TYPES OF CAREER SERVICES AND THEIR PITFALLS 

     There are four basic formats career service providers use to construct what they offer and sell, and the four formats can be combined in various ways.  Each format has its own set of pitfalls.

    1.  ADVICE GIVERS.  This type of service, whether called "coaching," "consulting" or something else, essentially involves the provider telling you what to do.  They won't do anything; you will do everything.  For many, what they tell you will be nothing new.  If you need or like someone to talk to, or if you really have no idea what needs to be done and don't want to learn from a book, this may be useful.  Before you write your check, there will be lots of hype about how good they are, their success rates, how much they help you, etc.  Be sure that this kind of service will be enough for you, or you will be sorely disappointed. 

POTENTIAL PITFALLS:  Talk is Cheap and Plentiful.  Telling you one's own opinions, speaking in generalities, and telling you what to do is quite simple when there is no responsibility for the result.  Most "advice mills" recycle the same old wisdom over and over and offer little new, although in the process of getting you to part with your cash, they will sure try to make it sound new, exciting and novel.  I'm not suggesting that the advice will be bad or erroneous in any way, as it will probably be valid (or mostly so)--only that it may not be advice that your really need, and the same information can be found in many books on the subject, which would cost you much less that these services.  You probably already know what to do, anyway.  If their advice doesn't work for you, too bad.  They did what they said they would do (essentially nothing).  It will be easy to blame you as, after all, you were the one supposed to do it.  They never guaranteed any results (see below). 

No plan is worth beans unless it can be implemented effectively.  If you don't think you can effectively implement a plan, don't pay someone else to help make one up with the understanding that you'll implement it, no matter how much "help" is verbally promised.  The Plan will undoubtedly include one or more of the following activities: personal networking to ask for company or job leads and informational leads (not necessarily jobs directly), sending letters, e-mails and/or making cold calls (and letters usually mean follow-up calls, 9 of 10 of which will be "cold," as your letter probably got ignored or forgotten).  If you're not prepared to jump into the middle of those marketing and selling activities, an advice-give is not what you need.

    2.  DOCUMENT PROVIDERS.  This type of service usually consists of creating a document such as a resume and/or a cover letter for you.  You then take the document and the provider's job is done.  They may include one or more re-writes if you are not happy with the document.

POTENTIAL PITFALLS:  Your opinion of the resume or cover letter is irrelevant, so if you need a provider to prepare a resume for you, you will probably have no idea whether it's good.  The only proof of a good resume and cover letter is the results (interviews) they get you.  You won't know that until you use them.  If you knew what your future employer wanted, you'd write the resume yourself.  You're going to someone who's supposed to know. There are as many resume styles/formats as there are people writing resumes.  No one resume style appears consistently better than another (otherwise everyone would use it and then they'd all look the same).  The proof, as they say (whoever "they" are), "is in the pudding" (i.e., the results)  Thus, you may be "accepting" the work product with no idea of its value.  In addition, your resume and any introductory communications should "fit" your overall marketing plan and target audience.  If those haven't been refined, you are, in some ways, shooting in the dark in preparing those documents.  A mass-mailing may be very successful for a mid-level marketing executive and pathetic for a CFO or general counsel. 

    3.  MECHANICAL SERVICES.  Once you have a resume and cover letter, you will need a list of people to send it to and will have to print copies, personalize cover letters, address and stuff envelopes.  There are databases that can be searched to create lists based on criteria you specify, such as public or private companies in a certain geographic area having $X in gross revenues and/or Y number of employees.  The lists also may contain names of executives and the names may even be accurate and current.  If your target market can be defined in that way and you don't have access to such databases, or you want the assistance in the mechanics of preparing a mailing, this can be helpful.  Mailings are a numbers game and can work, with the probability of success being a function of the type of position you seek, the validity of the assumptions used in creating the mailing list, whether the list data is current, the number of pieces you mail, and the strength of the resume and cover letter.

POTENTIAL PITFALLS: If combined with 2, above, it will have all of those pitfalls identified for #2.  If you do a mass communication with ineffective materials, you may be poisoning the well.  Once you contact someone with one set of materials and they are not interested, it is hard to contact them again unless you wait long enough for them to forget you and discard your resume.  Many suggest that a mailing alone is not sufficient and that a follow-up call should be made.  If you send out 12,000 letters, follow-up calls are impossible.  Also, if you hate cold-calling and are then told this is part of the process, you will not be happy.

     4.  AGENCY SERVICE.  Probably the most valuable, most expensive and most difficult to find service.  This service involves the service provider acting as your agent in contacting potential employers and "selling" you.  They may use any number of tools, including their own networks and materials and generally take responsibility for getting you one or more interviews.

POTENTIAL PITFALLS:  There is not much bad to say about this kind of service, assuming you can afford it, but it is not without some potential problems.  First, your success is tied to the personality and skills of the provider.  If, for any reason, your agent is not good (i.e., effective), good in your target industry, or otherwise fails to "connect" with the employers of your dreams, you may be the loser, even if there are employers that would otherwise love you.  If a significant part of the agent's compensation will come from a "success fee" (based on actually finding you a job or getting you an interview) their overriding concern will be to maximize the value of their time.  If they start working with you and find you difficult to place, their attention and efforts will shift away from you.  If there is a time period involved, you should be aware that unless you still appear to be a "hot" prospect, you will be dropped.