Frequently Asked Questions

What is Career Counseling? Will You "Place" Me?


You're most likely familiar with the concept of counseling, where individuals meet with specialists to overcome challenges and make progress in their lives. Career counseling is very similar, except that we focus primarily on career issues, rather than on family or personal challenges. Sometimes people confuse career counseling with recruiting or placement services. There are some important differences between these two. The purpose of recruiting and placement is to find the right person to fill a job for a company. Recruiters are paid by the hiring organization, so their first priority is to meet the needs of the company, "Putting square pegs in square holes", as one recruiter described it. The goal of career counseling is to help you identify and implement the right career steps for you. Our clients hire us to help them achieve their professional goals, and they are our top priority.

The processes we use at Career Solutions Group have been developed since our founding in 1998. For over 10 years we've assisted thousands of clients with successful processes that help them achieve their goals. When Katy Piotrowski started the company, she brought with her a masters degree in career counseling as well as specialized training received from Richard Bolles, the author of "What Color is Your Parachute". She also had years of experience working for a national career management firm, along with a decade of background as a marketing manager in the high tech industry. From there she experimented with a variety of career counseling approaches until she had developed a highly successful, efficient, step-by-step, action oriented process for helping clients identify, research, choose, and implement satisfying, rewarding career plans. Over time she expanded company resources and talents, resulting in enhanced, comprehensive career counseling for clients.

Can You Help Me Identify New Career Paths, or Change Careers?


If you are aiming to define great-fit, inspiring career options, either to launch your career or to change careers to a better path, Career Solutions Group offers a range of services that could be valuable to you. To start, you would receive a comprehensive assessment of your talents, skills, interests, passions, and values. Then these elements would be combined into a multitude of good-fit career options. Typically our clients identify somewhere between 20 to 50 career possibilities that are highly appealing to them. Often these are career options that they've never considered before. This part of our process typically takes 3 weeks to a month, and involves about 3 hours of your time each week for meetings with us as well as for homework activities.

Our support also involves investigating and choosing which career options make the most sense for you. This is an energizing, insightful process that can help you truly realize your career goals, rather than just thinking about them day after day. For instance, one of our most successful strategies is to connect you with specialists who are experts in the careers you're considering, so that you can interview them about their work, find out how they got into their careers, learn the plusses and minuses, recommended training, typical compensation, and so on. These details help you determine a) if this is truly a career option you want to choose for yourself, and b) how you can successfully transition into this new line of work. It's very typical for clients who conduct field research to quickly realize that their skills and background are highly transferable, and that they would be able to move into a new career successfully, often without any additional training. It's an exciting, eye-opening process that can open new career doors and change your life!

How Can You Help Me in My Job Search?


If you've already decided on a specific job search goal or career vision, our job hunting, resume, and interviewing support services will be especially helpful to you. Using highly effective search techniques that only about 10 percent of job hunters know about, our clients consistently uncover 70 percent of the best opportunities out there...opportunities that are rarely advertised. If you're stuck in the rut of looking at the online job ads, this service would be especially helpful to you! For example, we help our clients identify and connect with hiring managers at the target companies that are the best fit for their career goals. We also provide networking contacts to assist you in your job search, from our database of thousands of individuals we've established relationships with over the last several years. And the resumes we develop with our clients have a track record for generating extremely high rates of job interviews.

What Support Do You Offer for Career Progress?


If it's not a job you want, we can help you launch your own business. About 20% of our clients choose to go to work for themselves. We can also support you to improve your current situation at work, helping you articulate your highest priority skills, talents, and values, and then define and implement steps that will significantly enhance your day-to-day career satisfaction.

What is Your Success Rate, and What are Your Fees?


Over the years, approximately 75% of our clients have been able to make career progress resulting in significant improvements in career satisfaction. About 20% of our clients, after completing our process, decide to stick with the career path they're already on. In these cases, the individual has realized that perhaps the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence. This is a highly valuable realization, because now they're at peace with their choice, rather than wondering, year after year, "Should I have made a change?" And the last 5% of our clients, for reasons of their own, decide not to follow through on our recommendations. Overall, our results are excellent, which is why the majority of our clients come to us as referrals from former clients.

