My experience is similar to what Rachel S. posted about ELC Global. For a costly fee north of $650, I am frankly no closer to having confidence in my career path than I was before I made the initial phonecall. The two counseling sessions I had mostly consisted of the coach confirming generalizations I already knew. After taking aptitude and competency tests- which were lengthy, I felt even more confused about which careers I should consider pursuing. At the top of the list of recommended careers was "nuclear engineer." Well, I failed biology in college and went on to study English Literature, so... Another recommendation was "shipmate." Needless to say, not helpful. When I emailed my coach my frustrations with how little progress I felt I was making, my questions were not well answered and my concerns weren't addressed. All suggestions she made, I took. There was nothing I was unwilling to do. When we reviewed my resume I felt grateful that I'd taken at least one useful bit for the money I paid. Then a while later I had several respectable professionals and employers review my resume and offer feedback; to say the least, my resume now looks entirely different after their many suggestions for revision. My coach's primary suggestion was to set up meetings with contacts I know, which anyone with any sense would have done anyway. But she didn't provide me introductions to any of her contacts, didn't suggest companies to focus on, and didn't give me tips on how to get my foot in the door. My coach asked me several times to write reviews for her to add to her LinkedIn page, seeming much more interested in advancing her own career than mine. And then when I would receive a response to an email with questions, she made it seem like it was pro bono work. There's more I could say about how frustrated I am to have spent a great deal of money and time on a service that was hardly helpful. I'm sure there are job coaches who are fantastic, but that was not my experience. They made a nice buck off of me for about 2 hours of work. There's nothing I learned from working with a coach that you can't learn in a book or through a quick internet search. read more

I was advised to seek the services of a career consultant in order to transition from academia to the nonprofit or government sector. I chose Elizabeth Craig who is a Master Career Counseling Professional and certified by the National Career Development Association. She came across as enthusiastic and highly experienced. $717.00 provided me with the following insights: 1) It's important to figure out what you value and what skills you have. This is important for the job hunt and your three minute elevator speech; 2) It's important to network in person and through Linkedin. To do so, your Linkedin summary should state what's important to you, what you're good at and where you want to go. You'll need at least 100 connections to look worthy. 500 connections means you're a superstar; 3) There are some useful websites like iSeek.org (if you want to work in MN, I am looking elsewhere) and myskillsmyfuture.org; 4) There are two highly recommended books: 100 Conversations for Career Success and The Two Hour Job Search; 5) You should design a new resume for every job to which you apply and if you're applying to federal jobs, use all caps for the experience that is most closely associated with the KSAs they want. The service itself involved completing several exercises similar to Myers Briggs, which, to be fair is what many career counselors use. These may be helpful to some depending on where you are in your career (search), but they were not very useful to me. For instance, because I like gardening apparently one career option I should look into is farming. The "career interest inventory" worksheet required me to move most of the fields into the "lowest" category because they were things like "clown," "animal trainer," and "attorney". If you need more sophisticated and complex counseling, it's likely that there are better avenues. I asked for specific advice on my resume and Linkedin profile, guidance on how to get a job in the federal government, and tips on transitioning from academia into another field. Perhaps 1-5 (above) is all I should have expected. But I also expected more analysis and fewer anecdotes. For my Linkedin summary, I asked for guidance on its revised content. ELC sent me word clouds made from the summary. Though these are pretty, they're not an analysis of how the summary might look to an employer. In the two hours of "counseling" that comes with the package, I was treated to anecdotes of what other clients had done and strikingly brief answers to the list of questions I had submitted. I had expected ELC to be more forthcoming both with questions for me as well as advice. Awkward silences ensued when I ran out of questions. ELC is probably very busy but forgetting a client's name in the middle of the first of two hour-long sessions and sending me well wishes for good weather when Minneapolis and Eden Prairie are not that far apart just added to my sense of regret. In any event, if you're interested in a relationship tailored to your specific job search needs, there may be better places to look. read more