Career Counseling Online

Career counseling online is offered by many people from many different backgrounds. Some are more experienced than others. Since I've urged you to evaluate career counseling online services before you jump in and take their advice, it's only fitting that I provide you with an outline of my own professional background.

Prior to launching my own business, I worked as a vocational rehabilitation case manager. This role involved:

• Developing, negotiating and managing labor market re-entry plans for injured workers who were unable to return to their previous jobs.
  
• Recommending appropriate career options and training plans for injured workers based on clients' preferences, aptitudes, interests, transferable skills, education and physical tolerances as well as current labor market trends.
  
• Supporting clients in retraining programs, including problem solving in cooperation with funding partners, clients and secondary service providers (primarily schools and occupational therapists) to resolve a wide variety challenges as they arose.
  
• Developing, negotiating and managing training plan budgets of up to a half million dollars.

For five years, I facilitated job search and career management workshops. My responsibilities in this position included:

• Facilitating workshops with course material that included understanding labor market trends, making informed career choices, maintaining self esteem, resume and cover letter preparation, effective interview strategies and traditional and creative job search techniques.
  
• Working with up to 500 clients annually.
  
• Providing ongoing support to clients through telephone and email follow ups, individual counseling and/or referrals to additional professional resources.
  
• Developing workshop content, materials and resources; ensuring workshop content and materials reflected current labor market trends and client needs.

My education includes:

• Career and Work Counselor Courses, Sir Sandford Fleming College, Peterborough, ON
  
• Bachelor of Education Degree, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
  
• Bachelor of Music Degree, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON

A selected list of professional development courses and seminars includes:

• Counseling Ethics, Case Manager Home Study
  
• Français 1 et 2, Durham College, Oshawa, ON
  
• Anti-Racist Social Work, Social Development Council, Whitby, ON
  
• Crisis Intervention, Canadian Mental Health Association, Pickering, ON
  
• Job Finding Club Forum, Scarborough, ON

For those of you with a keen eye for detail who noticed my music degree and wondered how that fit into the mix, I started my career as a music teacher. I taught for 5 years, and then the shift from teaching to career counseling was a quite logical and natural development for me and a good fit with my personal and professional priorities. My primary instruments are piano and flute.

Also, for those of you who have been to my other website, www.inspiri-art-and-craft.com, and are wondering how my craft business fits into my experience, after leaving vocational rehabilitation, I had an overwhelming desire to bring a substantial aspect of creativity back into my career, that's when I launched the craft related facets of my business. In many ways, it was my knowledge of career management that gave me the sense of control over my career and the confidence to embark upon a business that has been personally, professionally, financially and creatively satisfying.

Please keep in mind, this is not my resume, I'd structure that quite differently (you'll find resume ideas here). It's a summary of my professional background that I've provided because I firmly believe that if you are trusting me to provide you with career counseling online tips, you deserve to be given the respect of knowing the experience and education of the person who is providing you with those career counseling online resources and tips.