So now you may be thinking..."Okay, so what does all of this cost?" As you've just read, this isn't a 2-day, quick fix service. Rather, it's an investment that can take a number of months to complete but may ultimately change your life. Our service options include both individual and group counseling. You may not have considered group services before, but you should know that our groups, which include other motivated, talented, career-minded individuals like yourself, have proven to be both more affordable, and in many cases, more effective, than one-on-one career counseling. Career counseling package fees, depending on whether you choose individual or group services, are delivered over 3 to 6 months, and start at about $750. Please ask us for specific details. Also keep in mind that we offer specific resume and interview preparation services, beginning at about $200.

How Do I Set Up a Free Initial Consultation?


If you'd like to discuss your unique situation and possible next steps, we'd like to meet with you for a free initial consultation. Feel free to contact us through phone or email (970)224-4042, or info@careersolutionsgroup.net to set an appointment.

 

 

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Career Solutions Group News

Feb. 17 - "Fantastic Follow Up" –  At the IEEE meeting in Fort Collins, February 17, at 7 p.m. More details on attending, see http://www.ieee-centennial.org/

Jan. 26 - "Stop the Flop" FREE PRESENTATION –  At the weekly LongsPeakNet meeting in Longmont, 8:30 a.m. Presented by career counselor Katy Piotrowski, M.Ed. Visit www.longspeaknet.org for more information.

Feb. 2 - "Mastering the Art of Creating a Yummy Business" –  Presented by career counselor Katy Piotrowski, M.Ed. at the Business Women's Network in Fort Collins, 11:15 a.m. - 1 p.m. For more details on registering and attending, check out http://www.bwnfc.org/

Feb. 1 - "Fantastic Follow Up" FREE PRESENTATION –  11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at LIFE Fellowship Church in Denver. Free presentation...anyone may attend. Location information at http://www.lifefellowship.org/services.htm

Success Stories

"Your personal recommendation got me through the door. The resume you prepared for me allowed me an interview with my new employer. She said that she had never seen such a well organized resume before! Even better is the fact that you helped me find a job in my area of interest. Thank you!!!"

- Cyndi B.

"I thought I had a good resume before I started with Career Solutions Group, but your knowledge of marketing and current employer expectations helped me to make it many times better. Also, the mock interview we did was absolutely key in my landing the job on the very next interview!"

- Don R.

"I just wanted to thank you for helping me get my ideal job! I realized I had the qualifications on my own, but without your help my resume and my skills would certainly have been overlooked. I learned a lot working with you, and even enjoyed myself in the process."

- Karen B.

"I want to thank you both again for all the support and guidance you gave me during my job search. I would not have had the courage to ask for more money. You guys are the best!"

- Linda R.

"Just wanted to let you know that the new resume and cover letter you prepared produced three interviews and two job offers. Thanks for your help and expertise! It really paid off."

- Kristi M.

"Without Career Solutions Group's help, I'm not certain I would have finally recognized my own right livelihood. They had to give me quite a bit of encouragement before I was able to see what had been right in front of me all along. I'm just glad she kept at it until I decided to take the risk and change careers."

- Laura Lee C.

"Accepting the necessity of re-entering the job force after a three year hiatus, having retired from a 30-something year career, was difficult. Career Solutions Group came highly recommended. I found Career Solutions Group guidance and support to be extremely valuable as well as practical and accurate."

- Sandra C.

"Career Solutions Group helped me get out of my own way, encouraged me to pursue my passion and to keep taking risks. They also helped me to overcome one of my greatest fears - networking."

- Tana M.

"I was bored doing what I was doing and Career Solutions Group's career exploration tools & program showed me that I don't have to be stuck in a rut and that I can make a change even at my age!! It was so much fun testing the waters and interviewing people in different careers to see if it was something that I wanted to do."

- Scott B.

"Career Solutions Group's process was immensely helpful to me in exploring career changes ideas. It allowed me to gain great insight into a variety of facets of a prospective field in a short amount of time. The connections I made through these interviews were invaluable when I was ready to make my career change."

- Sarah A.

Career Solutions Group
430 Stover St.
Fort Collins, CO 80524
970-224-4042
info@careersolutionsgroup.net