WHY ARE WE HIDING?
(November/December 2005 Issue)

In a new book detailing the trials of a job search, Bait and Switch, author Barbara Ehrenreich spends six months and several thousand dollars in pursuit of a middle-class job. Not once in the entire book does the reader see the term career counselor. Not one single time is the phrase career counseling mentioned. How could Ehrenreich not stumble over a career counselor, even by chance? Were the career counselors trying to hide from her? The author is only a sample of one, but it causes me to wonder: Why are career counselors so hard to find? You could say that the author already made her tentative career decision (public relations), but does that mean career counselors cannot help her with job hunting? What if the job-seeker waffles on her intended career choice?

We could take the high road and say that counselors should not be self-promoters. But, if we look at the struggles many career counselors have in their private practices, the high road may be exacting a financial penalty. The low road is hard-selling, misrepresentation, and even multi-level marketing. But there are plenty of roads in-between. I suspect that many job-hunters might have experiences similar to Ehrenreich's. They start out oblivious about who can help them, not knowing where to look first. How are career counselors supposed to appear on their radar screens? Whatever the magic promotional formula may be, career counselors have not found it.

Keep in mind the potential market. On any given day, literally thousands of people are in serious need of career development help and job search assistance. Yet precious few pay any dollars for it. If they knew help existed, even the hope of help, many would consider it a good investment. Sure our services are not perfect. But a hungry person will wolf down a mediocre cheeseburger. For all the individual knows about the services of career counselors, we might as well be in Serbia. If visibility is the problem, then what does one little ol' career counselor do about it? Margaret Mead said small groups of people have often provided responses to the world's problems, so let's get going.

Career counselors offer value. Put us in the same room with people who need jobs and career direction, rope off the room for 48 hours, send in pizza, and good things will happen. You and I both have confidence that career counselors are well-trained, competent individuals. It should absolutely bug you, make you lose sleep at night, that we cannot get all these helpers and helpees together.

How about a Career Counselor Fair in your local area? Free career help for anyone who shows up. All practitioners in your area sign up for all the Fair hours. Help-seekers circulate until they find who they like. A high profile event. Lots of publicity. The idea is to not only help people, but make the name of Career Counseling visible in a big way. This means getting together with your colleagues and instead of regarding them as competitors, working with each other toward the larger goal of public awareness.

Maybe it's a silly idea, but we need to discover what works! I'm dog tired of being a low profile profession. I'm weary of hearing: "Now what is it that you do?" I'm upset that legions of people are crying for job and career change, we have the appropriate training to help them, and they're all walking around in the dark.

Read Bait and Switch and you'll be disappointed at how daunting the task of job hunting becomes for Ehrenreich, a highly intelligent and savvy woman who nonetheless gets caught in the bureaucratic muck of the so-called job market. She squanders her time canvassing the 10-20 per cent of visible jobs, therefore missing the 80-90 per cent hidden job market. She fails to discover or makes only slight use of the information interview and does not concentrate her energies on meaningful face-to-face contacts. She could really have used a career counselor.

Read Ehrenreich's book as a tour of what is going on in our profession. Her comments about over-use and mis-use of the Myers-Briggs are instructive. She quickly gets the message about the importance of networking but then applies it in a superficial way, partly because people tell her to. She concludes that resume deception (not lying, more like inflating and artful phrasing) is "part of the game" and moves nimbly on.

Overall I was left with a disquieting impression of a highly professional, top-achieving journalist and author who was intimidated by the complexity and scope of the job-hunting system. While her brain is trying to figure it out, the "system" keeps pushing her to do this, do that, don't make mistakes. It can overpower even the best and brightest, at least temporarily.

All the more reason for career counselors to assert themselves , become high profile, and put their excellent service right in the path of those in need, where they can't miss it. Career counselors are best equipped to guide job hunters in navigating the system. How do we get the message out there? Get riled up (you deserve to double your business). Become comfortable with promotion. The potential clients are massed over there. But they can't see you.

Howard Figler, Ph.D., is the author of seven books, including The Complete Job-Search Handbook [third edition, Henry Holt & Company, New York, 1999], a best seller for many years. He is co-author [with Richard Bolles] of the Career Counselor's Handbook [Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA, 1999]. His most recent book is Keys to Liberal Arts Success [Prentice-Hall, 2002]. He can be reached at: Howard Figler, Ph.D., and Associates, 9542 Shumway Drive, Orangeville, CA 95662 USA.
Tel: 916-988-6464;
e-mail: hefigler@pacbell.net.