Customer Reviews

The Career Counselor's Handbook

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As a rookie in the field of Career Development I was in for some major surprises. As many Americans in today's society, I thought that the most frequently utilized tools of any professional career counselor would be assessment tests and occupational forecasts. Instead, I learned that these tools should be be used sparingly and with caution. Although still frequently used, the the highly skilled and professional career counselor makes it his/her mission to help the client use introspection, and ultimately, assume the responsibility for her/her own career development. I learned a lot about the field of career counseling, material which can not only be used when working with clients but also material that will be beneficial to my own career development. My two least favorite aspects of the book were the last chapter which dealt with "Hanging it up as a Career Counselor". Not that this Chapter shouldn't have been included, but I felt as that it was a downer of an ending. Also, it was recommended that the Counselor be ready to bring God and sprituality into the counseling session(s) if the client seems ready to do so. Maybe it is because I am new, but I find religion and spirituality to be so personal and unique to the individual, that I would be uncomfortable doing this. Religious values and beliefs are so varied that I think one would have to be highly knowledgeable about both world religions and the world of work.

This book is a gift to anyone who is interested or involved in career counseling. It holds a wealth of clear, helpful and practical information that has been gathered and tested by two writers who have become leaders in their field, and who have in this book shared their wealth of experience. It provides a superb history of the ideas and events in the history of career counselling from 1909 to the present that will be valuable to both the student and the practitioner. It successfully integrates the academic, the spiritual and the intensely practical aspects of career counseling, and shows its relationship to life planning. The basis of this counseling approach is empowering individuals, so that clients 'take charge of their career development, make their own decisions and act on those decisions'. The writers take a firm stance on career assessment tools. There is sound advice on managing groups and group processes as well as an initial framework for running career counseling in a group. There is also practical advice on how to unblock clients, how to deal with the impossible client and how to counsel someone when you only have one hour. This book supports the proactive job search approach, self-employment, entrepreneurship and selling yourself. This is no standard textbook on counseling - it is a focused, practical and helpful guide that stays with its own topic and provides real tools and helpful advice, based on sound research and practice. I believe this book goes far in providing the career counselor with the tools they need to succeed, and, and in a wonderfully readable form.

When I purchased this book, I found myself inspired, refreshed and enlightened by the contents. After doing career counseling for over 20 years, I am delighted to be caught up anew in the possibilities. I called up four colleagues and started a book discussion group. We are working our way through the ideas herein, beginning with the authors' distinctions between information, knowledge, and wisdom. Brilliant, and very helpful! I recommend this to career practitioners who wish to sharpen their skills and focus. Bravo!

This book gives sound advice and an overall view of how career counseling works. Some good ideas for counselors and job seekers alike.

Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D., author of "The Accelerated Job Search" docwifford@msn.com

This is an excellent book for the beginning career counselor and offers a lot of good advice and resources for more experienced professionals as well. It is well-written and it is obvious that Mr. Bolles is passionate about his topic.

The thing I like best about this book is that it focuses on matching what people like to do to a career choice rather than simply matching people's skills or what they are good at to the needs of the market. This puts the client's best interests squarely at the center of the counseling process. It also drives home the point that deep right hemisphere introspection is a necessary prerequisite to making a fulfilling decision. This point is often underplayed or ignored in other books.

Mr. Bolles also brings in the often controversial topic of how career (or vocation) relates to spirituality and how one might address this with a particular client. Although this is not a standard practice, the reality is that for many people spiritual considerations are important. Handling this connection between the two is delicate, but is certainly an option with many clients and potentially an added value that will be appreciated by many. Whether you decide to enter this territory or not, this section is good food for thought and it isn't an opinion that dominates the rest of the book.

While I like this book and think it offers good practical advice and contains some very good resources, it also has some shortcomings. For example, I think it underplays the value of psychological testing and has a tendency to oversimplify these kinds of big decisions. On the other hand, it emphasized peak experiences and mining them for clues to a client's values which also sheds light on deep psychological motivations. This approach also tends to bypass negative scripts or schemas that undermine many clients.

In short, I think this is a good roadmap for career counseling which I do a fair share of in my practice. While I think for many clients there are other tools to augment this process that Mr. Bolles doesn't mention, he does talk about many important skills and provides a good structure for this type of work. For those that are interested in other tools, there is certainly a lot of complimentary reading material that one can explore.

This is a great book about not just helping people find a job, but helping them find themselves and fulfillment in their career. For the job seeker this book is also a great tool for understanding both yourself and the career counsel you may seek.

I have been a sports coach for 35 years now and the information in this book is valuable for all managers coaches and team leaders.
It gives great insights into to leading people to their on ends and helping them achieve to those ends. Spectacular information

The book is very helpful and easy to read. I recommend it to anyone who's a career counselor.

Overall I found this book to be very useful. The short, concise chapters made the information easy to digest. I work with undecided college students, so not everything was relevant, but the majority of the book served as a great refresher. Every career counselor will make it his or her own, but there are many useful suggestions and ideas that can be adapted to different situations.

I realy hate to say this, but this book was not worth the purchase price. The authors are not up to speed with today's concepts and technology. They hate assessment in any form. They don't get the difference between testing and assessment. There is no recognition of social media or similar.
The popularity of this book is riding on the coatails of Bolles, but honestly it makes me question his other books.
I was hoping to recommend this book to my students, but no way, no how.