Frequently-Asked Questions: An Interview with Joellyn Wittenstein Schwerdlin

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Please take a moment to read this, before hiring Joellyn:

(1) What do you do as a career coach? Who are your clients?

I have a private practice where I work one-on-one with executives, managers, and professionals who are ready to make a change in their employment situation, but they don’t know what that change looks like, or what their next steps should be. I help clients establish an ideal career path which offers them the right level of compensation, satisfaction, and opportunities for advancement, in the best location and workplace environment: whether this means landing a different position or promotion within their current employer, a new position inside another company, or even starting / revamping their own business or consulting practice.

Just to be clear: I’m not an employment agency or recruiter, nor am I hired by companies to fill positions for them.

As your career coach, my top priority is YOU: I am your advocate on your side of the interview table. I have a vested interest in helping you make your job and career transition as quickly and smoothly as possible. My private mentoring, plus the tools of my 8-module career coaching program will equip you with everything you need to achieve this goal. Side note: Please scroll down to (9) for details about this program.

(2) Have you worked with clients in my industry?

I have worked with dozens of clients at various levels across a wide scope of industries, including (but not limited to) the following sectors and situations:

(3) What happens if you haven't worked with people in my field?

Most likely I have worked with people in your field. Yet, if I haven't, you are not at a disadvantage, quite to the contrary. Here's why: people in your field are probably all making the same mistakes in their career searches. What my clients have found is that I bring a fresh perspective and new paradigms to their search campaigns and give them resources they've never heard of in their field. Because of this, they stand out in an overcrowded labor market and are the ones who get hired and promoted faster.

(4) What are your credentials and background?

I earned my Certified Career Management Coach-CCMC (through Career Coach Academy) recognized by the International Coach Federation (ICF) as Accredited Coach Specific Training Hours (ACSTH). To maintain this credential, I am required to complete 10 hours in Continuing Education Units every 2 years. I also received a Job & Career Transition Coach-JCTC designation from the Career and Adult Development Network.

My credentials also include a Certified Professional Resume Writer-CPRW designation, which I earned in 1994. You'll find sample resumes, cover letters, and other contributions I've written featured in the following publications: Cover Letters for Dummies (2009); Job Search Bloopers (2008); Gallery of Best Resumes, 4th Edition (2007); Best Resumes for College Graduates to Land $75,000+ Jobs (2004);Gallery of Best Resumes, 3rd Edition (2004); Gallery of Best Cover Letters, 2nd Edition (2004); Resume Maker Professional 11.0 (2003); America's Top Resumes for America's Top Jobs (2002); Gallery of Best Resumes (2001); Gallery of Best Resumes for People Without a Four-Year Degree (2000), Gallery of Best Cover Letters (1999) and others.

Prior to my work as a career coach, I earned my Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. After graduation, I moonlighted as a professional singer while holding administrative positions in the corporate world across various industry sectors, including academia (medical school), business valuation, insurance (personal lines), manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals, as well as nearly two years in the HR department of a social service agency for developmentally disabled adults and children.

(5) How did you get into the field of career coaching?

You might say that career coaching found me! When I was downsized from my HR position in 1989, I decided to have my resume written at a branch of the oldest, largest resume service at the time. The chief writer of this branch was impressed with my writing and communication skills and hired me on the spot, to learn the resume-writing craft and to help with overflow work. After working in this firm for awhile, I discovered I could do just as well on my own. So, I opened my own resume writing business in December 1991.

I got clients right away who were pleased that the resumes I wrote helped them land interviews -- and job offers! However, I would find clients returning to me in a year or two, lamenting that the new jobs weren't such a good fit after all. What I discovered was that while a client's need was a resume update, the problem was that they didn't know which motivated skills, interests, and values would lead to career satisfaction. That’s when I decided to expand my practice into career coaching.

(6) How will we work together?

I have a virtual practice which allows me to work remotely / long distance with nationwide clients. This means that I conduct all coaching appointments over the telephone and web conferencing, and exchange all information by email and fax. Clients enjoy the convenience and flexibility of working with me from the privacy of their home, outside of work, at their own pace and time schedule, without having to travel.

(7) How will we get started working together?  

We’ll begin with a Career Action Planning (CAP) Session to determine where you are getting stuck, stalled, or confused in the process of making your career transition.  

During this two-hour assessment, you and I will discuss your situation in detail. This will include a “guided tour” of your career, so I can see all the decisions which led up to today.

I’ll listen, ask important questions, and provide you with feedback:

·         What’s Working: Job search and career strategies that seem to be on track along with personal qualities, skills and strengths that have served you well. You may already be doing many things right, even though you haven’t reached your goals yet.

