Has anyone used a career advice firm ?

[Tinabn]

Has any one used a career advice firm for guidance when looking to change career direction? Are they worth the £600 plus?
If they are have you any recommendations? My daughter is in career limbo and is looking for help.

I haven't paid for one personally but my organisation bought one in when they were closing our site and making the full staff redundant. To be honest they were not worth £600 of anyone's money. They concentrated on commercial work, where we were a public sector organisation and most staff had a different ethos and no real interest in moving into commercial organisations. The one-to-one hour was ok but consisted in the consultant listening to what job seeking you'd already done and telling you that you'd done a good job. It was all a bit vague and there wasn't really anything that anyone with a bit of sense wouldn't have done automatically.

If you're looking for things like CV info the stuff you can find online was equally of use.

Sorry to be negative, it might be different if you source your own help who specialises in your particular field but I would have been sorely disappointed if I had spent £600 on the quality of input I received.

In terms if your daughter is there any way that she can access careers guidance from a previous institution? Uni or similar? I know that my uni are happy for alumni to access careers guidance after leaving.