Bernhart starts job coaching service for direct marketers

Executive recruiter Jerry Bernhart is helping direct marketers looking for a job with a new service called Job Search Coaching for Direct Marketers.

The service is aimed at the low to mid-level direct marketer --not just the small-percentage of those fortunate enough to be represented by a recruiter.

"My main job is working with candidates, but over the last year, many people began calling me who I was not representing, asking for help with their resumes, interviewing skills, or negotiating a pay raise-all the things I do with my candidates " said Mr. Bernhart, president of Bernhart Associates Executive Search LLC in Owatonna, MN. "I did this with a couple of people and it helped them enormously, so I decided to start the program."

According to Mr. Bernhart, many people think of coaching as a high cost perk for senior executives only, but in the hyper-competitive direct marketing industry, candidates at all levels and not just senior executives need every advantage they can get when it comes to getting the job they want.

"You spend about one-third of your life at work, and yet some people spend more time planning vacations than they spend learning and honing key skills required to get ahead in their careers," he said. "I'll spend several hours taking an individual through a proven multi-step process developed over 17 years of recruiting that will help maximize their potential."

Mr. Bernhart said the multi-point program includes the best information from all of the Web sites and books that discuss direct marketing coaching, as well as some things I have developed on my own," Mr. Bernhart said.

Mr. Bernhart said that prices for the program are not set in stone, but that they would probably be several hundred dollars per session.

"This isn't about making money, but about helping people who really need it," he said.

Career mobility is the new model with the average job tenure for direct marketers now less than three years, Mr. Bernhart said.

"To land the best opportunities you must have a winning resume, you must know how to get yourself noticed, you must win over your interviewers, you must know what is important to direct marketing employers and you must have excellent negotiation skills, and that applies to any one at any level," he said. "How you prepare will determine the extent to which you find a marketplace full of opportunities or full of disappointment."