The number of people employed in manufacturing in Connecticut has declined consistently over many years.  But that’s not the whole story.   Manufacturing is the fourth largest of the ten employment sectors in Connecticut, employing over 166,000 people in 2010.  That’s a lot of jobs, more jobs than in construction, finance, or government.  Manufacturers in Connecticut make everything from airplane parts and medical devices to bread and soap.  They each employ a few to hundreds of people.

Today there were 348 manufacturing jobs in Connecticut listed with careerbuilder.com, more jobs than listed under the construction, banking, food service, or automotive categories.   What kinds of jobs in manufacturing are available and how can you get one?  A review of manufacturing jobs posted on careerbuilder indicates that there is work in shipping and receiving, assembly, and production at all levels.  A number of jobs are temporary and offered through staffing agencies.  Most, but not all, require experience. 

For those of you who are not knowledgeable about production work, here are some definitions:
Machinists are hired because of their knowledge, skills, and experience.  They use machines to produce precision metal parts.  Good machinists have a math background, good problem-solving skills, and the ability to do very accurate work.  They also have specialized training, which they get in technical high schools, community or technical colleges, or on the job.  They don’t need a college degree.  Although the number of jobs for machinists is likely to decline, there is not expected to be a lot of competition for those that remain.  According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) job prospects for machinists are good.  Something to be aware of, however, is that experienced machinists are preferred by employers, and with the recent downsizing in manufacturing there is likely to be a surplus of experienced machinists who will get hired on first.  Machinists in Connecticut earn $40,000-60,000/year. 

Tool and die makers make precision tools and metal forms.  According to OOH these are the most highly skilled and highest paid production jobs.  Despite the decline of manufacturing, job prospects for tool and die makers are categorized as excellent.  Tool and die makers learn their trade through formal education and on the job training. They earn $50,000-65,000/year.

CNC programmers and operators use computer controlled machines to produce parts, often in large numbers with a great deal of precision.   There is projected to be a reasonably high demand for operators and low demand for programmers in coming years (because of technological advances).  Those with the skills to operate a variety of CNC machines will be most employable.  CNC operators are trained in high school or community college programs and on the job.  They earn on average $43,000/year. 

Assemblers usually work as part of a team.  They put together finished products.   Their jobs range from easy to quite complex.  They need good manual dexterity and to be able to work quickly and methodically.  Although for the most part assemblers learn on the job, almost all of the assembly jobs listed by CareerBuilder today ask for experience.  Job prospects for assemblers are categorized as good by the OOH.  Electronics assemblers earn on average $32,000- 43,000/year. 

Manufacturing and mechanical engineers and engineering technicians are also employed in manufacturing.  Engineers need to complete a Bachelor’s degree while engineering technicians complete an Associate’s degree.  Note that there were few jobs listed requiring training at the engineering technician level, and the OOH indicates that engineering technician jobs are likely to grow more slowly than average.  Job prospects for engineers, in contrast, are expected to be good.  A manufacturing engineer earns about $66,000 -94,000/year. 

(Note that all salary estimates are taken from www.salary.com and based on employment in Hartford, CT.) 

There are numerous other production jobs in manufacturing, in food, textile, and other areas.  Some of these jobs are low skilled and offer low wages and they can be unsafe, especially in the food manufacturing industry.  Others are in decline due to technological advances and the lower costs of production in other countries.

“Dream It-Do It” is a nationwide program offered regionally through the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).  The purpose of the Dream It-Do It campaign is to attract people to manufacturing careers and promote an understanding of advanced manufacturing methods.  Connecticut signed on in December of 2010, through the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT), to “help create a new generation of highly-skilled workers”.  The program will work with community colleges, technical high schools, and business and industry to meet its goals.  For example, CCAT is offering summer programs to introduce students in grades 7 – 9 to advanced manufacturing methods, in the hopes of interesting them in pursuing a career in manufacturing.  Find out more at www.dreamit-doit.com/ or on the CCAT website. 

For information about training for production jobs, look into the Asnuntuck Community College Manufacturing Technology Center in Enfield  (www.acc.commnet.edu/manufacturingtechnologycenter/) or the Connecticut Community Colleges’ College of Technology Next Generation Manufacturing website (www.nextgenmfg.org/.)  When choosing a training program, research it carefully to make sure it offers the breadth and depth of experience and training needed for available jobs.  The Enfield program, for example, offers a wide variety of machines to train on, providing students with more of the experiences they need to land a job. 

