What Color Is Your Parachute?

In other words, you’ve got compassionate, caring people in the same field with bums and crooks. Your job, if you want help and don’t want to waste your money, is to learn how to distinguish the one from the other. It would help, of course, if someone could just give you a list of those who are firmly in the first category—honest and know what they’re doing. But unfortunately, no one (including me) has such a list, or ever has had. You’ve got to do your own homework or research here, and your own interviewing, in your chosen geographical area. And if you’re too lazy to take the time and trouble to do this research, you will deserve what you get. Why is it that you and only you can do this particular research? Well, let’s say a friend tells you to go see so-and-so. He’s a wonderful coach or counselor, but unhappily when you meet him he reminds you of your Uncle Harry, whom you detest. Bummer! But, no one except you knows that you’ve always disliked your Uncle Harry.

That’s why no one else can do this research for you—because the real question is not “Who is best?” but “Who is best for you?” Those last two words demand that it be you who “makes the call.”

A special word, here, to those considering paying any firm that focuses on executives or people who make or would like to make a high salary. (This warning is regarding firms, not individual counselors.) If you are an executive you are considered a fair target for any scam the mind can imagine. New ones appear every year. I have consulted with the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, and States Attorneys General over the years, where they have described the scams to me in detail. I have collected news items, done individual interviews with those who got “taken,” and I wish I could tell you about individual firms, but that’s not my job. Do your own research. If you are considering signing up with any such firm, Google them first: you will come across timely research about any firm. Example: http://corcodilos.com/blog/3219/theladders-how-the-scam-works-2. If you are too lazy to do this research, and subsequently get “taken,” let me share the words a Scotsman once said to me, when I got “taken”: “I’m sorry ya lost yer money, but ya dinna do your homework.”

Now, for all my other readers: your dilemma is between categories a and b above. How do you find an honest counselor who knows what they’re doing, and can give you a little bit of help, if you bog down in using this book, most especially chapter 13.

The first bright idea that will occur to you might be something along the lines of “Well, I’ll just see who Bolles recommends.” Sorry, no such luck. I rarely if ever recommend anyone. Some of the coaches or counselors listed in the Sampler at the end of this appendix, try to claim that their very listing here constitutes a recommendation from me. Oh, come on! They’re there because they asked to be. I ask a few questions, but I don’t have time to do any thorough research on them. This Sampler is more akin to the Yellow Pages, than it is to Consumer Reports. Let me repeat this—as I have for forty years now—and repeat it very loudly:

The listing of a career counselor or coach in this book does NOT constitute an endorsement or recommendation by me. Never has meant that. Never will. (Any counselor or coach listed here who claims that it does—either in their ads, or brochures, or publicity—gets permanently removed from this Sampler the following year after I find out about it, and without warning.) This is not “a hall of fame”; it is just a Sampler of names of those who have asked to be listed, and have answered some reasonable questions.

Consider the listings as just a starting point for your search. You must check them out. You must do your own homework. You must do your own research.

A Guide to Choosing a Good Career Coach

So, how do you go about this research toward the goal of finding a good career coach or counselor, if you decide you need more help than this book can give you? Well, you start by collecting three names of career coaches or counselors in your geographical area.

How do you find those names? Several ways:

First, you can get names from your friends: ask if any of them have ever used a career coach or counselor. And if so, did they like ’em? And if so, what is that coach’s or counselor’s name? And how do you get in touch with them, so you can ask them some questions before deciding whether you want to sign up with them, or not?

Second, you can get some names from the aforementioned Sampler in Appendix D. See if there are any career coaches or counselors who are near you. They may know how you can find still other names in your community.

Need more names? Try your telephone book’s Yellow Pages, under such headings as: Aptitude and Employment Testing, Career and Vocational Counseling, Personnel Consultants, and (if you are a woman) Women’s Organizations and Services.

Once you have three names, it’s time to go do some comparison shopping. You want to talk with all three of them and decide which of the three (if any) you want to hook up with.

What will this initial interview cost you, with each coach or counselor? The answer to that is easy: when first setting up an appointment, ask. You do have the right to inquire ahead of time how much they are going to have to charge you for the exploratory interview.

Some—a few—will charge you nothing for the initial interview. One of the brightest counselors I know says this: I don’t like to charge for the first interview because I want to be free to tell them I can’t help them, if for some reason we just don’t hit it off.

However, do not expect that most coaches or counselors can afford to give you this exploratory interview for nothing! If they did that, and got a lot of requests like yours, they would never make a living.

If this is not an individual counselor, but a firm trying to sell you a “pay-me-first” package up front, I guarantee they will give you the initial interview for free. They plan to use that “intake” interview (as they call it) to sell you a much more expensive program. They will even ask you to bring your spouse or partner along. (If they can’t persuade one of you, maybe they can persuade the other.)

The Questions to Ask

When you are face to face with the coach or counselor, you ask each of them the same questions, listed on the form below. (Keep a little pad, notebook, or PDA with you, so you can write down their answers.)

After visiting the three places you chose for your comparison shopping, you can go home, sit down, put your feet up, look over your notes that evening, and compare those places. A chart like this, drawn in your notebook, may help:

MY SEARCH FOR A GOOD CAREER COUNSELOR

Questions I Will Ask Them	Answer from counselor #1	Answer from counselor #2	Answer from counselor #3
1. What is your program?