John Scuto's
Career & Academic Planning Services
Testing & Counseling for Career Choice
in Southern New Hampshire


       

What is career counseling?
Career Counseling is the process whereby a professional career counselor helps an individual to make better career choices and advance their career development. The career counseling process often includes career testing and assessment, career exploration, and help in making career decisions.

What’s so special about your program?
The CAPS career assessment and exploration program has been used successfully to help thousands of individuals in business and educational settings for over 15 years. It is a unique way of combining assessment instruments and applying the results to today’s labor market.

What types of people do you work with?
All sorts of individuals. Career changers, high school juniors and seniors, college students, reentry individuals, retired folks, unemployed individuals, people who’ve been employed in the same career for over 20 years, those making only a small part-time salary, and professionals making over $80,000 a year. They all have one thing in common...they want to improve the quality of their lives through finding meaningful work.

Are you going tell me what I should do for work?
Only you have the answer to what would be best for you. However, I can and will provide guidance and make suggestions for you to consider, given your interests, skills, personality, and values.

How much work is involved in this program?
You are going to have to work hard both in our sessions and outside of our sessions. You can expect between one and two hours of homework between each session, and you can expect the entire process (including homework) to involve between eight and fourteen hours, depending on how much assistance you need and how much work you devote to the process. Many clients consider the process to be interesting and fun!

How many sessions are involved?
There are four sessions involved in the program. Most clients will have what they need and won’t need additional time with me. I do, however, offer a fifth session at no charge to help them get their research off on the right foot, or sometimes for a resume critique. Whether you take advantage of the free fifth session or not, you can always call or email if you have questions or need more help. Usually, there will not be an additional fee for calls or emails.

What happens in the sessions?
In the sessions we talk a lot about you, look at assessment results, teach you about the labor market, show you the best ways to do research into the labor market, and help you to decide on the best career matches for you.

As the sessions progress, you'll be developing a blueprint of what the ideal career would be for you. This blueprint of the "perfect career", will allow you to be able to look at just about any occupation and see how closely it fits with your ideal career, and how appropriate it would be for you.

What do I get to take home with me?
You’ll get your assessment results, the blueprint for your ideal career, a picture of the labor market and where you fit in it, the CAPS Career Explorer (a 28 page, up-to-date, document describing hundreds of occupations, the training for those occupations, and the average pay and opportunity for each of the occupations), information on how to do effective career research, and a number of other career related handouts. All-in-all, you’ll have over 50 pages of career materials. And, the best part is that you’ll understand all of those pages, and how to use them to make career choices and reach your career goals.

What qualifies you to be a "Career Counselor?"
Please see the About John section of the About John page.

How much does this program cost?
We charge $75 a session for four sessions - a total of $300, and you pay as you go, on a per-session basis (we will not accept the entire fee up-front). Also, in keeping with the idea that different individuals advance at different paces, our sessions may run more than an hour long to provide extra time if you need it - we take our time and do not rush through the sessions.

Why do you offer a fifth session free?
My goal, always, is that my clients succeed. Once the formal counseling program is done, I'll encourage you to call or email with any questions or difficulties you may be having. I don't charge for these calls or emails. This has helped some of my clients who have gotten stuck, or who have just needed a little more info to make a good decision.

In the same way, I've found a fifth session to be advantageous in helping my clients to succeed. I also know that clients are much more likely to take advantage of a free session than a paid one. So I'll offer you a fifth session free of charge, to be used at any time in the future, with the hope that you'll use it in whatever way you need to further your career development and ensure your success.

Am I going to know exactly what I want to do when I leave you?
If you have an idea in mind, and are looking for confirmation, there is a chance you’ll know exactly what you want to do when you leave.

If you have some ideas, you’ll probably leave with some ideas confirmed, some ideas not confirmed, and some new career choices to consider.

If you have no idea what it is you want to do, you’ll probably leave with a better idea of what you’re looking for and a manageable number of careers to further explore. Clients usually leave with anywhere between five and 15 careers to research in more depth.

After I've completed my research, and I know what I'd like to do, do you offer resume writing, job search help, or school admissions assistance?
Although I have experience in all of the above areas, I do not offer them as a part of my paid services. (Though I do offer a resume critique as part of the fifth free session if requested).

I don’t offer these as paid services mainly because there are experts in these fields who are more interested in, and can do these things much better than I. So, rather than provide you with less than optimum help in these areas, when you are ready, contact me and - depending on your specific need, I'll use my referral network to direct you to some very experienced professionals who'll be able to help you with all of your job search needs and/or the school admissions process. There is no fee for these referrals, and in some cases I have been able to arrange that you'll receive the services at a discount.

Please contact us if you have questions or if you are ready to get started pursuing a new career/life path.

[ Home ] [ About ] [ Services & Fees] [ FAQs ]
[ Contact Us ] [ Related Resources ]

John Scuto's
Career & Academic Planning Services
63 Deerfield Road
Nottingham, NH 03290
(603)734-2233

Located in Southern New Hampshire, just east of
Manchester & Concord, NH and just west of Portsmouth, NH

© Career & Academic Planning Services - All rights reserved