Career Resource

Careerbuilder.com (www.careerbuilder.com) is a comprehensive job board published on line and in newspapers by the Gannett, Tribune, and McClatchey publishing companies and Microsoft.  It is very easy to navigate and lists millions of jobs nationwide and globally.  You can search job openings by location, category, and keywords and you can also post your resume.  Note, however, that not all job openings are posted on careerbuilder.com so it should be one part of a broader job search strategy.

Karen Goldfinger, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice in Essex, Connecticut.   She specializes in psychological assessment for clinical, educational, and forensic purposes and has a special interest in career assessment.  She and two partners recently established KSB Career Consultants, LLC to provide on line career consultation for clients in Connecticut and New York.   Contact her with questions,  comments, or suggestions for the column at karengoldfinger@comcast.net. 

President Obama, in his recent State of the Union address, made the following pitch:   “….. to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child — become a teacher. Your country needs you.”

Do we need more teachers?  Is unemployment less of a problem for teachers than it is for other workers?  Today’s career column aims to answer these questions for would be teachers in Connecticut. 

In Connecticut there are a few paths to become certified to teach elementary or secondary education at a public school.  You can get an undergraduate degree, typically a Bachelor’s of Science in education, from a number of colleges.  Or, if you already have a college degree, you can complete a post-baccalaureate (post college) program leading to teacher certification at a university or an “alternative route to teacher certification” program through the state over the summer or on weekends (available for specific subject areas).    To become a special education teacher you need graduate level coursework or, if you already are a certified teacher in another area, you can complete an alternative certification program.    Everyone has to take some standardized tests, the Praxis exams.  None of these paths to certification are highly competitive or time consuming. 

However, once you are certified, finding a teaching job can be challenging, depending on where and what you hope to teach.   It is not too difficult to find openings for teachers in shortage areas.  Currently, in Connecticut, these include English, family and consumer science, math, music, science, technology, and world languages.  Special education also seems to be in demand.   There also tend to be openings for teachers in inner city school districts.  But getting hired on as a teacher in elementary education, social studies, art, or physical education in non inner city school districts is difficult, with many more applicants than openings. 

Once hired, new teachers face multiple challenges including a lot of paperwork, mandates, budgetary constraints, and managing a classroom of children.  They need to get along with other teachers, administrators, and parents.  They need to write lesson plans and grade papers after school and on weekends, and they need to complete a graduate degree within a certain time frame.    In addition, early career teachers are closely evaluated and not all have their contracts renewed.  

Good teachers like children and are motivated to help them learn.  They communicate well and have common sense and self-control.  They are patient, fair minded, optimistic, energetic, and creative.   They manage stress well and can cope with a challenging bureaucracy and multiple demands.  The best know intuitively that they want to teach, and many have wanted to teach since childhood.  

Teaching can be a great career choice for energetic adults who are looking for an “encore” career.  It can also be a great choice for young people coming out of college or parents returning to work after staying home with children of their own.   But would be teachers need to know what they are getting into.  They should be prepared for a challenging job search or plan to teach in a shortage area or in a difficult school environment.   As is true for most things worth doing, they will have to work hard at their chosen career.  

Job boards for teaching jobs in Connecticut can be found at www.cea.org and www.ctreap.net.  Note that job postings for teachers are to some extent seasonal.  Once a budget is passed and teachers give notification that they are retiring or resigning, school districts know which positions need to be filled for the coming school year.

Karen Goldfinger, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice in Essex, Connecticut.   She specializes in psychological assessment for clinical, educational, and forensic purposes and has a special interest in career assessment.  She and two partners recently established KSB Career Consultants, LLC to provide on line career consultation for clients in Connecticut and New York.   Contact her with questions,  comments, or suggestions for the column at karengoldfinger@comcast.net. 

For this career column I planned to look into the kinds of jobs available in the pharmaceutical industry.  I thought I would have a look and report back, so readers could be better informed and get an idea about whether this would be a good direction to head in.  It seemed like it might be an exciting industry to work in, with its focus on developing new drugs and all of the news about recent developments in genetics and stem cell research.   