·         What’s Needs Attention: Pointing out what you can change or add to your career and job search campaign to get better results.

·         Next Steps: An action plan to get you unstuck and moving forward.

(8) What happens after the CAP Session?

We’ll schedule a follow-up meeting one week later to discuss the CAP Session findings and to determine if my career coaching program would be a good investment for you, if you feel unable to reach your career goals alone. Some clients get exactly what they need from the CAP Session by itself. Others prefer my full career coaching program, because the accountability and support they get from me makes their transition happen much faster than working alone.

(9) What is your career coaching program? What does it include?

This is a one-on-one mentoring program with me, where we’ll cover the following:

Module 1: Success Factor Analysis: Your Motivated Skills Sets: We’ll uncover your Key Success Factors which are your strongest, most enjoyable, and marketable skill sets, supported with solid examples of how you’ve naturally used them throughout your entire work/life to achieve accomplishments which were important to you.

Your Key Success Factors will be the foundation of your career search campaign, to be used in four ways:

1.    To confidently present yourself to networking contacts and potential employers, so they’ll see your success patterns -- not just your past jobs and experience;

2.    To create compelling content for your career marketing collateral, such as resumes, cover letters, social networking profiles, and verbal messages;

3.    To evaluate what types of career positions or situations would be right for you;

4.    To take control of networking conversations and employment interviews.

Module 2: Define Your Ideal Career Position: The Work You Want to Do, Where You Want to Do It. Your Key Success Factors (uncovered in Module 1) will be the major building blocks of your ideal career position. We’ll also use the results of career interest and personality assessments, along with strategic brainstorming exercises, to determine the career path which will be the most perfect fit for your personal and professional needs.

Module 3: Career Marketing Collateral: Redesign Of Resumes, Cover Letters, Social Networking Profiles, and Verbal Messages which will set you apart from the competition, get you noticed by hiring managers in your target companies, and will clearly convey “what’s in it for them” if they hire you -- and leave them wanting more.

Module 4: Master The Art of Referral/Exploratory Interviews / Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market. You’ll learn the three phases of Referral Interviewing: Focus, Validation, and Positioning, to get key information about your target employers as well as inside connections to hiring decision makers -- leading you to hidden job market opportunities without burning bridges with your networking contacts in the process.

Module 5: Organize an Effective Job Search, Mixing Online and Offline Strategies. Learn the 45 ways to job search, among basic, intermediate and advanced techniques. The idea is diversifying your strategies to maximize your opportunities, instead of getting stuck posting resumes on job boards and waiting for responses which may never come.

Module 6: Ace The Interview: Learn How to Answer 5 Types of Interview Questions. Employment interviews will seem more like collaborations instead of interrogations when you learn how to answer 5 types of interview questions, which will help you be in control. This strategy will be used as a basis for ongoing interview preparation and debriefing, as employment opportunities become available to you.

Module 7: Negotiate Your Best Job Offer: You’ll get tools to help you determine if an offer matches your criteria for an Ideal Career Position which provides you the optimal level of compensation, satisfaction, and opportunities for advancement, in the best location and workplace environment – and how to negotiate your best compensation package.

Module 8: Jumpstart New Job Success / Ongoing Career Management: Get your new position off to a great start within the first 100 days, using a 10-point strategy. You can also opt for an internal development program for your continued growth, to help you recession-proof and control your career, so you can quickly bounce back from an unlikely job loss and minimize the chances of being jobless again.

Materials: 1) Binder with handouts and worksheets supporting the 8 modules of the program; 2) Textbook: Job & Career-Building: A Time-Honored, Structured Process to Identify Marketable Skills, Identify Target Market Segments, Build Connections with Hiring Decision Makers in Those Markets, Successfully Interview for and Land a New Job or Promotion, and, to Manage Communications Visibility on the Job so that Your Career Naturally Moves to Its Highest Level. 

(10) How long does it take to find a new position, once I’ve signed up for your career coaching program?

Clients who have diligently applied and worked through every step of my program have landed new opportunities in record time — much faster than they ever would on their own.

A conservative time estimate of “record time” is one month for every $10,000 in salary you wish to earn; or longer, if your transition requires learning new skills, getting additional training or experience, or building a larger contact network. Some of my clients have even landed their ideal career position or situation ahead of the curve, sometimes in 3 months.

(11) What is the fee for your career coaching program?

There are four things to know about my fee:

1.    First: we're not going to even begin the program, unless we're both convinced you'll come out ahead and financially profit from it.

