5 Things You Should Know About Career Coaching

Have you heard of Career Coaching? Are you curious about what it can do for you and your work? Here are some things you should know about it.

What Exactly is Career Coaching?

A Career Coach helps with your professional development. Basically, the goal is to support professionals in making informed decisions about their career development, changes and trajectory, as well as to offer various practical tools to help professionals achieve what they want. Career Coaching tends to be a solution-oriented approach, which involves working with people to see what concrete steps they can take to achieve career objectives.

The core virtue of Career Coaching is to help individuals assess their professional situations with a greater degree of honesty, curiosity, empathy and compassion.

What a Coach Can Do for Your Career

Personalize Your Career Plan

A professional Career Coach is skilled and trained in helping you create a personalized plan designed to meet your goals. So, while you can definitely find a lot of great material online—resume templates, cover letter tips, sample interview questions—you will get personalised advice and information tailored specifically to you and your needs when you work with an expert. A good coach will help you put into words and action not only what your goals are, but how you can best achieve them.

Minimize Stress and Anxiety

Being unfulfilled at work often fosters difficult emotions, including doubt, worry, low self-esteem and lack of confidence. The current times of COVID-19 and the pandemic we are experiencing these days, of course do not help at all. Finding happiness in life and at work is an emotional process that involves processing and channeling challenging feelings like rejection and self-doubt into healthy ways rather than allowing them to sabotage your progress. The right person can empower you to take action, overcome setbacks, and maintain your focus.

Provide Honest, Unbiased Feedback

Family and friends are often the first ones we turn to for reassurance and advice during a job search, in spite of the fact that their perspective is, of course, biased. Coaches, on the other hand, offer unbiased, objective feedback tailored to your search and career goals. A coach will get to know your skills and aptitude as a person, an employee/manager, focus on your strengths and then go from there in helping you achieve your goals. Think of this person as someone to bounce new, bold ideas with, such as that creative personal statement you are unsure of, and then make it happen - or that difficult decision where you need some feedback and guidance.

What a Coach Can’t Do for You

Can’t Do the Work for You

While these experts can and will provide you with guidance, tools and resources necessary to make you and your job search successful, they are not supposed to do the work for you. It is completely up to each individual to take what they learn in a session and run with it. That means being willing to put aside dedicated time to practice interviewing skills, for example, or write a journal entry on what your ideal work day looks like or do a vision board. As with most things in life, you will get out what you put into the relationship.

Can’t Change Your Life Overnight

Career change is a process—and an ongoing one. The time it takes to see results will vary based on your individual goals and where you are in your career. Your coach may be able to work through resume and interview preparation with you relatively quickly, but working through issues of self-doubt, lack of confidence, and negativity may take significantly longer. Change does not happen overnight and a coach that promises overnight results is not a serious professional.

Can’t Instantly Get You a Job

Career Coaches are not magicians; they do not promise you will be hired after an interview or get a promotion, nor can they guarantee job placement. The results of your sessions depend on the effort you devote to the process.

The coach is an ally, a trained professional who is familiar with your situation and dedicated to your success. He or she is present to help you identify goals, find or rekindle your passion, give you a competitive edge in your job search, boost your confidence, and enable you to move forward in your career.

Choosing and Working with a Career Coach

Find Your Fit

Selecting the right Career Coach means finding someone who will challenge you in a beneficial and productive way. Selecting the wrong person can be disappointing and expensive. Coaches who are properly trained and adhere to a professional code of ethics understand that the clients need to assess their options in order to find the appropriate coach.

Keep Things on Track

Coaching should be a safe environment in which you share your thoughts and feelings and fine-tune your communication style to achieve your desired outcomes.

As with any engagement, you need to understand your goals and the value your coach is adding. If you are frustrated or confused, ask for clarification. A good coach-client relationship is interactive and responsive, and a coach will be collaborative, engaged, and adaptable. But please be careful not to make your coach a crutch. Track your progress and be aware when you have reached your goals.4

Find the Career Coach Who’s Right for You

Almost every coach will be able to provide good references allowing you to see the kind of assistance and approach they provide. Personality and chemistry is also important. You may be drawn to someone with a more reserved and serious style, or want an encouraging extrovert and cheerleader. By looking at their content in advance via their website, Linkedin and referrals you can make an informed decision about whether you’ll“click” professionally.

It can be difficult to navigate a professional reinvention on your own. A good Career Coach can save you countless hours of frustration by sharing best practices and helping you avoid common pitfalls as you transition. But finding the right one makes all the difference.5

If you would like to explore more about Career Coaching—or coaching in general—please reach FELIZ Consulting at [email protected]

Resources:
1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2013/07/09/10-things-you-should-know-about-career-coaching/#2cc6c7c47d5e
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/jobs/from-career-coaches-unfiltered-feedback.html?auth=login-google
3. https://www.themuse.com/advice/heres-the-real-deal-on-what-a-coach-can-and-cant-do-for-your-career
4. https://michelletillislederman.com/five-tips-for-choosing-and-working-with-a-career-coach/
5. https://hbr.org/2015/03/find-the-career-coach-whos-right-for-you