Many job finding books and articles in business magazines have expressed negative attitudes toward job counseling for executives. A friend and executive recruiter who heads his own successful executive search firm, and with whom I have given a number of job finding seminars, expresses the idea most succinctly: "There is nothing that an executive job counselor can do for you that you cannot do for yourself better and with less expense." If you apply the techniques in this book, you can do a better job than anyone else could possibly do for you under most circumstances. This is because you know the product (yourself) better than anyone else; you can control the pace of your own campaign, and no one will fight as hard for you as you will fight for yourself.
Another argument against using executive job counselors is that partial counseling services are available for a fraction of the cost. For example, the University of California at Los Angeles has a career counseling center that caters both to executives and to students. This center's program includes the following:
Preliminary Interviews
You discuss with your counselor a psychologist your specific career problem, your education, your work experience to date, and other facts in your background which could relate to your choice of a career goal.
Testing
You take tests carefully selected to meet your individual situation and your interests, abilities, special aptitudes, and personality needs. You do not pass or fail these tests. The results help you and your counselor study your preferences, needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Your test results are professionally analyzed by psychologists trained in individualized test interpretation and aware that tests can have widely varying implications for different individuals.
Evaluation Interviews
Test results are integrated with background data and are fully discussed by you and your counselor to help you understand yourself and your potential for personal, career, and/or educational growth. You discuss with the counselor the various careers suggested as appropriate for you and formulate plans for reaching your chosen objective.
Where educational or training plans are involved, you discuss appropriate colleges and majors, or other schools, training facilities, or individual courses.
Written Summary
A summary including test results and counseling conclusions is mailed to you after the program has been completed.
The charge for this entire program is currently $425 perhaps one tenth of the cost of using an executive job counselor. For many executives, such partial counseling services are a better investment.
A final drawback of using executive job counselors is that none of them can guarantee you any job. But I believe that you can guarantee yourself a job and a superior one by knowing the correct techniques and then applying them.
How Executive Counseling Can Help You
Despite these disadvantages, my own investigation did uncover a number of reasons why it may be in your interest to use an executive job counselor.
How to Screen a Job Counseling Firm
If you are thinking about using an executive job counselor, I want to caution you in two areas. First, beware of some very sophisticated marketing techniques that are used. If you contact a job counseling firm either through the mail or by telephone, you can expect efforts to persuade you to visit the counselor for a "no charge" interview. You can also expect that during this interview, the firm will sell you on its services and ma>. Apply considerable pressure for you to sign up for its program. Finally, you may expect that these services will not come cheap. At a minimum you will be paying several thousand dollars. The unfortunate thing about the strong sales tactics is that they come at a time when the executive job hunter may be desperate. It is hard to make a clear headed decision for or against employing the counselor under such circumstances. Therefore, you should avoid signing any contract for services with an executive or consultant or counselor without a thorough investigation. This Investigation should take the following form:
- Ask for the names of five executives that you can talk to who have used this firm's services. Naturally, you can expect all these executes to be boosters of the firm under question. But you should have your or m list of questions when you talk to these executives. Sometimes, even it lough the response is favorable, you will uncover facts that make it clear fiat this specific firm is not for you.
- You should not be embarrassed at all to ask what the success rate has been in helping executives. Most firms will clearly state that they cannot guarantee a job for you. However, you want to know h< w many people actually found their jobs as a result of using their services. Vow, it is easy to lie here, and you may not get a forthright answer. But merely asking the question gives you an opportunity to observe how the person answers it or evades it and you will learn a lot about how he conducts his business.
- Insure that you get in writing exactly what the executive job counselor is going to do for you in return for the money you are going to pay. I emphasize here that this should be in writing. Don't confuse vague promises with what you think you are contracting for. If something that has been promised verbally is not in the contract, have it written into the contract or don't sign the contract.
- Check with the Better Business Bureau in your area. One or two complaints may mean nothing. On the other hand, a number of negative reports definitely indicate that there is a problem. In any case, if there is some question, you should feel no embarrassment about asking representatives of the firm to explain the situation themselves.
- Finally, you should check around on your own. Ask friends not only whether they have used the services but whether they know or have heard of anyone else who has. Remember that any type of consulting is a very personal thing. Therefore, even a well known firm that may be great in one city may not do as well in another city; or even within a firm, certain counselors will do a better job than others. Therefore, the more you can find out about them on an individual basis, the better off you will be.
- Find out whether the person actually speaking to you is the one that will be performing the services. You want to deal with someone you feel comfortable with. However, sometimes you will find that the counselor you are talking with does only the selling. You will be turned over to someone you haven't met before once you are on contract.
