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• Careers consultant: Paula

Careers consultant: Paula

This Case Study belongs to Careers consultant.

Paula graduated with a degree in biological sciences from the University of Sussex.

My career path to where I am now, which I love by the way, is perhaps typical in being atypical. The more people I meet in this line of work, the more I meet people who have come to it by a myriad of different routes.

In my case, I currently work part-time as a freelance careers consultant and part-time as a careers adviser to adults at my local adult community college. Unlike many careers advisers, I did not arrive there by way of a trainee position and the Qualification in Careers Guidance (QCG), which is the usual route. I had worked in management development for seven years and studied for an MSc in Career Management and Counselling at Birkbeck, London. I built confidence in my counselling skills through NVQs in Counselling Theory and Practice and a licensed career counselling skills course. I also became qualified in Occupational Testing (BPS Levels A and B) and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator.

Most of the people I meet who work as freelancers make a living by combining their one-to-one careers consultancy with recruitment, outplacement, lecturing, organisational development, executive coaching, or HR consultancy. It is important to be aware of how important marketing your services will be if you want to work freelance in this field. It takes real entrepreneurship as well as career consultancy skills to make a success of it.

After a degree in biological sciences, in my early career I spent time working for a voluntary wildlife conservation organisations (great fun, worthy but badly paid and family unfriendly hours!), in publishing (similar, but not so worthy) and latterly for an organisation providing management development and experiential learning for high-flyers in the public and private sectors. This was when I realised that career development was where I wanted to stay, and I started working as a freelance career development consultant.

After that I joined the Centre for Excellence in Leadership, helping to set up a national career development service for leaders and managers in the learning and skills sector. The services most in demand were career development workshops and individual career coaching.

I have a fascinating client group to work with at the college and find that working locally and part-time is great for having time for both my family and freelance clients. In addition to career counselling and career coaching work with individuals looking for change in their careers, I also design and deliver career development workshops, undertake research and writing projects, and continue my own professional development. The best thing about my work is that I feel that people find it of real value and even life-changing, and that is really motivating.

Case Study sourced by Louise Pardoe of AGCAS, 17 April 2008.