Dominic Militello began working in career coaching more than 25 years ago. When he started working at the University of Utah in 2022, he was excited to be part of a larger university initiative to coach students.
“It was President Taylor Randall’s dream to have every student on campus have access to a career coach. When he was dean of the business school, all the business students had access to career coaches and the success rates went through the roof,” Militello explains. “President Randall decided he wanted to do the same thing campus-wide, and I was part of the first group of embedded career coaches.”
While Militello initially worked with students in the College of Humanities, he now coaches students in the Graduate School and is available on Fridays to help Master of Legal Studies (MLS) students.
“I love the whole process of helping somebody shift their paradigm about how they see themselves and how they see themselves interacting with the marketplace,” he explains. “We’ve all been taught to be job seekers, to apply, hope you get an interview and then an offer. If you get an offer, then you hope you like the job. It often takes three to six months to discover that you don’t really like the job, and then you quit and get back into the same process. It’s a vicious cycle.”
Militello recalls seeing his father in the same cycle of not being happy with his career but feeling trapped in the job because he needed to support his family. Working as a career counselor is fulfilling for Militello because he can see the difference it makes.
“Once I was kind of established in my career coaching practice, my dad said, ‘I wish I had somebody like you back in the day who could have helped me pivot and change directions in my life,'” he recalls.
Now that he coaches MLS students, Militello likes the variety of career options available to them.
“There are so many different positions, like business compliance, human resources, regulatory compliance, healthcare compliance and ethics, and technology and data privacy,” he says. “Students get into all kinds of different career paths that are really interesting. I like helping them achieve their career objectives.”
MLS students who meet with Militello either on Zoom or in person can discuss any career questions or goals they have.
“Maybe they really like their company but want to grow in compensation or responsibilities. We talk through how they approach their manager or ask for more money and find out where they want to go in their job,” he explains. “Nine times out of 10, it’s more of an internal confidence issue. They don’t have the confidence to approach their boss or want a promotion but don’t feel like they can do the job. There’s a disconnect between how they feel about themselves and what they’re putting out to the world.”
Chad Nelson, who earned his MLS degree in 2024, scheduled career counseling sessions with Militello this summer. He had years of experience in the toy industry but wanted to find work elsewhere. With Militello’s help, Nelson was hired in October at Bass Pro Shops’ corporate office in Missouri as a toys, gifts, and novelty buyer.
“Though I intended to get out of the toy industry, I feel revived in continuing my career path to have a company want both my skill and education,” Nelson explains. “I’m excited for the opportunity to grow a division within an organization whose founder and owner has contributed so much to conservation. I’m also excited to have executive management acknowledge not just my MLS but that they hired me to leverage that knowledge within my role. Dominic’s direction really shifted my mindset from being another person looking for a job into a person presenting my skills to the right organizations and networking.”
It was helping Nelson shift from the cycle of landing a job to showing organizations he provided value that made a difference for him.
“When he started approaching the marketplace from a place of professionalism, a place of being able to generate results and deliverables, then the marketplace went, Whoa, this guy is somebody we need to have on our team,” Militello says. “That’s what Bass Pro Shops did for him. They just said, ‘We see your value. We need you to get here ASAP.’ They took care of his moving expenses and did all kinds of really amazing things to get him into that seat, to start generating revenue for that organization. It was just a match made in heaven. He’s thrilled and they’re thrilled.”
Though career counseling is different for everyone, Militello wants MLS students to know that they don’t have to need help to book a session with him.
“Just come in and let’s talk about where you’re at. I’ve talked to thousands of people through career coaching, and there’s not a whole lot that I haven’t seen,” he says. “Maybe there’s some value I can bring to the table that you haven’t considered before that will help you get a promotion or in your performance reviews and negotiating strategies. If you’re thinking about pivoting in your career, I can help you figure out how to do that a bit more effectively. You don’t always have to be stuck to have a career coaching session.”
MLS students can also think of career coaching as a way to be proactive and plan ahead for times that may be more difficult.
“You don’t want to go to a financial advisor when you’re broke. You want to go when things are going well and learn how to keep growing your portfolio. It’s the same with a career coach,” Militello says. “You have an opportunity to get advice from someone and hear different perspectives. I also see job postings all the time and send them out, so this is a chance to network. I think it’s always valuable.”
When booking a virtual or in-person session with Militello, students can count on him to be as excited about his own job as he is about theirs.
“The student who meets me at eight o’clock in the morning and the student who meets me at four o’clock in the afternoon is going to get the same energy from me, because I love what I do. I can do it all day long,” he says. “I also love the results that our students are getting from the work we do. That’s the most important thing.”
MLS students: Schedule a career counseling appointment with Dominic Militello.