The Career Practitioner Field: A Look at Private Consulting

By Stacey Campbell

Confucius, a prominent Chinese philosopher once stated: “If you find a job you love, you will never work a day in your life”. However, what Confucius has failed to mention is that finding the job you love is easier said than done. Cultivating the right career destination or education path can be a frustrating and challenging pursuit for many individuals. Recent statistics reveal that 50% of all university students either drop out, or change their major after their first year of post-secondary education (Train, 2003). Naidoo (2005) and Chew (2004) note that Generation Y (born between 1980-2000) will be prone to many more career changes in their lifetimes compared with their predecessors (Generation X and Baby Boomers). With the recent elimination of the Ontario Academic Credit (OAC), young people are forced to make major decisions regarding their academics and careers earlier in life. Furthermore, middle-aged populations, newcomers to Canada and individuals with disabilities face complex barriers and challenges when discerning a rewarding and suitable career. I think it goes without saying that the career practitioner field is a much needed profession!

As someone who is still relatively new to the “career field”, I set out to broaden my understanding of this important profession, but in particular, expand my knowledge of the various types of career practitioner roles that exist. Working in a post-secondary context, I wanted to gain a better appreciation for some of the benefits and challenges of career practitioner roles within the private, not-for-profit and government sectors as well. To address this initiative, I distributed electronic qualitative surveys to 10 career professionals within the Kitchener-Waterloo region and received in-depth feedback from five very different and unique participants from each sector. The current article will address issues and considerations specific to private career practice.

Independent consulting offers an array of career advantages including the luxury of being your own boss, establishing your own schedules and having the ability to make decisions independently. In addition, the private route puts you into a position of being able to select the types of clients and issues you would prefer to work with. Some of the other major appeals of private career consulting are having the opportunity to streamline and tailor the types of pre-employment activities to suit each client, versus having to deliver a pre-determined program, which is often the case within not-for-profit, post-secondary or government contexts. The professional autonomy of a private practice lends itself to more flexibility in implementing your own ideas and approaches, verses having to administer “prescribed off the shelf testing”.

Despite many attractive benefits of sole proprietorship, there are numerous obstacles and challenges to consider before embarking on your own career consulting practice. Although there is a luxury in being able to select the type of population and issues to work with, it is critical to ascertain whether your geographic region lends itself to that particular market. If you are going to establish a continual client base, you will need to identify and work with the available market, which does not always line up with serving a population for which you have a passion. For instance, if your passion is working with at-risk youth or newcomers to Canada, they are most likely not in a position to pay for private career services, regardless of whether or not you offer a sliding scale fee. Other obvious related issues would be positioning your practice geographically within an area that boasts the type of industry you are most interested in, and possess the most amount of knowledge of. For example, within the Kitchener-Waterloo region, private practitioners are able to specialize in technology and manufacturing due to the logical fit with the local labour force and economy.

Other challenges faced within private career consulting include the fact that the general public may not necessarily view career/employment counseling as a professional service and thus may expect you to assist their children or other “career confused” family members without the expectation of having to pay for the service. Managing this perception requires a delicate balance of streamlining your work so that you aren’t offering a lot of “free advice”, but providing enough information to entice people to pay into the consulting process. Along with other financial considerations, there is also the provision of having to accept that your pay cheque may hinge upon whether or not your clients secure and maintain employment for a specified period of time. This scenario occurs a great deal when your practice is based on working with a population of people tied to government funding dollars. Should your client not retain employment for the duration stipulated under the funding contract, you may not get paid despite a great deal of energy and time dedicated to the client.

As career advisors, we are constantly encouraging our clients to cultivate greater self-awareness regarding their personality types, interests, skills and values and to assimilate that self-knowledge into their career decision-making equation. Before deciding to pursue a private career practice, it seems only logical to undergo the same self-awareness process as there are various aspects of establishing an independent practice that may be a more natural fit with certain personalities. For instance, it is necessary to appreciate the extent to which one needs to sell and market their practice in order to establish a solid client base and reputation in the community. This would require significant energy particularly if one’s personality is more of an “introverted” nature. Other personality and lifestyle factors to consider is having to adjust to a non-guaranteed income with no health, medical, dental, vacation pay or pension benefits. Lastly, although several career consultants relish in the professional autonomy of private practice, they also point out that working alone can be isolating and significantly decreases the ability to quickly obtain a second opinion on complex client situations or readily have access to brainstorming sessions with colleagues. Therefore, within private practice it would be critical to stay connected with a reputable network of career-related professionals to ensure access to up to date resources and sounding boards where necessary.

On a positive note, all participants in the survey perceived the current job market as offering excellent opportunities for career practitioners, regardless of the sector. Considering that many people have a career change every five years, it has become an acceptable practice to terminate an employer/employee relationship without experiencing a future “career set back”, or being penalized. Given the greater liberty afforded to career changing, it opens the doors for private practitioners to “brand” and market their services specifically to career changers – the market is certainly ripe for it!

Another contemporary trend that may assist in the establishment of a private career consulting practice is that it has become common place for large companies to offer career consulting services (or commonly called “career transition/ outplacement” services) to employees affected by downsizing or layoffs. This service often comes to the ex-employee as part of their severance package and offers a fabulous opportunity for private practitioners to generate a client population in need of support and guidance regarding their next careers steps, while also being assured that the company will provide a generous (and often lucrative) reimbursement to you as the career service provider.

Stacey holds a BA in psychology, and an MSc in counseling. After serving as a couple & family therapist for almost four years, she serendipitously transitioned into the career advising field. Formerly self-acknowledged as “chronically career confused”, Stacey now finds her new work as a career advisor enables her to utilize this prior confusion in a pro-active way, which has lead to great enjoyment in helping students and alumni of Wilfrid Laurier University make more meaningful and informed choices around their careers.

References:

Chew, V. (2004). Generation X and Y practice. Society Record, 22 (4). Retrieved October 3, 2006, from http://nsbs.org/

Naidoo, N. (2005, July 13). Managers watch out for generation Y. The Star.

Train, T. (2003). Self Quest: Imagineering your Future. Retrieved September 13, 2006, from www.selfquest.ca