l:href='http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/'>www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org. There are counselors 24/7 at both places who deal with anyone, including the military or veterans, in trouble.)
Clinical depression is an emotional illness of uncertain origin and cure. If we are the victims of this kind of depression, it usually antedates our period of unemployment, and is something we have wrestled with for some time. Many brave souls have endured this “dark night of the soul” for years, with astounding courage—even when the medicines and treatments that usually hold depression completely, or mostly, at bay, simply aren’t doing all they should be doing.
1. Sometimes the written contract—there is always a written contract, when you are dealing with the bad guys, and they will probably ask your partner to sign it, too—will claim to provide for an almost complete refund, at any time, until you reach a cutoff date in the program, which the contract specifies. Unfortunately, fraudulent firms bend over backward to be extra nice, extra available, and extra helpful to you, from the time you first walk in, until that cutoff point is reached. Therefore, when the cutoff point for getting a refund has passed, you let it pass because you are very satisfied with their past services, and believe there will be many more weeks of the same. Only, there aren’t. At fraudulent firms, once the cutoff point is passed, the career counselor suddenly becomes virtually impossible for you to get ahold of. Call after call will not be returned. You will say to yourself, “What happened?” Well, what happened, my friend, is that you paid up in full, they have all the money they’re ever going to get out of you, and now, they want to move on.
2. Two famous “distance coaches” are Joel Garfinkle in Oakland, California, www.dreamjobcoaching.com; and Marshall Goldsmith of www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com, international coach to the executive elite, and author (with Mark Reiter) of the popular book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
4. Yearly readers of this book will notice that we do remove people from this Sampler, without warning. First of all, there are accidents: we drop places we didn’t mean to, but a typographical error was made, somehow (it happens). Oops! Counselor or coach: call this to our attention; we’ll put you back in next year.
But accidents aside, we do deliberately remove the following: places that have moved, and don’t bother to send us their new address. Coaches and counselors: If you are listed here, we expect you to be a professional at communication. When you move, your first priority should be to let us know, immediately. As one exemplary counselor wrote: “You are the first person I am contacting on my updated letterhead… hot off the press just today!” So it should always be, if you want to continue to be listed here. A number of places get removed every year, precisely because of their sloppiness in keeping us up-to-date with their phone and other contact information.
Other causes for removal: Places that have disconnected their telephone, or otherwise suggest that they have gone out of business. Places that our readers lodge complaints against with us, as being unhelpful or even obnoxious. The complaints may be falsi.ed, but we can’t take that chance. Places that change their personnel, and the new person has never even heard of Parachute, or “creative job-search techniques.” College services that we discover (belatedly) serve only “Their Own.” Counseling .rms that employ salespeople as the initial “intake” person that a job-hunter meets. If you discover that any of the places listed in this Sampler fall into any of the above categories, you would be doing a great service to our other readers by dropping us a line and telling us so (10 Stirling Drive, Danville, CA 94526-2921).
