Hiring a career consultant is an important decision and one that requires a great deal of research to be done properly. The right career consultant will guide you to achieve the goals that you had thought were out of your reach, but the wrong consultant could cause you to waste years of your life in pursuing goals that do not fit your career aspirations. To avoid investing a lot money and time into a bad career consultant, you should take some simple steps to help find the professional that is right for you.
Write Down Your Career Path And Goals
It is difficult for a career consultant to guide you in the right direction when you don’t even know what you want out of your career. Before you start hunting for a consultant, you need to write down your career goals and outline what you would consider to be an ideal career path. You will probably leave out a lot of important details, but that is what the consultant is for. With this information, the career consultant can understand what you want and help you to find career success. While it’s not absolutely necessary to think about your goals beforehand, it helps to make the process more productive and gets you actively involved right at the start.
Do Some Internet Research
The Boston Globe points out that there are no real requirements to become a career coach. Anyone who feels that they are qualified to guide others to corporate success can say that they are a consultant. To protect yourself from the people who claim to get results but really just drain your bank account, you need to do plenty of Internet research before you choose a consultant to work with.
When you start investigating career coaches online, you will be presented with plenty of names of professionals who operate in your area. From there, you need to look into past experiences people have had with these consultants and start weeding out the ones who have a bad reputation. When people feel cheated by a bad consultant, they might go online to try and warn others. The same is true for people who work with very good consultants. They will give glowing reviews online that you can use in your process.
Talk To Potential Consultants Face To Face
Never make a final decision about the career consultant you will work with until you have talked to that person face to face. The ideal situation is to develop a list of 3-5 consultants you would feel comfortable working with and then doing personal interviews with each one. When you are asking questions of each consultant, make notes on their responses and use those notes to compare the consultants side by side before making a decision.
Do A Background Check
While there are no central governing bodies for career consultants, there are still organizations that offer certifications for consultants who want to take their jobs seriously. After you have performed your personal interviews, ask each consultant for their list of certifications and professional references you can call. You should call each reference and confirm each certification before making your final decision.
The right career consultant can help you achieve professional goals that will give you the satisfaction of a rewarding career. But it is up to you to do the work necessary to determine which consultant is right for you and which one can guide you to success.
Utilize the services of Sandbox Advisors to help you get your career on track. Call us today to get started!
One Reply to “How to Find the Right Career Consultant for You”