Career Counselling for Partners

A host of surveys reveal that spouse/partner dual-career concerns are one of the single most important reasons why employees turn down a relocation. That's why, these days, smart companies are offering support to spouses/partners as part of their relocation policy. But what practical help can they offer at this sensitive time? Profile Locations has the answer.

Profile Locations Career Counselling service is designed to help partners explore the options and opportunities that a relocation move has to offer.

We will help relocating partners make decisions about their future careers and move with confidence to a new area. The aim of the career counselling process is to leave the client feeling confident about a clear and realistic set of goals, leading them ultimately to a job.

Our support is designed for those who want to:

• Fast-track finding a job in the new area
• Take the opportunity to review their career options
• Return to the workplace after a career gap
• Explore further education or training options
• Maintain and develop skills during expatriation

Career Counselling on an Individual Basis

Profile Locations offers counselling sessions on a one-to-one basis with our team of professional career counsellors. A series of three sessions of one and a half hours duration each is recommended to cover:

• Assessment of personal work values and career goals
• Exploration of potential work directions - in new contexts or within established fields of experience
• Full review of past skills and experience
• Assessment of individual strengths and weaknesses
• Strategies to overcome barriers to success
• Looking at work/life balance and how to achieve it
• Strategic support with networking, job search and interviews
• Ongoing help with individual CV and applications, letters of interest etc
• Life and career planning exercises for use in short, medium and long term
• Additional individual sessions can also be provided on specific areas such as CV writing and interview skills.

Career Support Line

As a further back up and to assist with job search, the telephone and email Support Line can be used to help with any aspect of the partner's career move, from location-specific queries, job search information, further education and related subjects to sourcing training providers. The client can choose from a two hour or four hour support option.

Keeping Your Career on Track Workshop

The workshops are ideal to support partners in a group

move situation, or as part of an expatriate and spouse support programmes. Run by our professional career counsellor, this workshop for up to ten people can be held in the client company's offices or at an alternative venue. It is designed specifically for the spouse or partner looking to find suitable employment in the new area, to help develop their career and to explore positive alternatives.

It also presents a valuable networking opportunity for partners, to provide ongoing support throughout the job search and move period.

The workshop is divided into three parts:

• Addressing the issues
• A positive career move
• Practical help finding work in the new area, CV writing and interview skills

CV Writing and Interview Technique Workshop

A practical workshop designed specifically to update these skills and build confidence.

Case Studies

Caroline was recently married and, though initially keen to move with her husband to Britain, she was not happy to be leaving her successful career in banking in the US. She was unsure about whether there would be real opportunities for her in the UK, especially outside London, and therefore welcomed the opportunity to reassess her career with the career consultant. Through a careful review of her working life and analysis of her strengths, she was able to see that her passion for finance and business had largely manifested itself via her first rate communication skills. Profile Locations' telephone and email Support Line enabled her to research training in a career in business media analysis, and she was also offered work as an associate with a local firm of financial consultants. This allowed her to work on a flexible basis, which was what she wanted.

John was pleased to accompany his spouse from the US, bringing with him specific and well-qualified experience in opthalmic practice. He was, however, hesitant as to whether he would be able to use his particular expertise in Britain. Career counselling helped him decide how best to utilise his specialism and personal interests while in the UK, and to devise a coherent job search strategy.

With support from the career consultant, he researched and was able to focus on appropriate companies, while developing contacts informally in his new ‘home' town. He was successful in finding a post within a well-known company that fitted well with his expertise and allowed him to develop into new areas that would benefit his career in the long term.

Anya had not been in full-time employment for some years, having been busy bringing up her children and supporting her husband in his moves with the company. On her return to the UK, she wanted to look at opportunities to return to work on a part-time basis, since her family still needed plenty of attention. However, she did not wish to go back to her original career in banking.

Anya was surprised to realise, via career counselling, that she had developed many useful skills during her years as her family's organiser. She had also taken on a variety of voluntary posts in school and within local communities and, by identifying the vital transferable skills she had developed, was able to see she had a great deal to offer an employer. Career-counselling sessions allowed her to recognise her genuine interests in child development. In tandem with moving house and settling her children into their new schools, Anya decided with the help of her counsellor that she would apply for a job as a part-time paid teaching assistant and return to study in a related field, working with children.