What Color Is Your Parachute? (61 page)

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Authors: Richard N. Bolles

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I did not choose the places listed in this Sampler; rather, they are listed at their own request, and I offer their information to you simply as suggestions of where you can begin your investigation—when you’re trying to find decent help.
⁵

Do keep in mind that many truly helpful places and coaches are
not
listed here. If you discover such a coach or place, which is very good at helping people
with
Parachute
and creative job-hunting or career-change, do send us the pertinent information. We will ask them, as we do all the listings here, a few intelligent questions, and if they sound okay, we will add that place as a suggestion in next year’s edition.

We do ask a few questions—because our readers want counselors and places that have some expertise
with
Parachute
, and can help job-hunters or career-changers finish their job-hunt using this book. So, if they’ve never even heard of
Parachute
, we don’t list them. On the other hand, we can’t measure a place’s expertise at this distance, no matter how many questions we ask.

So, even if listed here, they need to be thoroughly researched
by you
. You must do your own sharp questioning before you decide to go with anyone. If you don’t take time to research two or three places, before choosing a counselor, you will deserve whatever you get (or, more to the point, don’t get). So, please, do your research. The purse or wallet you save, will be your own.

The listings that follow are alphabetical within each state, except that counselors listed by their name are in alphabetical order according to their last name.

Some offer group career counseling, some offer testing, some offer access to job-banks, etc.

One final note: Generally speaking, these places counsel anybody. A few, however, may turn out to have restrictions unknown to us (“we counsel only women,” etc.). If that’s the case, your time isn’t wasted. They may be able to help you with a referral. So, don’t be afraid to ask them, “Who else in the area can you tell me about, who helps with job-searches, and are there any (among them) that you think are particularly effective?”

If you call a phone number in the Sampler that is any distance away from you, and they tell you “this number cannot be completed as dialed,” the most likely explanation is that the area code was changed—maybe some time ago. Throughout the U.S. now, area codes are subdividing constantly, sometimes more than once during a short time span. (We ask counselors listed here to notify us when the area code changes, but some do and some don’t.) Anyway, call Information and check.

Of course, if you’re calling a local counselor, you probably don’t need the area code anyway (unless you live in one of the metropolitan areas in the U.S. that requires ten-digit dialing).

*
Throughout this Sampler, an asterisk before their name, in orange, means they offer both secular and religious counseling, that is, they’re not afraid to talk about God if you’re looking for some help in finding your Mission in life
.

1.
Sometimes the written contract—there is
always
a written contract, when you are dealing with the bad guys, and they will probably ask your partner to sign it, too—will claim to provide for an almost complete refund, at any time, until you reach a cutoff date in the program, which the contract specifies. Unfortunately, fraudulent firms bend over backward to be extra nice, extra available, and extra helpful to you, from the time you first walk in, until that cutoff point is reached. Therefore, when the cutoff point for getting a refund has passed, you let it pass because you are very satisfied with their past services, and believe there will be many more weeks of the same. Only, there aren’t. At fraudulent firms, once the cutoff point is passed, the career counselor suddenly becomes virtually impossible for you to get ahold of. Call after call will not be returned. You will say to yourself, “What happened?” Well, what happened, my friend, is that you paid up in full, they have all the money they’re ever going to get out of you, and now, they want to move on.

2.
Two famous “distance coaches”are Joel Garfinkle in Oakland, California,
www.dreamjobcoaching.com
; and Marshall Goldsmith of
www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com
, international coach to the executive elite, and author (with Mark Reiter) of the currently popular book,
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
.

3.
Published by Que Publishing, Pearson Education.

4.
www.dreamjobcoaching.com/about

5.
Yearly readers of this book will notice that we do remove people from this Sampler, without warning. First of all, there are accidents: we drop places we didn’t mean to, but a typographical error was made, somehow (it happens).
Oops!
Call this to our attention; we’ll put you back in next year.

We deliberately remove places that have moved, and don’t bother to send us their new address.
Coaches and counselors: If you are listed here, we expect you to be a professional at communication. When you move, your first priority should be to let us know, immediately. As one exemplary counselor wrote: “You are the first person I am contacting on my updated letterhead…hot off the press just today!” So it should always be, if you want to continue to be listed here. A number of places get removed every year, precisely because of their poor communication skills, and their sloppiness in letting us know where they’ve gone to.

Other causes for removal: Places that have disconnected their telephone, or otherwise suggest that they have gone out of business. Places that our readers lodge complaints against with us, as being unhelpful or even obnoxious. The complaints may be falsified, but we can’t take that chance. Places that change their personnel, and the new person has never even heard of
Parachute
, or “creative job-search techniques.” College services that we discover (belatedly) serve only “Their Own.” Counseling firms that employ salespeople as the initial “intake” person that a job-hunter meets. If you discover that any of the places listed in this Sampler fall into any of the above categories, you would be doing a great service to our other readers by dropping us a line and telling us so: PO Box 370 (new box number), Walnut Creek, CA 94597.

Chemsak, Maureen J.,
NCC, LPC, MCC

Counselor

Athens State University

300 N. Beaty St.

Athens, AL 35611

Phone: 256-233-8285 or 256-772-7900

What Color Is Your Parachute? (61 page)

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