With the economy tanking and the jobless rate skyrocketing, many individuals are feeling panicky about how to manage an entire job search program. For others who do have jobs there are a host of issues that they need addressed as well. Some are simple and some are far more cumbersome to deal with.
Unfortunately, many people believe their only option is to work with a recruiter and ask as many questions as they can and in turn hope for the help they need. Recruiters are usually happy to at least make the effort, if only for the reason that they are trying to make a placement and the resulting commission.
Recruiters, however, are not necessarily trained in any sort of career consulting. They may be able to offer some advice in resume preparation, especially for a particular client with whom you are hoping to interview. And they can certainly give you pointers on appropriate wardrobe selections or even help with some interview tips. But when all is said and done, that’s pretty much the entire contents of their recruiting and staffing repertoire.
And that’s fine. They are not career consultants. They don’t want to be career consultants because this type of service is time consuming. Recruiters have enough to do in the job hunting arena between finding clients who are hiring and finding candidates who are qualified to interview.
But what happens with job hunters who have needs above and beyond getting some interviews lined up with agency clients? What about individuals whose interviewing skills are so poor that even if they built a functioning time travel machine, they couldn’t find a job? Or people who find themselves embroiled in dysfunctional company politics and need some help in how to handle the resulting problems? What does a recruiter do when he finds out his new applicant has been verbally abused by her boss? These are all problems best dealt with by career consultants.
Many professional career consultants actually have experience as recruiters and even agency owners. They find out over the years, however, that they much prefer working with the candidates rather than the hiring companies. They become avid employee advocates. They are experts in focusing their people skills on each individual client and finding a viable solution for each unique problem.
Sometimes analyzing and resolving a problem can be done fairly quickly at the first session. Other times multiple sessions or meetings are called for, usually in situations where the problem itself is ongoing or perhaps the individual is trying to learn how to develop confidence and self esteem over a period of time.
Career consultants regularly work closely with recruiters and entire staffing agencies who have applicants who need a little extra attention, which recruiters don’t have time to provide or the knowledge to deal with. Many recruiters, frankly, just don’t want to be bothered.
What sort of issue would you be discussing with a career consultant? Here are some recent client problems:
A woman having an office affair that went bad was wondering how to handle the anger and how to handle a job change . An ad agency exec couldn’t put enough notes together to get a resume done even though he wrote award winning ad copy for internationally known companies. He could advertise others, but not himself. A long term business owner needed to find a job and didn’t know how to go about discussing this with possible employers. He was afraid to look like a failure while he interviewed then its good to consider a construction recruitment agencies for better options for the jobs and salary that is generally higher in multi national company.
What don’t we do? We typically don’t provide any type of vocational training or testing. We do not get involved in issues outside of the job hunting or career field. (We can’t help you with your mother in law!) And of course, we don’t find you a job although we frequently are able to supply leads or other referral sources.. A woman had to share her office with someone who had disgusting personal habits and needed to find a way to address the problem. A software engineer decided he had accepted the wrong job a few months beforehand and needed to look at his options.