2.    Second: my fee is a professional fee, similar to what you'd pay accountants, attorneys, and management consultants – with one difference: I put a cap on my fee: I just set one amount and then we don't worry about the hours. I'll tell you the exact figure in the follow-up meeting after our CAP Session.

3.    Third: clients have been excited to report that they were able to recover their career coaching investment within the first month of their new position.

4.    Fourth: money has never stopped anyone from working with me, if they really want to.

(12) What type of personality do you work best with and what is expected of me?

My career coaching program was created for goal-oriented people who are super-ready to know exactly what steps to take to land their ideal career position or situation, without wasting any more time with unproductive activities.

Consider what you'll do with me to be an action learning course. No excuses anymore, just a very different way of thinking and full support from me while you work toward this incredibly exciting goal: a new career path, in a great company, at a salary you deserve, where you’ll be happy at work again.

(13) For what type of person is this program NOT going to work?

My career coaching program is not for people who want a quick fix for their career problem. You’ll be expected to take serious, consistent, “no-excuses” action which includes completing homework assignments and field work. Without doing this work, you won’t make any progress toward finding your ideal career position or situation.

My program is also not for people in financial crisis -- at least not right away. It's been my experience that people in this situation don’t completely trust the recommendations I give them and don’t do their homework, because they spend so much time worrying about covering their monthly expenses -- and understandably so.

But, no worries if you are in this category. We've all been there at one point or another. Do yourself two (2) favors:

1.    Get some money coming in with a “survival” job or a temp or contract position. This will take the edge off and provide you with more peace of mind.

2.    Sign up for the free monthly career tips over email. The free information will get you started toward your goals until you're ready to work with me one-on-one.

Doing these two things will really help you get prepared for our work. When you're ready, contact me and we’ll get started.

(14) I don’t think I need a Career Action Planning (CAP) Session or career coaching. I just need to work on my resume. Can you still help me?

Sorry, but I’ve discontinued resume writing as a separate service for new clients. My clients and I write their resumes together in Module 3 of my career coaching program, after completing Module 1: Success Factor Analysis and Module 2: Define Your Ideal Career Position.

Currently, I only write resumes for: (1) clients I’m currently coaching or graduates of my career coaching program; (2) resume clients I’ve worked with prior to October 2007 who regularly contact me for updates. 

If you believe a new resume is the only item you need to move forward, I’ll be happy to refer you to another colleague or alternate resource where you can find a resume writer to fit your needs. But click here to see the benefits of getting career coaching having a resume prepared.

(15) Are you also a recruiter? Will you help find me a job?
 

As I stated in (1), I’m NOT an employment agency or recruiter; nor am I hired by companies to fill positions for them. However, during the course of our coaching relationship and when appropriate, I may refer you to a competent recruiter in your field, or will provide you with some trusted resources. Side note: Please understand that it’s not a recruiter’s job to find you a job. They don’t work for you; they work on behalf of their client companies to fill positions on a retainer or contingency basis.

 But once we've been working together, two things will happen:

1.    You’ll learn to be more resourceful in finding a position through other channels, besides working with recruiters;

2.    You’ll be able to work more effectively with recruiters and avoid lots of wasted time (for you and the recruiters), because you’ll have a clearer picture about the positions best suited for your needs.

(16) Can you provide me with references?

I'm assuming you're asking me if you can contact some of my former clients to see what it's like to work with me. The answer is yes! I have many successful clients who would be happy to talk to you. (Click here to read some client testimonials). However, please understand that I never use my clients as sales people and it's not their job to explain what I do or to help you decide if career coaching is a proper investment for you. While the deliverables of my program are fairly consistent, the learning curve and results are different for each client. Therefore, just check out my integrity and the value of having me as a coach.

The only important questions you should ask are: (1) did Joellyn deliver what she said she would deliver? (2) What was the difference you found working with a coach like Joellyn versus doing it alone?

(17) Can I sample your work at a low cost to see if it's the right solution for me?

The best way to sample my work is to schedule a Career Action Planning (CAP) Session. The fee is a flat $197 and you’ll see what it’s like to work with me before investing in a full career coaching program.

Another way is to sign up for free monthly career tips, which provide you with the latest tools and powerful techniques from my career coaching program. Sign up here!

(18) I'm ready to move forward, but I have a couple of questions. Can I call you?

Good, sounds like you're ready to be pulled into your future! Yes, if you have a couple of questions simply contact me via email or call me at 508-459-2854. I can’t wait to see you succeed and am honored to be the one to help you. Let’s get going!