What Wanderlust Careers does
Wanderlust Careers is a PsychTech company that utilizes a hybrid approach that is both high-touch and high-tech to help people who are dissatisfied with their work and/or looking to make a career change. They have successfully guided hundreds of clients into roles at top companies like Google, Apollo, etc.
The Current Landscape
The career guidance landscape is primarily made up of individual providers who may (or may not) have experience with psychology. The industry is a mix of people with great experience and clinical skills, as well as those without much experience or education. It also tends to be quite traditional, with 1-1 sessions as the only format for coaching, which can be expensive and time consuming.
We use a team-based approach (a single client may work with a professional resume writer, ATS expert, a recruiter, and psychologist to help them to execute a career change). Furthermore, all of our Career Coaches have a master or doctoral level degree in psychology or social work, which means they can attend to the mental health aspects of embarking on a career change (e.g., confusion, anxiety, paralysis, etc.), taking a holistic approach.
Company Birth Story
WC is led by psychologist, Dr. Katherine Kirkinis. Dr. Kirkinis started her career as a psychotherapist in a private practice working with young adults around identity issues (racial and gender identity). Her work revealed that when asked about identity and mental health, people talk about career. Her work became centered around themes of finding fulfillment at work. She had a huge influx of career coaching clients, but only the traditional route (lots of sessions) to help them. She started experimenting with Career Testing and taking a data-driven approach and found a combination of assessments that could help clients get to the answer of “what should I do with my life?” in as little as a few hours!
The Solution
WC’s goal is to eventually offer our career services to anyone who needs them, at lower prices, so everyone can find the right career path. They are also now using their method with high school students to help them to choose the right major and college, before they apply, mitigating the stress of making a career change later in life.
A Customer Story
Allen (28) was depressed: He had his dream job as a personal trainer, however, the reality of personal training was not what he thought. The hours were long, clients were difficult, and the pay was low. Incredibly bright, with a multitude of interests, he found his work to be intellectually unstimulating. He dreamed of being a high earner and of doing more impactful work. Allen went through Career Testing with WC and found that he was highly analytical, a deep thinker, who loved to solve complex problems and to work on projects with clear, tangible results. He also found out he was an introvert. He finally understood why personal training was not the right fit and what would be a better fit for him. The results pointed him to software engineering–something he had never considered. He tried several free courses online and was shocked to find that he enjoyed it! He pursued a bootcamp to become a full-stack developer. But, he was still concerned about a career change on his resume. He worked with WC to write a new resume that positioned him as a fitness trainer turned developer, looking to work at a fitness or wellness startup. Allen worked with WC for 3 months to achieve these results. He is currently enrolled in a 9-month certificate program to become a full-stack developer.
A founder quote
“Mental health and career are inexplicably intertwined.”
Check it out : https://www.wanderlustcareers.com/
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