Career Coaching Q&A
Q: What services do you offer?
A: Finding and securing a job is a marketing exercise. I will help prepare you to market yourself in order to maximize the effectiveness of your job search.
The job search process is a series of several successive steps each with a multitude of nuances that need to be understood. Organizing, focusing, timing and completing these steps are critical to your job search success. I will personally mentor you to succeed along each step-of-the-way.
These steps include:
- Determining your career goals
- Evaluating your skills, knowledge experience in relation to your goals
- Reevaluating your goals based on the realities of the job market
- Discovering, defining and increasing your value to the job opportunities, positions and markets you seek
- Determining a strategy to best communicate the value you bring
- Communicating your value clearly through custom resumes and other collateral directed to the exact needs of your target audience.
- Discovering and uncovering appropriate openings and employers
- Networking for connections, leads, mentors and sponsors
- Utilizing the resources you have at your disposal including: social and business networking sites, job search engines, company websites, college career services departments and personal contacts.
- Applying – resume submittal, covers letters, application forms, online applications.
- Getting to the decision makers
- Conducting follow up calls and emails
- Handling inquiries of interest and rejection
- Phone interviewing
- Face-to-face interviewing
- Interview follow-up
- Asking the right questions
- Salary negotiating
For a real life and more extensive feel for my services, please read some of the testimonials from my clients.
Q: What experience and expertise will you bring to my job search?
A: You can best learn about my qualifications by viewing my bio and resume at Al’s Bio and Resume. Feel free to check out the rest of the offerings from the websites of our Staffing and Recruiting firm: WR Placement, Inc. and College to Career.
Q: What is this going to cost me?
A: I charge a reasonable hourly rate. Most people prepay me in 2-hour increments and receive refunds on time not spent. Keep in mind; I will keep you abreast of your tab for any time interval you desire. You are free to discontinue my service at any point and only obligated to pay me for the approved hours I have worked in your behalf. I have yet to encounter a resume or coaching client who feel they have not received excellent value for their money.
Your money spent with me is quickly recouped when you find a great job. In many instances, when I am helping young graduates, their parents are willing to help out because they understand the value of the service I provide and its relatively low cost compared to the overall cost of a college education. Frankly I don’t understand paying $100,000 or more for an education and then dropping the ball on my little charge when it comes time to finding your critically important first job after graduation.
Q: How long will this take?
A: I will be available to coach you throughout the entire process, however you are under no obligation and are free to end our relationship at any time.
Initially I want to see your resume, if you have one. Typically, I want to meet with you for an hour to get to know you. In our first interview, I’ll get a feel for your knowledge, skills, experience, passions, needs and expectations.
Afterwards, it takes approximately two hours for me to significantly improve your resume or about five hours to create one from scratch. After that, we do most of our work in ten to twenty minute intervals, over the telephone and via email.
Q: What value will you bring to my job search?
A: To get a more in-depth picture of what I do, please ask any of my past job-seeking clients.
