaphors: you hire a career consultant to use and interpret a variety of processes in order to point you to the right career, and to equip you with tools to land it.

You will benefit.

They can point you somewhere you never would have guessed, or maybe somewhere you secretly suspected all along, or even in the exact direction you were going but to the niche you can’t see. No matter what you find out, you will benefit from knowing.

Career coaches want you to love your career and thrive in it. They want you to hear your alarm clock in the morning and smile, because you enjoy doing what you get paid to do.