What Color Is Your Parachute 2018 by Richard N. Bolles copy

If You Decide You Need One
Fortunately, there are a lot of people out there, anxious to help
you with your job-hunt or career-change, in case this book isn’t
sufficient by itself. They go by various names: career coach,
career counselor, career development specialist, you name it.
They’re willing to help you for a fee—because this is how they
make their living. That fee will usually equal the fee charged by
other types of counselors in town, say, a good psychologist. That
will range from about $40 an hour in rural areas, on up to…you
don’t want to know. The fee may be charged by the hour
(recommended) or as one large lump sum up front (definitely not
recommended). And most towns or cities of any size have free or
almost-free help, too, even though it’s likely to be in a group and
not face-to-face with an individual counselor.
Now, about those coaches or counselors who charge to help
you. There are some simply excellent ones, out there. In fact, I
wish I could say that everyone who hangs out a sign in this
business could be completely recommended. But—alas! and
alack!—they can’t all be. This career-coaching or careercounseling
field is largely unregulated. And even where there is
some kind of certification, resulting in their being able to put a
lot of degree-soundin’ initials after their name, that doesn’t
really tell you much. It means a lot to them of course; in many
cases, they purchased those initials with their blood, sweat, and
tears. (Although a few, sad to say, got the initials after their
name by mail-order or after one long weekend of training. Tsk,
tsk. But, oh well, no different I suppose from a lot of other
professions. Some people are always looking for shortcuts.)
I used to try to explain what all those initials meant. There is a
veritable alphabet-soup of them, with new ones born every year.
But no more; I’ve learned, from more than forty years of
experience in this field, that 99.4% of all job-hunters and careerchangers
don’t care a fig about these initials. All they want to