About Career Development Alliance
We are career development professionals — highly trained and experienced counselors — who specialize in leveraging solid research, quality practices, and our real-world experience for all our clients
CDA is a small, woman-owned business whose staff is highly experienced in direct service delivery with a wide range of clients. CDA provides quality professional career services informed by theory and proven best practices in the fields of counseling psychology, career development and business management. Our work flows from a deep and broad understanding of career development and its central role in the lives of our clients. We relate to our clients as individuals, even when they come to us through contracts serving thousands of people.
Career Development Professionals
We are career development professionals — highly trained and experienced counselors — who specialize in leveraging solid research, best practices and our real-world experience for our clients. CDA Directors are licensed psychologists, ensuring an unusually high level of quality in service and ethical practice. Our practitioners are firmly grounded in the counseling profession, with graduate degrees in psychology and the social sciences at the master’s and doctoral levels, and advanced training in career development. Professional development is offered regularly to our practitioners through participation in the annual National Career Development Association Global Career Development Conference as well as our own CDA Insights blog.
Mission & Philosophy
CDA’s mission is to provide quality career services informed by theory and researched best practices to individuals and organizations — one client at a time. We also understand that we are part of a broader community, and strive to give back by developing new methods and tools to improve delivery of our industry’s services, and by devoting time and resources to support career development in regions where there is a great need but little access.
History
CDA grew out of a not-for-profit organization, the Career Development Leadership Alliance (CDLA), which was founded in 1998. We created CDA in 2003 to meet a growing demand for our services in a for-profit capacity. R/S Foundation, which now operates as our not-for-profit arm, is dedicated to supporting the career development of individuals who have limited access to career services, both here in the United States and abroad. Find out about how CDA is giving back through the R/S Foundation.
Principals
Services
Executive Coaching
We partner with individuals who are committed to maximizing their value to their organizations through management and executive coaching. CDA coaches are informed by years of counseling experience and current best practices in organizational management and business. We draw from this knowledge in guiding our executive coaching clients as they assign and manage work, train and develop employees, provide positive and constructive feedback and communicate and network effectively with individuals at all levels of their organizations.
Organizational Consulting
We partner with organizations to assess the multi-faceted career development needs of their employees, and to design comprehensive career services to meet those needs. We have created nationwide career counseling and coaching services using a variety of approaches, including in-person, telephone, and the Internet. We also work collaboratively with organizations to design nationwide career management and mentoring programs, and advise on recruitment and orientation programming and training and development initiatives, as well as outplacement efforts.
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CDA has created comprehensive training and instructor materials used to train tens of thousands of professionals and paraprofessionals in the field of career development. We respond to organizational requests to design and produce specialized curricula. We also work collaboratively with organizations to craft training curricula on career development planning for employees, supervisors and managers. We also design, script, and perform in video productions on a wide range of career-focused topics.
Career Counseling / Coaching
Based on clients’ needs and goals, we partner with them to assess their interests, skills, values and preferences – through both established assessments such as the Strong Interest Inventory, SkillScan, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and through structured interviews and experiential exercises.
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We then assist clients in exploring their career options, systematically researching alternatives, and making informed choices. We coach clients toward maximizing their career success by teaching them strategies for open and direct communication, time and task management skills, professional presence, and authentic interpersonal relationships.
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Comprehensive interviews & assessments
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Nationwide career management programs
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Collaborate with executives’ schedules to meet in person, via telephone or Internet-based video.
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Training curricula on career development
Clients
We are privileged to work with many prestigious clients.
Here are just a few:
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Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
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United States Secret Service
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The Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
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AmeriSteel Corporation
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Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
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National Institute of Corrections
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The National Capital Presbytery
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American Medical Association (AMA)