Allan started his Career Development work in 1991 after a 20 year business to business and corporate sales career in the technology sector. During his initial 5 successful years with the Haldane organization he acted as a one-on-one career adviser, staff trainer, workshop leader and public speaker. Also during that time he completed the Career Development certificate program at the University of Washington. In late 1996 Allan chose to strike out on his own, opening Hay & Associates in Bellevue, Washington dedicated to job search and career change. In 2000 he began teaching job interview and other job search and careering subjects, part time, at Bellevue College, as well as lecturing as guest speaker at other colleges and universities throughout the area.
Allan wrote Memory Mining, in 2005. A book focused on providing guidance for remembering the best of your past good work experiences for the purpose of creating and organizing experiential stories for job interviewing and resume development.