We divide the process of "contemplating a career transition" into three phases.
Phase I | Phase II | Phase III

This is Phase I.

The purpose of this phase is to identify a range of career options, based on who you are, so that we can find a fit or a match between you and a job or career. We identify your most enjoyable skills, your most transferable skills, your strongest skills, your professional and professional priorities, your values, special preferences, and so on. These become the basis for selecting a range of career options that make sense - given who you are.

A series of paper-and-pencil exercises and tests are available to you on a separate web site we operate (which requires a user name and password to enter). You may complete this phase and these exercises at a distance, and then either arrange a telephone consultation or come to our office for a face-to-face session (or both) to discuss the career implications of your results. A few of the tests are described briefly below.

The Career Change Ability Scale was developed by identifying high-functioning/high-skills individuals who have changed careers readily, happily, and successfully (We call these rare individuals "career change champions".) We discovered what career behaviors and career beliefs were instrumental and responsible for their successful career transitions, and these items became the basis for this inventory. The Career Change Ability Scale is found on our web site at the upper right tab called "Free Test Drive". There are two: a short five-minute version, or a longer twenty-minute version.

According to our clients, the Skills Inventory is an extremely powerful experience. The inventory is a list of almost 200 specific skills we have identified by scrutinizing the skills of several thousand high-credentialed professionals. Clustered into general skills categories, these skills form the horizontal rows of a giant grid (or matrix) which has six columns, each of which represents one of your most emotionally-satisfying accomplishments, professional or personal. The check-off intersections or cells of the matrix then become your "most enjoyable skills". This part of the Assessment phase is critical to the career-change process since it allows you to discuss your skills (rather than your work experience) during interviews--with clarity, fluency, and self-confidence. If you are changing career directions, your job history-- and even your resume-become a liability rather than an asset. If you are changing jobs, however, your resume is necessary.

A third exercise is called "Career Decision-Making Patterns". This asks you to itemize early decision junctions at specific career 'cross-roads' -- choice of college, choice of major, choice of professional or graduate school, choice of specialty, choice of first job, etc. It then asks what were the alternatives at the time, what were the rationales at the time for the choice you made, and then (in retrospect) how good the choices were. It often turns out that a pattern appears that may have been shrouded or hidden from your view at the time. This latent pattern becomes explicit, and then extremely useful in your career transition going forward.

A number of other exercises focus on several additional features of who you are, and all are useful in making explicit what to do next.