If You Feel Stuck and Need to Get Unstuck, a Career Coach can make a difference.
We are not talking about just a few tweaks, which often make things worse, but working with a skilled career coach enables you with a whole new way of approaching and solving problems. But are they worth the investment?
**A Career Coach Can Help You Discover Your True Career Opportunities.**
You are the captain of your destiny – your career can be everything you desire – successful, meaningful, unforgettable. Seizing the opportunity to uncover your real passions, strengths, and what job responsibilities will be the key to your success or failure. And this goal-identifying and clarification process is just one reason to work with a career coach.
A qualified career coach will support you through the process of identifying your career goals while playing both cheerleader and devil’s advocate. While it is not a career coach’s role to tell you that you cannot do something, it is their role to highlight probability and ensure you have really considered the most likely reality of your career dreams. For example, a goal of dancing in the Joffrey Ballet has a long runway that begins early in life. While there’s always exceptions in life, some dreams have an expiration date. A good coach will help you identify what is possible and probable, while still encouraging you to “aim for the stars while being happy with the moon.”
One cannot hit a target they cannot see.
Most people find it difficult to describe abstract things like “my future” in practical terms.
Can you imagine your ideal career?
Is it specific, inspiring, and clear?
Do you know what roles/jobs to say no to because you know what values and criteria are non-negotiable for your ideal career?
Is the target ambiguous and the vision overcast?
A career coach helps you take an in-depth look at your career goals, your strengths, weaknesses, passions, limitations, experience, and the quality of life you want.
The result enables you to have the 4 Cs of Success: Clarity, Conviction, Criteria and Course of Action required to succeed in your selected field.
How Much Does a Career Coach Make?
That’s going to depend on what you are hiring your career coach to do and the level of experience of the career coach. For example, if you just need someone to review your resume, that will have a vastly different cost than if you are an executive making a career transition.
When hiring a career coach, make sure that you ask a few questions to determine whether your investment will pay off.
1. What can working with you (as my career coach) do to help me with my career goals?
When hiring a career coach, you will want to understand the game plan and thus, a good coach will need to first assess where you are in the decision-making and planning process.
They will likely answer your question with a question in turn. For example, “First, tell me about what you want out of your career?” or “Share with me where you are and where you want to be.” or “What is your career goal?”
Let us state the obvious. A career coach cannot do the work for you. Thus, working with a career coach without action will not have an impact on your career. However, leveraging the career coaching sessions and committing to the actions identified will help you be more effective, efficient, and expeditious in your job search and in obtaining your career goals.
2. How will working with you Mr. or Ms. Career Coach, help me get from point A to point C?
Career coaches often recommend that you develop and pursue a “career plan.” This is a documented blueprint (i.e., career plan) that will help you stay on track and achieve your goals.
Although there are many career coaching methods, having a career plan is essential. This is also true if right now your only goal is “get a job asap.” A career plan shows you the path to take to accomplish the career goal (or job) you are targeting.
Sometimes, this means re-focusing on your current job or career in a way that re-aligns you with both your untapped potential as well as the company’s resources, capabilities and opportunities.
Other times, this means leveraging your current job just-enough to set you up for success in the next.
Still other times, your career plan may take you back to the basics. This may include practicing excellent interviewing skills, or creating a polished and impressive resume, and following a structured networking and outreach plan for your job search.
Speed matters to those in a career transition or job search. Thus, take a moment to ask your potential career coach, how exactly will they support you in making good use of your time and getting the right job or making the next career move in a timely manner.
3. I am still hesitant. How do I know hiring a career coach is going to help?
You career coach does not have a crystal ball. However, they should be able to share with you examples of other jobseekers they have helped. Keep in mind, however, that an experienced career coach will be interviewing you, as much as you are interviewing them. They do not want to waste their time either. A good career coach wants you to be successful. Thus, they do not need to hard-sell you on their services because if you do not want it bad enough, then no matter how great of a career coach they are, they won’t be able to help.
The truth is that if you do decide to make this investment, you will get the results equivalent to the actions you take as determined by the career or job-search plan you and your career coach create.
Take a moment to identify what would constitute success when you hire a career coach and invest in a job-search or career transition coaching program.
Hire a Career Coach for Personal and Professional Development:
If you are at a dead-end in your current role, have been overlooked on promotions, or need to show-up and be seen as a capable, competent high-potential, then leaving it to chance is the equivalent of leaving your career to the spin of a roulette wheel.
If you have had interviews but are not making it to the next round, then working with a career coach will absolutely help you figure out what is happening and what to do about it. Never leave your interviewing skills to chance. If you are not getting job offers or invited back to the next interview, hire a career coach to help you with your interviewing skills. We cannot stress this enough. It makes every career coach sad to know that with just a little bit of feedback a person can gain employment so much faster and eliminate so much stress and heartache.
Hire a Career Coach to Help You with Your Job Search:
This would also include any advice on job hunting. This is an ongoing and important area which would be covered regularly, whether as an individual or as part of a team, if required. I would never want to deprive an individual of having any advice at all, however some aspects relate to where I have had difficulty in my work for other people. In the above sections I have not been able to cover all the different areas, so at some point in your reading please let me know if there is anything else we have missed.
Hire a Career Coach to Make a Career Transition:
Need advice or guidance on your career?
Just need an expert to understand and clarify how to maximize your strengths to capture new opportunities or make a career transition?
Seeking a second set of eyes and ears to help you evaluate your career goals or someone to confidentially confide in as you make career decisions?
A change in careers can be scary. A career transition can be difficult. In fact, the fear of the unknown causes most people to stay put in a job or career they hate.
However, working with a career coach will help you make decisions, gain clarity, and structure a confident career transition plan. Thus, making your career transition one of the most transformative and best decisions of your life.
This is what career coaches live for – helping bold professionals find more meaning and joy at work, and in their lives, and better compensation at the same time.
Hiring a Career Coach May be the Most Important Investment You Ever Make in Your Career
Career coaching may be the most worthwhile investment a professional can make. And career coaching does not have to be only for the privileged few (our career coaching packages are very affordable.)
The bottom line is working with a career coach will help you achieve your career goals or land a job faster.
Is it worth the investment?
You tell me.
Do you believe you are you worth it?
Hire a coach today or schedule a complimentary career coach consultation.
Give us a call at 801-244-2158
