About the Developer

Barry Lustig, M.A., Prof. Dipl.
Developer, Career Vectors System

Barry Lustig, M.A., Prof. Dipl.
Developer of the Career Vectors System

Barry Lustig, formerly the director of the Career Assessment Institute of Federation Employment and Guidance Service (F.E.G.S. a large New York Human Service Agency) is a Career Assessment and Development Specialist with over 45 years of professional experience.

He has had a longtime interest in the training and development of career counselors. He created and directed the F.E.G.S. Professional Development Institute, a training program for career counselors and related professions that also provided consultation and training to human resource departments of organizations, career development and outplacement firms, and colleges and universities.

Barry was an adjunct instructor at the New School (Milano Division) Human Resources Management graduate program for approximately 20 years. He developed their Adult Career Development and Counseling Certificate Program which was a graduate program consisting of a comprehensive coverage (eight courses) of all aspects of the career counseling field.

Prior to that, he had developed the first career counseling certificate program in New York with Queens College (School of Continuing Education) and F.E.G.S. He has also taught courses in career counseling and career assessment as an adjunct instructor at Pace University, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, and New York University School of Continuing Education.

Barry has had a special interest in career assessment and created the F.E.G.S. Comprehensive Career Assessment Model to provide an in-depth assessment process that includes addressing the multi-faceted aspects of personality as major components of career development, competency and effectiveness.

Using this assessment model, he has worked with many individuals whose career confusion was symptomatic of self-confusion, and who were in need of developing greater insight and clarity into their self/career identity profile. This led to his contributing to the book, If You Knew Who You Were, You Could Be Who You Are, by Dr. Gerald Sturman.

Barry developed and recently revised the Career Vectors System, a career assessment instrument that integrates the assessment of vocational interests, skills and abilities, and work-related personality characteristics, helping individuals to understand their strengths and development needs and identify possible career directions to explore.

He has also created a comprehensive career assessment card sort, “The Strengths and Development Needs Card Sort,” which includes an assessment of functional skills and competencies, preferred work roles, adaptive/self-management traits, and internal barriers. The card sort can be used in both career counseling and executive coaching.

He has been a career assessment and testing consultant to colleges and universities, human resource consulting and psychological testing firms. Additionally, he has been the career assessment content and subject matter consultant to various publications including the book, The Career Discovery Project, (published by Doubleday) also by Dr. Sturman and Starting Out, Starting Over, by Linda Peterson, Davis-Black Publishing.

Barry also has a strong interest in clinical and psychological issues in career counseling and originated the use of the term, “Clinical Career Counseling” in New York. This involves the exploration, assessment, and management of personality factors and internal barriers that can negatively affect one’s career development and interfere with career success and satisfaction.

He has written a monograph, “Personality Dynamics and Internal Barriers in Clinical Career Counseling and Executive Coaching,” and has taught courses on this subject at F.E.G.S., and the New School for many years. He has also made several presentations and conducted workshops on this and related topics including the use of personality assessment techniques in career counseling.

Barry received his B.A. degree in Psychology from Queens College (CUNY) and an M.A. in Vocational Guidance from New York University. He also received a Professional Diploma from Teacher’s College, Columbia University in Student Personnel Administration in Higher Education with a concentration of course work in Counseling Psychology.