With more than sixty-five combined years of experience in the career development field, Howard Figler and Richard Nelson Bolles are the undisputed authorities when it comes to helping people find meaningful work. In this revised and updated second edition of their classic guide for career counselors, Figler and Bolles show aspiring counselors how to break into the business, and give experienced counselors ideas for improving effectiveness and recharging their practice. Outlining tools, problem-solving tips, and ethical values for today'¬?s career counselor, THE CAREER COUNSELOR'¬?S HANDBOOK features new information about performing the Annual Career Checkup, choosing Essence over Ego, and using the Internet-while celebrating the fact that even career counselors need counsel once in a while.
comprehensive book from probably the most famous career authors in existence. quite complete, dealing with everthing from the goals of career counseling to the future of the “industry”. the chapter on history is very detailed and interesting, following job hunt theory from the early 1900’s until now. advice is providing on setting up a business, getting clients, prospecting. discussion of tools includes what they call the 1-2-3 of career counseling (1. what do you want to do? 2. what is stopping you from doing it? 3. what are you doing about it?). they don’t think much of assessments at all, prefer good question and answer sessions. some key problems in dealing with clients, e.g., motivation, unblocking, confrontation, etc. the authors trade off on chapters, many relatively short and quite readable, including significant information on entrepreneurship (an area they encourage investigating with clients) as well as values, spirituality (bolles is an episcopalian minister, is unabashedly christian, speaks of how he includes this in his counseling. figler does not seem shy about this either) in a chapter called “the place of god in career counseling”. the book ends with a series of chapters on the future of the craft, include 5 rules for dealing with change (1. look the constants in change, 2. find the largest context you can for viewing change, 3. learn to break things into their component parts, 4. work constantly on developing alternatives and 5. continue to act, then reflect, act, then reflect, act, then reflect), staying up to date in your field and how to now when to change your career as a career counselor.