Career Consultant Overview
Acareer consultant, also known as a career counselor or a job coach, provides valuable insights regarding the job market and advice on how to effectively brand one's self in order to land and retain one's dream job. Career consultants work in nearly all aspects of career management including resume writing, personal branding and career-change. In addition, career consultants also help in conducting mock job interviews and deciding career-defining decisions.
Career consultants are usually employed in high schools, colleges and other educational institutions and are tasked to guide students decide in choosing the career path they'll take, while some are employed by consulting firms and even employment agencies.
With the coming of the Internet, many professionals have also entered the field of career consulting working as self-employed and freelance career consultants. Many career consultants online have also started their own consulting and coaching firms, selling not only their services, but also tangible products like audio CD/DVDs, books and career coaching manuals.
The take-home pay of a career consultant varies based on their hourly rate, monthly charges, the number of customers they have, the expenses they incur in relation to the nature of their job and the additional products and/or services they offer. Nevertheless, a successful career consultant can earn as much as $10,000-20,000 a month.
The following are some of theday-to-day tasks and responsibilities of a career consultant.
1) Helping clients improve their CV/resume by pointing out seminars, symposiums and short courses that can greatly enhance their skills and experiences.
2) Providing information and advice on how to search for a job effectively, including where and when is the right time to look for jobs in a particular industry.
3) Discussing with clients tips and tricks on how to impress upper and/or middle managers in order to land a promotion.
4) Explaining to clients unique ways and techniques on how to brand one's self and professionally network with others within and beyond one's industry using social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
5) Building long-term relationships with work agencies and other professional associations to get inside information regarding different work industries.
There is no defined educational requirement for career consultants, but degrees in management, finance, accounting, human relations and psychology can help increase the likelihood of success. A master's degree, particularly an MBA program, can also help career consultants attract more clients.
