Benefits of Career Counseling

Everyone can benefit from counseling, but if you have certain handicaps, you can benefit more than most.  For instance, if:

You’re over 50.  If you look as if you’re approaching the half century mark, you need to be proactive in countering negative perceptions about being older.  There is always age bias in the work place, but it increases with the unemployment rate, which dipped to 9.5% nationwide in June and is currently hovering around 11% in the Charlotte area. 

 We counsel people not to worry about issues over which they have no control, and certainly there is no turning back the clock.  That does not mean, however, that there are not many subtle ways that you can alleviate concerns or perceptions regarding your age.  Every aspect of your job search, including your appearance, resume, networking, daily activities, elevator pitch, interview questions and answers, should be geared towards eliminating concerns regarding your age. 

You’re a technological troglodyte.  Many people over 50 are not tech savvy.  If you aren’t on LinkedIn, don’t know how to do a Boolean search, and have never considered having a personal website, you need to find out why these tools belong in your job search tool box and how to utilize them to jumpstart your job search. 

You want to make a career change.  Now is one of the most difficult times in recent history to make a career change—whether that entails a whole new industry or just moving into a new niche.  Most people are risk averse, and that includes employers.  They do not see it as their responsibility to think out of the box, to give a person a chance, or to bet on someone who may be a big winner in the long run but will need a lot of coaching in the short run.  Employers want very specific skills and experience, and they know they can get it.  You need to be very aggressive and a great salesperson to get someone to hire you in a new field right now. 

You’re a recent graduate.  As a recent grad, you have several things going against you.  You have relatively little work experience or skills.  The same goes for interviewing experience and skills.  You have probably had little or no sales experience (flipping burgers doesn’t count).  You may even be at a total loss as to what type of job you are looking for.  Be aware that your competition is that older person with experience who is willing to do an entry level job just to get his foot in the door.  Or it’s that kid from an Ivy League school who has known since he was six years old what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He has passion, and that is big competition for you if you still don’t know what you want to be when you grow up.

What you major in during college has no bearing
on what careers you can do afterwards.

                                    ~ Michael Bates

You haven’t looked for a job in the last five years.  The traditional rules of engagement have changed dramatically.  Not only is this a poor economy versus five years ago, but job search techniques have entered cyberspace.  What worked in the past won’t work now. 

You have no sales experience.  Finding a job is a sales job—one of the hardest sales jobs of all, for several reasons: 

•  Even people who know how to sell widgets or services have very little experience selling themselves. 
•  No one can see themselves. 
•  Objective input is hard to come by.
• To top it off, a lot of your networking is done by phone, and telephone sales can be particularly grueling if you don’t know what to say, how to say it, who to say it to; how to get past gatekeepers; how to initiate contact and follow up; how to write emails that people will open up, read, and act on; the most effective voicemails to leave.  

You’re uncomfortable selling yourself.  You may have parents who told you that “Children should be seen and not heard.”  “No one likes someone who brags.” Many people think that networking is about using people.  Is a dollar bill that you use to buy bread for your family evil?  Is a multi-million dollar foundation that helps the disenfranchised evil?  No, it’s how money is used that makes it the root of all evil or the currency that enables or saves lives.  Networking can be a way of reaching out to others and finding ways to help them.  It is a skill, and like any skill, it can be taught.  If you use the right networking techniques, even an introvert can come to enjoy networking.