Hours later I can conclude that the employment picture for Big Pharma is a lot more complicated than one would think, and the news is gloomy.   I examined Pfizer as a local and representative example.  Pfizer lists 146 openings in the United States and about 80 internationally.   However, Pfizer reportedly cut 10,000 jobs in 2007 after failure of a new drug, 19,500 jobs in 2009 as a result of a buyout of Wyeth (which led to redundant jobs), and another 8,480 jobs in 2010, leaving a lot of angry former employees.  Hoover’s, a reliable source of industry information, lists Pfizer as having 116,500 employees in 2009.  So the 146 open positions listed in the United States are a trifle.  

Obviously there are other pharmaceutical companies that have openings, including Genentech, NovoNordisk, and Abbott Laboratories among Fortune 500 companies.  According to the Bureau of Labor statistics (BLS), pharmaceutical manufacturers altogether employed over 280,000 people in 2008.    Many of these people, perhaps 40%, were employed on the business or office support end of the industry, in jobs that involve financial planning, business analysis, marketing, sales (the number of sales representatives is diminishing at a high rate, however), contracting, outsourcing, corporate communications, and public affairs.  About 30% were scientists or other professionals and a smaller percentage worked in production. 

The most recent BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) does not present a rosy picture for employment prospects in Big Pharma, concluding: 

Despite the increasing demand for drugs, several factors will limit employment growth in the industry. Drug producers and buyers are placing more emphasis on cost effectiveness, due to the extremely high costs of developing new drugs. Competition from the producers of generic drugs also will put pressure on many firms in this industry as more brand-name drug patents expire. On the manufacturing side, continuing improvements in manufacturing processes will improve productivity in pharmaceutical plants, while many companies are also manufacturing more of their products overseas.

In addition, industry insiders writing for Science Careers, a blog published by Science magazine, and BioJobs, an award winning blog about careers in the life sciences,  suggests troubling job prospects for early career life scientists who hold doctoral degrees.   They note there is little government grant funding for science and few jobs in academia (except for postdocs).  They also suggest that much research and development takes place in emerging markets, where foreign born scientists trained in the United States are available to do the work.   The OOH also points out: 

Doctoral degree holders are expected to face competition for basic research positions in academia. ….. In general, applied research positions in private industry are somewhat easier to obtain, but may become more competitive if increasing numbers of scientists seek jobs in private industry because of the difficulty finding positions in colleges and universities. (italics added)

Also noted in the OOH: “ an economic downturn could influence the amount of money allocated to new research and development efforts, particularly in areas of risky or innovative research. An economic downturn also could limit the possibility of extension or renewal of existing projects.”

It seems that those who have a science and business background will be best prepared to work in the pharmaceutical industry.  Mostly business with a science background would be a good bet.  Those seeking a life in research after obtaining a doctoral degree in the life sciences should plan carefully when they decide where and what to study and which lines of research to pursue.  There are exciting and rewarding research positions available in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry, but not enough for all who want them.  It’s hard to say what will allow production workers to get and keep a job with Big Pharma.  Production workers do not need to be highly educated and there are not many job openings, so there is a lot of competition.  Relying on friends and family already employed in a factory to pull someone in, the old fashioned kind of networking, could be key.

Career Resource

In the course of learning about employment with Big Pharma, I stumbled across two good resources for science jobs:

www.sciencecareers.sciencemag.org is full of information and career advice for scientists and others looking for work, and it has a good science job board. 

www.biojobblog.com/ is more personal and has a lot of interesting observations and career advice, especially for life scientists.

Karen Goldfinger, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice in Essex, Connecticut.   She specializes in psychological assessment for clinical, educational, and forensic purposes and has a special interest in career assessment.  She and two partners recently established KSB Career Consultants, LLC to provide on line career consultation for clients in Connecticut and New York.   Contact her with questions,  comments, or suggestions for the column at karengoldfinger@comcast.net. 

