Your letter of instruction with medico-legal documents is sent via email – this usually outlines a client’s history (with dates), an existing or projected career, or an expected path. This comes with numerous market, vocational and/or remuneration questions requiring opinion.

From that, a job analysis of that career is completed for reporting.  This involves market data collection, industry opinions, current and projected salaries and employment snapshots, as well any expected future trajectory.

A report is developed and sent back, usually within 2 weeks of contact.

Client Interviews

Client interviews are not always required. If this is the case, reports can be succesfully completed from the supplied medico-legal documents, reports and statements. This is my standard reporting. However, sometimes a client interview is deemed necessary, and an interview is arranged at a convenient time, day and place. One and half hours is a general rule of thumb for a session’s length.

Call or email to discuss your needs…

Career assessments, counselling and support is a very cloudy area for much debate, particularly for its real world worth and practicality to an injured party, who can be stuck, avoidant and/or emotional.

The end point needs to be highly realistic and attainable, available and accessible. But most importantly – be seen by the injured person as a worthy job option to act on.

My experience comes from knowing the real job market and the potential entry points where an injured party can re-establish a ‘viable’ employment path.

It is extremely easy to prescribe ‘Uber driving’ as a vocational option to an injured party who was once an architect… I’ve seen this happen, a lot. “The jump is easy Bob, just go do it!”

or

“You were a bus-builder for 24 years Greg that isn’t an option for you now, so how about you go drive one of those buses you built – it’s the same field… sort of”

There are obvious problems to poor assessments, besides the money spent to get them. The above shows this clearly, and I am sure you have read dozens of examples yourself. Some you could have easily come up with in an instant – all without the cost. It is disappointing to read ill-advised options.

Let’s face it, the strike rate for an injured party to want to freely engage or go back to work before settlement – is slim. A pricey vocational report that summarises, ‘just go drive an Uber’ doesn’t really help.

So what then?

Give me a call or email and let’s chat. You may be surprised that not all vocational experts are experts. Cheers David.

I’m David McDonald a vocational workplace counsellor – a qualified occupational, careers and educational practitioner. View me on LinkedIn

For over 20+ years I’ve advise on careers and workplace situations that are impacted by change, whether planned or unplanned. My range of client work spans across 16 different industries – in Blue, Orange and White-Collar sectors.

With around 2400 clients, I’ve built a wealth of workplace knowledge based on practical on-site experience from genuine industry relationships.

My thoughts…

Since I started completing Vocational Reports for law firms in Brisbane. Like yourself, I’ve read hundreds of pages of medico-legal report documents and statements. Some of those expressing occupational views and touting salaries that were quite hit and miss. In the end, these well-intentioned professionals opined outside of their normal area of expertise – as this was all that was normally available.

This opens up questionable gaps.

Vocational career work is a highly skilled profession… and I am working hard to provide the most accurate, up-to-date, researched industry data and experienced workplace opinions available.

I am always happy to chat about a case prior to you requesting an independent report.

Call me directly – 0487 611 519 or email.