When things just aren't going well with your job hunt, you may decide that something is wrong with the way you're going about it. Good for you! The first step is admitting you need help. So you realize you need a little career counseling, and you're hoping to find it on the Internet. The Counseling Sites Fairy Godmother Report WHAT YOU'D HOPE TO FIND: What you're probably hoping the Internet would tell you is simply what you should become – a carpenter, a lawyer, a candlestick-maker. Wishing for a directive from your fairy godmother? You'd hope to be able to find four career counseling tools on the Internet: (1) some decent interactive tests to give you a quick idea about a possible new career direction; (2) some articles on various career issues; (3) longer career manuals for you to read when you have more time; and (4) FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) dealing with common problems in the job hunt, with detailed, lengthy answers written by truly competent career counselors at no cost to the job hunter; and without the commercial sideshow. WHAT YOU ACTUALLY GET: Bingo! With career counseling you enter a job-hunting arena where the Internet comes close to granting your wish. True, the Internet still cannot replace the value of a live career counselor but the Web does offer most of the above – tests, articles, manuals, FAQs – but not detailed answers to common job-hunting problems. In that department, I must admit I am stupified at some of the superficial (and dead wrong) advice that I sometimes read online about job hunting and resumes – mostly from "experts" who seem to be a little out of touch with the job-hunt reality. HOW EFFECTIVE? Well, there's only so much that impersonal online career counseling can do. Hence, my estimate of the effectiveness of career counseling sites on the Internet in getting you a job: 10 percent. That is, out of every 100 people who seek out career counseling on the Internet, 10 of them will find a job with the aid of the coaching that they pick up there. I think 90 will need more help or can do it without any help. WORDS TO REMEMBER: (With apologies to Alexander Pope) "Know then thyself; presume not the Web to scan, until you know what you love to do, and have evolved a plan." Intro to Counseling Sites | Interactive Tests Job Hunting Career Counseling  Back to top