My daughter’s boss’s friend’s daughter has what many young women would consider to be “the best job ever.”  She is a buyer for Sephora, the high end cosmetics retailer with well stocked independent store locations in malls all across the United States, Canada, and Europe.  I made it my mission to find out how one goes about getting this job and what the job might entail.  Here’s what I discovered:

The headquarters for Sephora USA is in San Francisco and most corporate level positions are located there.   Posted openings on Sephora’s website include one for an assistant merchandise planner and another for a planning manager.  Although these are not buying jobs exactly, they are closely related.   The assistant planner’s responsibility is to help with the creation of SKU (stock keeping units) forecasts and the placement of orders and requires 1-2 years of corporate retail planning experience.

I also looked at openings for buyers for similar companies and found this list of qualifications for an accessories buyer for Juicy Couture, a brand well known to Sephora shoppers:

• 8+ years of Buying experience, 2+ years of previous management experience
• Keen understanding and interest in fashion industry and trends
• Excellent Retail Math and Excel skills
• Proven vision for building line plans and assortments(and other qualifications that are less specific to the position and industry). 

I also found out that an associate buyer of dress collections at Saks Fifth Avenue needs 3 – 4 years of business experience and “strong business and financial analysis skills,” among other requirements.  Nothing in the rather long list of requirements for the Saks position had anything to do with a vision or interest in beautiful clothes, but perhaps having such an interest goes without saying.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “Buyers purchase merchandise for resale from wholesalers or manufacturers. Using historical records, market analysis, and their sense of consumer demand, they buy merchandise, keeping in mind their customers’ demand for style, quality, and a reasonable price range. Wrong decisions mean that the store will mark down slow-selling merchandise, thus losing profits.” 

An assistant buyer for natural skin care products for Sephora gave an interview to the website “I Want Her Job” (more about the website below).  She reports that she started out in an unrelated retail business and moved on to become an account coordinator and later an account executive for a manufacturer who sold products to Sephora.  She moved over to Sephora from there.  It is evident from her interview that she loves cosmetics and loves working for the company.  She describes what she does each day this way:  “I help determine the correct assortment of products to carry and how they will be merchandised. I am not just involved in skin care merchandising, but I also work closely with our marketing, education, operations and inventory teams.” 

In sum, to become a buyer in the fashion or cosmetics industries, it is vital to have a good head for numbers and to be motivated to achieve business goals.  A buyer might also work long and unpredictable hours and will need to be able to respond quickly and manage stress well.  For someone who has these qualities and loves the products the industry sells, a career as a buyer could be very exciting.  Like any other good job, it takes a lot of work, persistence, and drive to get there.  Relevant internships and retail sales experience would be a good first step.  A college degree is not always essential, but it is desirable, and a business or merchandising degree could be a requirement for some positions.  According to salary.com, the median annual salary for an experienced buyer in New York is $77,000. 

Career Resource

IWantHerJob.com (www.iwantherjob.com ) is an inspiring website that profiles women who love their jobs.   The site is a pleasure to view, interviews are informative, and women with all kinds of interesting jobs are profiled.  The site is fairly new so hopefully there will be a wider range of jobs profiled over time.  The interview with the assistant buyer for Sephora is here:  www.iwantherjob.com/cassie-cowman/ .

Karen Goldfinger, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice in Essex, Connecticut.   She specializes in psychological assessment for clinical, educational, and forensic purposes and has a special interest in career assessment.  She and two partners recently established KSB Career Consultants, LLC to provide on line career consultation for clients in Connecticut and New York.   Contact her with questions,  comments, or suggestions for the column at karengoldfinger@comcast.net. 

I just saw the movie “Fair Game” with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.  It tells the story of Valerie Plame, the CIA operative who was outed in the course of the political craziness of the times.  Her story made me wonder about what it takes to become a covert agent for the CIA.   This career column will attempt to answer that question, for the CIA and for other government agencies that have a strong national security focus.  Given the state of the world, there will undoubtedly be good jobs in these agencies for years to come, and we need good people to fill them. 

CIA

According to her Wikipedia entry, Valerie Plame’s father was in the Air Force and worked for a period for the National Security Agency (NSA), so perhaps she was born into it.  She attended Penn State and obtained a degree in advertising before applying to the CIA, and the CIA sent her to graduate school. It seems that a specific educational background is less important than talent, personal qualities, and the ability to pass a thorough background check.   

