Conflict Resolution
Employment &
Career Information

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Top 10 Strategies and Approaches for Starting a Conflict Resolution Career

1. Training & Experience. Take the basic 40-80 hours of training everyone needs even if they have academic degrees in law, counseling or conflict resolution and get as much practical experience as you can. Experience in a variety of types of cases will build your competence generally as well as for those specific types of conflicts.

2. Take Time to Explore. Consider what direction you want to take by doing a little exploration of the field (see Suggestions for Exploring a Conflict Resolution Career in the next column). There are differences in preparation for careers in government, academia and private practice.

3 . Rosters. Do get listed on as many mediator and facilitator rosters as you can. These will add to your credibility and marektability as well as force you to gain the experience necessary to meet their criteria for inclusion. Just be aware that inclusion on one or more rosters will not lead to financial independence. Rosters are generally a very poor source of well-paying casework.

4 . Certification. Do get Certified or approved by your state or local court system. Again, this will add to your credibility and marketability since Certification is a recognizable credential issued by a state agency. However, know that state court certification lists will absolutely not lead to substantial income. In Virginia, for example, few cases are referred through the certified mediator lists and all court referrals pay little or nothing. For more information about state court mediator certification see the NVMS publication on this topic.

5 . Job Preparation. If you're planning on getting a job (as opposed to entering private practice), consider carefully what type of academic degree will be best from both a credentialling and a training perspective (see Mediator Education Compared and Credentialing Choices Compared ). For example, a university teaching career will usually require a Ph.D.; a public school peer mediation career will probably require teacher certification and possibly specialization as a guidance counselor; a job managing a federal government ADR program will probably require a law degree or substantial prior federal employment; a job with a public or environmental dispute resolution firm will probably require a conflict resolution degree and a job with an international NGO will probably require a combination of advanced degree in law or conflict resolution, international experience and fluency in two or more languages. For other employment situations, such as private corporations, the field is just too new for there to be even suggested guidelines. If you have particular ambitions or career goals, it's best to go right to the source as early as you can and see what kind of preparation will be needed.

6. Successful Private Practice Model. Build your practice on a successful private practice model. This means targeting your marketing and conflict resolution at clients and referral sources that get you work that will be financially rewarding so that you can sustain your practice and career. A successful model means a) charging a market rate to people who can afford to pay that rate; b) spending substantial time marketing your practice; c) targeting less developed and new areas; d) differentiating your services from other, competing, practitioners.

Need more information about how to set up a private practice? Contact your local Small Business Development Center for inexpensive ($35) workshops and advice:

• Fairfax SBDC
• Virginia SBDC's
• National SBDC Locater

7. Unsuccessful Private Practice Model. Avoid building your practice on the nonprofit model - that is, focusing on interesting but non-financially rewarding work with low income people, sliding fee scales, courts, churches and communities. Nonprofits do this kind of work using pro-bono practitioners and they receive financial assistance through grants and contributions.

8 . Set Appropriate Rates. Charge a market rate!!!!! There's a reason why private practitioners charge a high rate in the hundreds of dollars per hour: They have to pay for all of their overhead, time developing clients who may or may not retain their services, case management time and especially all of their marketing time - which might be as much as 75% or more of their time. Do not do what many new mediators who are used to working in jobs do - They multiply $40/hour times 2080 hours and say "Wow! I can easily make $83K a year if I price my services low." This doesn't work becasue a) people equate low pay with bad quality; b) you can't mediate 2080 hours per year and still do marketing and all that other stuff.

9 . Market, Market, Market. Recognize, appreciate and understand that you will need to put substantial time into "putting yourself out there" with marketing materials, presentations, speeches, etc. Marketing is the lifeblood of all private enterprise. Do a self-evaluation to see if you are ready to engage in this type of activity. All too many mediators get certified, get on a few rosters and wait for cases to be "assigned." This doesn't work for them and it won't work for you. An effective marketing effort will leave them wondering how you made it and they didn't!

10 . Take Advantage of Prior Experience. Many practitioners in private practice or employment positions have taken advantage of their prior education and experience to develop a successful career. Some have integrated their new skills and training into their existing jobs; Others have taken prior employment and used that to get a new conflict resolution position. Others have used their prior contacts, knowledge of a particular field and their reputation and credentials to develop private practice business.

Places to Search
In addition to the postings in the boxes in the right hand column, there are also a number of places where you can find jobs by entering key word search parameters, including the following:

• Washington Post.com

Search for Federal Jobs
The following are search engines for federal vacancies:

• Office of Personnel Management
• Fed World.gov
• Fed Jobs.com

Suggestions for Exploring a Conflict Resolution Career
No matter what question you ask about how to get started toward a conflict resolution career there's no "right" answer!  That's because there are no educational, credentialing or career paths that have been well established for such careers. One of the reasons for this is that society hasn't yet decided that it absolutely needs conflict resolvers. We're still in the position of having to sell employers, governments and clients that they are better off with the assistance of third-party neutrals. So here are some suggestions for exploring the what, where, why and if of beginning career preparation for CR:

1. Read the FAQs. Read through the and FAQ - Virginia Certification and the FAQ - Mediation Training.  These will help you learn more about what is needed and expected to participate in mediation training and certification. Also take a look at the requirements for Virginia Mediator Certification.

2. Take the NVMS workshops "Introduction to Mediation, Training and Practice" and "Mediation Skills and Process." If you're really interested in conflict resolution you will need this training in any event - even if you already have or are planning to get a degree in conflict resolution, law or couseling. These workshops will be a great introduction to the field and may affirm your interest or let you know to try another direction.

3. If you are interested in pursuing an academic degree in conflict resolution, consider taking a course or two to get a feel for the field. You can usually do this as a continuing education student without applying for a degree program. At George Mason University, you can take the CONF 501 course which is a survey type introduction to the field.

4. Network with programs, professionals and others interested in the field. Ask them questions - Most will love to bend your ear! Some networking ideas include:
a. Attend one of the GMU ICAR information sessions held periodically to inform prospective students about the conflict resolution degree programs.
b. Attend the NVMS free Monday Night Forum program for mediators. It's a continuing education program but also a networking opportunity.
c. Attend the free Careers in Mediation program at nvms to interact with a panel of professional mediators.
d. Attend a mediation or conflict resolution conference. Good conferences include those put on by the Association for Conflict Resolution, the Virginia Mediation Network, and the American Bar Association, Section on Dispute Resolution. You can find links to these organizations on the NVMS links page.

5. Read some books in the field. Two great books are "Getting to Yes" by Fisher and Ury and "The Mediation Process" by Christopher Moore. Both are in their second or third editions. You can find full references to these books, other books and links to full online research information on our books and research page.