My dear friends, colleagues, clients and students:
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (North Jersey Section) and Stevens
Institute of Technology (Hoboken, New Jersey) invited me to be a dinner speaker on March 20, 2007, for their graduating seniors. The topic was:
How to Make a Successful Transition from "Backpack" (academia) to "Briefcase" (world of work). The talk discussed several prerequisites for success, development of a personal infomercial, and how to handle office politics. Audience participation was excellent.
Many of you have asked me this question before: How do I select a good career counselor? Well, based on my past experiences and those of my colleagues, I have written this article for you, especially if you are a first-timer. The article in this issue is:
Twenty Tips on How to Choose the Right Career Counselor, Coach or Advisor. By popular demand, the favorite of many readers,
Food for the Soul, is also back.
Once again, a warm welcome to many of you from the pharmaceutical and
biotechnology industry who have recently requested the free subscription to our
monthly e-newsletter and other career-related information. We appreciate your
trust. Periodically, we publish special reports and articles on
industry-related topics which you will find informational. We trust you received the special report on Big Pharmas which was released in late March 2007 and is also in the
newsletter archive on our website at
www.careerquestcentral.com.
Career Doctor Don Answers Your Questions appears as a regular feature in the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE)—New Jersey Chapter newsletters. The September/October 2006, the November/December 2006, and the January/February 2007 newsletters can be viewed
here.
Many of you have asked us if we provide counseling over the telephone and through e-mail, as well as face-to-face counseling. The answer is 'yes' to both questions.
Pre-paying with credit cards is very easy, just a simple click, as can be seen on our website,
www.careerquestcentral.com.
Keep your feedback coming. Please feel free to share these newsletters with your friends, remembering to give us due credit.
Until we meet again through the magic of e-mail,
Peace! Love! Shalom!
Don Sutaria, MS, IE (Prof.), PE
Founder, President & Life-Work Coach, CareerQuest
Twenty Tips On How to Choose the Right Career Counselor, Coach or Advisor
by Don Sutaria
- Get names from friends and past clients.
- Select names from helpful books such as What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles.
- Perform a Google search, especially looking at web sites listing career counselors.
- Read at least a dozen professional biographies of the counselors and the nature of their clientele.
- Call at least three counselors and discuss your requirements and the counseling process with them. If a counselor does not give you at least 20 minutes of their time patiently, just skip to the next one.
- Be willing to travel in a 100-mile radius for an effective coach; don't be seduced by proximity!
- Be prepared to pay for a one-hour initial exploratory meeting, if you prefer a face-to-face meeting. In urban areas it is $150-$200 per hour.
- Talk with the person who is really going to counsel you, not a salesperson. Find out the length and depth of their experience.
- Find out the duration of counseling, costs, and success rate. Typical examples are:
- Career assessment: 6-8 hours
- Career change: 10-14 hours
- Resumes and cover letters: 4-6 hours
- Job search and change: 8-10 hours
- Specialized career issues: 2-4 hours (per issue) (Example: Work/Life balance)
- Be wary if an upfront contract is needed. Prefer to pay on a per hour basis.
- Do not use the telephone Yellow Pages. It is a very poor way of finding good career counselors; it is like trying to find a brain surgeon for a tumor!
- Ask for references and testimonials. They are sometimes hard to get because of confidentiality reasons; try anyway!
- Ask for written reports of all tests and evaluations.
- If you have a gut feeling that the personality match between you and the counselor is poor, it is a danger sign...STOP!
- Check out the counselor's degrees and credentials but do not be seduced by them!
- Prefer individual practitioners to group practice where responsibility can be diffused.
- If a career counselor insists that your spouse or partner be with you at all times, beware of manipulative techniques for financial gain.
- If you see a shared office with a person of another profession, beware of the front!
- If a counselor offers you cut rate fees between $50-$100 per hour, you will get what you pay for!
- Watch for a falsely implied promise of getting you a job! This is not the function of a career counselor.
Food For The Soul: A Touch Of Wonder
"There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of one small candle..."
This inscription was found on a small, new gravestone after a devastating air raid on Britain in World War II. Some thought it must be a famous quotation, but it wasn't. The words were written by a lonely old lady whose pet had been killed by a Nazi bomb.
I have always remembered these words, not so much for their poetry and imagery as for the truth they contain. In moments of discouragement, defeat and even despair, there are always certain things to cling to. Little things, usually: remembered laughter, the face of a sleeping child, a tree in the wind—in fact, any reminder of something deeply felt or dearly loved.
No person is so poor as not to have many of these small candles. When they are lighted, darkness goes away...and a touch of wonder remains.
Arthur Gordon
Book:
A Touch of Wonder
(Editorial Comments: A few samples from my bank of remembrances; small candles: the first time I met my wife-to-be, Elizabeth, at Riverside Church in New York City on November 16, 1969; wedding day, June 4, 1971; the births of my sons, Norman and Dale; obtaining my first college degree; witnessing the magic of sunrise over Mount Everest in the Himalayas; my mother's and father's first trip to the USA; my six-month backpacking journey around the world; my six-week bus trip in the USA; several trips to India with the family; playing with my brother and sister during childhood; Boy Scout camps and trips; my children's first words and their cute sayings; recovery of both my sons from major surgeries; recovery of my wife Elizabeth from misdiagnosed brain tumors; volunteer work with HelpLine; my first paycheck from the first full-time job after college graduation. Don Sutaria.)
Don Sutaria is Founder and President of CareerQuest (formerly New Life Career Counseling), located in New York and New Jersey. CareerQuest is also mentioned in "What Color is Your Parachute?" Sutaria is a consultant to individuals and various corporations, offering executive coaching and career management services. He has developed unique methods for capturing jobs in the new millennium. He appeared on a Phil Donahue TV special on unorthodox methods of job hunting. Known as "Career Doctor Don", he has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Star-Ledger, The Union Leader, WorkingSmart, SmartMoney, Fortune, and on WINS and WOR radio. He specializes in counseling of international professionals, Generation X (age 20-29), career changers, freelancers, consultants, mid-career executives and people over age 50. He really believes that your career is a pathway to your soul.
Mr. Sutaria has over forty years of diversified industrial and management experience, complemented by training in career development and hands-on experience in career advising. He is an international cross-cultural trainer. He has also served on committees of several organizations, and conducted courses, seminars and symposiums at Columbia University, New York University, Nyack College, Alliance Graduate School of Counseling, and Rutgers. He is a member of the Association of Career Professionals International and the Career Counselors Consortium.
Don earned his MS degree in Management from Kansas State University, an IE (Professional) degree in International Management and Personnel Relations from Columbia University, and obtained New York University's postgraduate Certificate in Adult Career Planning and Development.