For those who find the alphabet soup of agencies confusing, the CIA is the agency that collects intelligence information and conducts covert actions against adversaries of the United States; it hires and trains spies.   It turns out that the CIA website is extremely user-friendly for job applicants and those just wanting to learn more about its mission and history.   It is so effective that it could serve as a model for government and corporate websites of all types.  It has good explanations of positions it hires for, videos about them, and a fun “personality quiz” that dispels myths about CIA service.  Regarding working for the CIA it notes, among other things:

“there are some fundamental qualities common to most successful officers, including a strong record of academic and professional achievement, good writing skills, problem-solving abilities and highly developed interpersonal skills. Overseas experience and languages are important factors as well.” 

Anyone can apply and the on line application is easy enough.  However, the applicant must:

“be prepared to undergo a thorough background investigation examining your life’s history, your character, trustworthiness, reliability and soundness of judgment. We also examine your freedom from conflicting allegiances, potential to be coerced, and willingness and ability to abide by regulations governing the use, handling and the protection of sensitive information.” 

How they conduct this investigation and determine one’s “freedom from conflicting allegiances,” etc. is left unsaid. 
If a career in the CIA sounds appealing, and the thought of going through an extensive background investigation does not dissuade you, check out the job possibilities on the CIA website, www.cia.gov/careers/index.html. 

FBI

The FBI is concerned with law enforcement at the national level.  Among other things, the FBI gathers intelligence from domestic sources, so the CIA apparently goes through the FBI if they need information from within the United States.  The FBI website indicates that it is currently recruiting Special Agents with certain critical skills such as accounting, finance, engineering, and the hard sciences. Applicants need to be between 23-37 years old to be considered for these positions, and they also have to meet physical requirements and pass a background check.  The FBI is also recruiting to fill professional positions, some of which have to be filled by current FBI employees and many of which require the applicant to pass top level security clearances.  The FBI careers website is much less appealing and more difficult to navigate than the CIA website, but many positions are posted for FBI offices in different parts of the country.  For example, there are postings for administrative officers, biologists, and paralegals.  Note that most positions have very specific requirements for experience.  FBI jobs are listed here:  www.fbijobs.gov/index.asp. 

NSA

On its website, the NSA, or National Security Agency, indicates that its “core missions are to protect U.S. national security systems and to produce foreign signals intelligence information.”  That is, the NSA protects national intelligence information and gathers intelligence information (signal intelligence, or SIGNIT) to share with those who need it.  The NSA…” collects SIGINT from various sources, including foreign communications, radar, and other electronic systems. This information is frequently in foreign languages and dialects, is protected by codes and other security measures, and involves complex technical characteristics. NSA…needs to collect and understand the information, interpret it, and get it to our customers in time for them to take action.” 
The NSA hires very smart computer scientists and engineers but also those with a background in international relations or anthropology.  For example, with a Bachelor’s degree in one of these fields you can apply for entrance into an intelligence analyst development program.   The NSA also offers a number of internships and scholarships at all levels. You can find out more about careers with the NSA here:  www.nsa.gov/careers/index.shtml.  The NSA website is easy to navigate and interesting to explore, but the information it provides is complex as perhaps is appropriate for its mission.  

Career Resource

The Federal Government’s official job site, www.usajobs.opm.gov/, is big, well organized, and informative.  It is a good place to learn about the hiring process for federal jobs and browse for federal jobs, and it is the only place to apply for most federal jobs.  If you take the time to explore the site, you will also find valuable information on how federal jobs are filled and you might be surprised at what kinds of jobs are available. For example, I did a quick search for jobs for psychologists in Connecticut and I was surprised to discover that the department of agriculture hires counseling psychologists for the Job Corps program.

Karen Goldfinger, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice in Essex, Connecticut.   She specializes in psychological assessment for clinical, educational, and forensic purposes and has a special interest in career assessment.  She and two partners recently established KSB Career Consultants, LLC to provide on line career consultation for clients in Connecticut and New York.   Contact her with questions,  comments, or suggestions for the column at karengoldfinger@comcast.net. 

Long ago I was hired for a job that I thought would be perfect for me.  I had just graduated from college with a degree in psychology, and the job was to write summaries and test questions for psychology study guides.  It went well for about a half hour.  Then I was bored.   I didn’t want to stick to the straightforward answers required of me; I wanted to expand on the material and discuss the complexities.  In addition, the office environment was extremely still and quiet, and I wanted to move around and listen to the radio.  I didn’t do the work that was asked of me very well, I complained, and I distracted my colleagues.  Even though I had the right credentials I was not a good hire, and I didn’t last very long there. 

