In today's evolving job market, where whole sectors can rise and fall in a decade, more workers are seeking help and motivation in focusing their career goals. Everywhere one turns, it seems that others have found job satisfaction and wealth by finally realizing long-held career ambitions. Many are turning to career counselors or self-help books for a road map.

Career counselors make their living helping people make and carry out decisions related to career and life directions. Though techniques are customized to the individual, these professionals will usually conduct counseling sessions to help their clients clarify goals. They may administer diagnostic tests to assess abilities and interests, and to identify career options. Assistance with decision-making skills, job-hunting strategies, resume writing, developing a career plan, and more ephemeral matters - like integrating one's work and home life - are often provided. But perhaps the most important thing these counselors offer is support to those experiencing job stress, job loss and career transition.

The National Career Development Association (ncda.org) promotes the career development of all people through a range of services, including setting standards for career counseling. The NCDA also works with licensing and credentialing organizations throughout the United States. When selecting a career counselor, the NCDA recommends asking for a detailed explanation of the services provided. Make sure you understand what you're getting, what it will cost, and what your time commitment will be.

Peak Performance

"Career consulting is not one size fits all," declares Pam Brill, author of The Winner's Way: A Proven Method for Achieving Your Personal Best in Any Situation (McGraw-Hill, $18.95), a new guide for approaching every situation like a top performer. In her book, Brill's "Triple A technique" - activation, attitude and attention - teaches how to turn will into action by tapping into one's personal best. It shows how to examine and challenge habitual assumptions, among other techniques.

Brill is a licensed psychologist and an expert on peak performance and motivation who provides customized consulting at her New Hampshire-based company, In the Zone.

"There are many career counselors today who are not skilled in psychology. They take assessment tools and create an image or label, rather than expanding the mind-set (of the client) and helping the person to see all the different facets of themselves," Brill observes. "Success depends on the ability of the career consultant to see beyond job titles."

The Inner Search

"We are crossing disciplines," explains Maggie Craddock, a career coach whose new book, The Authentic Career: Following the Path of Self-Discovery to Professional Fulfillment (New World Library, $14.95), outlines a therapeutic process that carefully separates what one wants and needs from a lifetime of expectations. "Consulting, psychotherapy, spiritual growth; consultants need to integrate the work from a lot of different sectors."

Craddock, who found her true life's work after a very successful but unfulfilling career as a Wall Street fund manager, reasons that identifying authentic career goals requires a careful examination of one's inner life. She clearly outlines a four-stage process, from "Awareness" to "Integration." This gentle guide illustrates each stage with real-life examples, including stories from Fortune-500 chief executive officers and professional women returning to the workforce after having children.

For those experiencing job dissatisfaction, it's hard to know what needs to change.

"What makes this kind of book helpful at this particular time," notes Craddock, "is that it explains what coaching is - or can be. The rise of the coaching profession is no accident."

She believes we're living in an economic period where the myths about others taking care of us - "be loyal and you'll have financial security" - are being debunked. Major corporations change job

responsibilities without warning, bonuses never materialize, and there are fewer pensions. With so much rapid change and fear, people have to be entrepreneurial with their jobs.

"Therapists can help with feelings," Craddock advises, "but career counselors have a goal in mind. They help you get where you want to go in your career." With so much at stake with a job - quality of life, marital stability, happiness - career fulfillment is a deadly serious issue. Counselors help clients do the "mental detective work," she asserts, "because you can't separate who you are as a person from who you are as a professional."