Now that years have passed and I have had to do some hiring of my own, I am better able to put myself in the shoes of my employer.    He didn’t hire me as a consultant to tell him how to improve his study guides.  He hired me to write them as they had always been written, quickly and without complaint.  The job turned out to be one I had no interest in doing, but it was the job that I was hired for.  It was my responsibility to get it done.

A “good hire” is someone who gets the job done.  He or she is also reliable and, at the very least, pleasant to be around.  The job that needs to be done, of course, is different in every circumstance.  It may require very specific skills, credentials, experiences, or talents, or more general qualities, such as quick thinking, good interpersonal skills, or a particular appearance.   For my study guide job, I was reliable and pleasant to be around, and I had the right skills and credentials, but I was not good at completing routine tasks in a quiet environment.  I was not a good hire. 

Why is being “a good hire” important to job seekers?  If Jane is looking for work, or expects to be looking for work, thinking through what it takes to be a good hire can help her get hired for the right job.  She can focus on the skills, credentials, and personal qualities that she “brings to the table,” that is, the strengths, interests, and all of the other characteristics that make her a good hire.    She might see areas that need improvement, and make the improvements, so that she is a better and more confident candidate.  Or she might choose a different focus for her job search, or move towards a different career altogether. 

Here are some suggestions to help you answer the “What makes me a good hire?” question.  Think about:

• What did you do well at your last job (or at school, at home, or in a volunteer position)?
• What aspects of the job were easy for you?  Perhaps you found it easy to run meetings, work with colleagues, or get tasks done quickly, for example.  
• What did you enjoy most?
• In what circumstances were you most productive?
• What difficult things did you accomplish? 

Also ask yourself: 

• What could you have done better?
• What was difficult?
• What was unappealing?

Finally, think about what you want to improve, that is, what would make you a better hire, not for any job but for a job you want. 

For my study guide job, I could have, with difficulty, settled down and become a good hire, and perhaps I might have been able to establish a career in publishing or business.   I took a different path, however, working towards a position that would be a better fit for me.   I went to work in a restaurant to earn money and volunteered as a research assistant so that I would be a more competitive applicant for graduate school. 

We are a varied lot, and each one of us brings different qualities to the workplace.    The more we understand ourselves and what work requires of us, that is, knowing what makes us a good hire, the better choices we can make and the better we can present ourselves to potential employers. 

Career Spotlight:  Cybersecurity Expert, Digital Forensic Scientist

Cybersecurity experts protect data on computer networks.  Digital forensic scientists examine digital data to solve crimes.   Jobs in these areas are often stressful and demanding and sometimes they can be tedious, but they can also be exciting and financially rewarding.  Some of these jobs provide the bonus of being able to work with the newest technologies.    Both careers should be of interest to people who like thinking through problems, hands-on work, and following routines. 

\These are “hot” careers.  There is such a high demand for cybersecurity experts that the federal government is trying to interest talented young people in the field while they are still in high school through high school cyber challenges (competitions).  A Bachelor’s degree in computer science provides a good background, but other science and engineering majors could also find a home in cybersecurity or digital forensics.  A strong interest in and ability to grasp computer and related technology is key.  There are internship opportunities and specialized training and certification programs, similar to other IT career paths, and there are also a few specialized master’s and doctoral programs.   Law enforcement agencies and law firms hire digital forensic specialists.   Government agencies and private corporations hire cyber security experts, and they don’t seem to be able to get enough of them. 

You can find information about careers in digital forensics at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences website, in the Resources section under Students :  www.aafs.org/choosing-career#Digital. 

For a description of careers in cybersecurity, the Wall Street Journal has a good write-up.  Click here to view article.

Karen Goldfinger, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice in Essex, Connecticut.   She specializes in psychological assessment for clinical, educational, and forensic purposes and has a special interest in career assessment.  She and two partners recently established KSB Career Consultants, LLC to provide on line career consultation for clients in Connecticut and New York.   Contact her with questions,  comments, or suggestions for the column at karengoldfinger@comcast.net.