Career Coaching: The Secret Weapon to Advance Your Career
Do you need a career coach? Put it in the context of other things you do to keep your life on track.
You see a dentist regularly to keep your teeth clean and cavity-free. You get an annual physical, exercise regularly, and eat right to stay healthy. You even give your car an oil change every 3,000 miles to keep up a maintenance schedule and get expert mechanic advice. But what do you do for your career? When it comes to your professional life, a proactive approach is best. Having a trusted adviser, such as a career coach, is a secret weapon of executives across the globe, but you don’t have to be a member of the C-suite to take advantage of this opportunity.
Coaches work closely with clients at every level to help them land the jobs they desire, but the relationship often doesn’t stop there. Many professionals opt to stay in touch with their coaches to get career advice on an as-needed basis. This has proven to be a valuable asset that can bolster career growth and job satisfaction.
What’s Career Coaching Anyway?
I continue to get emails, social media messages, and phone calls from people asking me to explain what career coaching is, who I think would be a good coach for them, or how to determine which coach is the right coach for them.
Career coaching is getting the support, help, and guidance you need to figure things out to reach your ultimate career goals. A career coach is there to ask questions, give you guidance, and help you overcome whatever challenges you’re facing in your job search.
In a coach/client relationship, you hold the agenda. Your coach is trained and skilled in providing you with insight, support, and the direction you need to achieve the goals you have in mind. In other words, position you to reach your goals sooner than later when trying to do it on your own.
An ongoing coach/client relationship strengthens awareness of what’s holding you back or showing up as road blocks that’s getting in the way of moving forward and being able to focus your efforts on reaching the goal(s) you’re targeting.
A career coach helps you establish realistic goals, discover solutions to challenges you’re up against, develop action plans, build self-confidence, and instills motivation to take action unlike many job seekers who do the minimum and hope for the best.
What a career coach is NOT…
To benefit from career coaching, you have to be willing to be coached. Meaning, you’re open to new ideas, willing to make changes, welcome constructive criticism, and ready to take action. Results come from taking action, making all of your hard work and efforts worthwhile!
What will a career coach do for you? A career coach will…
How to Pick a Career Coach
Only you can determine and make the decision who to choose as your coach. You know your needs best and who you feel would be a “good fit” based on your research. There are thousands of career coaching services out there so do your homework.
Not all career coaches are created equal. Job seekers, non job seekers, or anyone considering to hire and invest their time and money working with a career coach should have a clear understanding of what value career coach bring to the table.
4 Tips When Selecting a Career Coach
- Search for coaches who specialize in the area you’re seeking career help in (i.e., job search strategies, interviewing, networking, etc.).
- Check out their website, read their testimonials, and review their service offerings and coaching process. What impression are you left with? Is there a connection, is what they offer in line of what you’re looking for? How does their coaching process differ from the other coaches you checked out?
- Many career coaches offer a free 15 or 30 minute consultation—take advantage of this opportunity. It gives you a chance to speak with them personally and learn more about how they can help you. More importantly, you can find out if the chemistry is there, making that coach a “good fit.” If your personalities clash, it’s better to find out now before committing to work together.
- If the coach says they’re certified, verify it. Unfortunately, some coaches out there claim to be certified and display certification logos on their website when that’s not the case. If working with a certified career coach is important to you, take the extra step and verify.
The career coaches (and resume writers) in our network are verified certified. TCE is different from other online career service databases. Coaches and writers must be certified, qualifying them to be part of this exclusive network of industry experts.
Maria Hebda
Connect, attract, and nurture … the cornerstone for creating a thriving business of ideal clients! My many years of experience primed me to build a community of only the highest-level career professionals. LEARN MORE
John M. Myers
Maria Hebda
Alice Carroll
I like that you mentioned that a career coach can help give me feedback on my progress in what I am trying to attain. I’m thinking about looking through career coach packages that are available for me right now because I’ve been wanting to switch careers in the future. I can see how it will be important to make sure that I know what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong when preparing for this life-changing shift.
Maria Hebda
Hi Alice, glad to hear my article was helpful. You’ll find several highly qualified credentialed career coaches in our database who may be able to assist you. I recommend reaching out to the top three coaches via phone or email to help you determine who is a “good fit” for you moving forward. The key is to make an informed decision. Here’s to your career success!
Priya Dharshini
That was very informative. I too recommend career coaching as it opens the gateway to new opportunities. But finding a right career coach who is experienced in the desired industry is what important. I request you to post about how to select a career coach!
Maria Hebda
Thank you for your comment! In reply to your request about selecting a career coach, I did included this information in my article above. You’ll find that info under the header “How to Pick a Career Coach” above.
Levi Armstrong
I like your advice about taking advantage of the 15 to 30-minute free consultation most career coaches offer so I can find out if our personalities match and learn more about how they can help me. For the past year, I’ve wanted to resign from my job and switch careers, but I just can’t find the courage to do so. I’m planning to hire a career coach to guide me, so I’ll follow your advice and look for ones that offer a free consultation. Thanks!
Maria Hebda
Zachary Tomlinson
My brother is having trouble with which career step should he do next after graduating college. He’s been failing interviews and he’s wondering why. The idea of someone who will challenge and inspire you to do your best along with providing feedback when times get difficult is very interesting. I should discuss this with him and decide if he needs something like this or not.
Maria Hebda
Thanks for your comment, Zachary and discussing with your brother what you you took away from my post. We’re here to help. Once he’s ready to move forward, have him go here https://thecareerexperts.com/find-career-experts/ to find a career coach specializing in interview coaching. In the meantime, have a blessed day!
David Johnson
Thank you for mentioning that a career coach will hold you accountable and will tell it like it is and not let you off easy. In my opinion, because they won’t know you personally, they will have a perception of you that will resemble your future employer’s perception of you more than a loved one’s. I will definitely have to look more into career coach options.
Maria Hebda
David, thanks for your posting your comment! I’m glad to hear you find the value of working with a career coach to help you move your career forward. To get started, go to https://thecareerexperts.com/find-career-experts/ and select what area you’d like help and check out the profile of the career coaches who who specialize in that particular area. Here’s to your career success!
Silas Knight
It’s great to know more about career coaching. I love how you said that you have to be willing to be coached in order for this to help. My life feels pretty stagnant right now, so I’d say I’m willing to get some help to change.
Maria Hebda
Silas, I’m glad you liked the info I shared in my post. Thanks for leaving your comment and feel free to reach out to any of our coaches who feel would be a “good fit” to help you move forward in your job search. Depending on what area(s) you want to work on will determine which career coach would be ideal for you. Here’s to your career success!
tyler johnson
That’s a good idea to make sure you get a coach that specializes in your same career field. That way you could have help from someone who is experienced in a similar career. I think that could be much more useful than someone who had no experience with your kind of work.
Maria Hebda
garypuntman
It’s nice that a coach can ultimately help you establish goals and find solutions to challenges in your way, like you said. They will help you stay on track and know how to successfully achieve what you want to. I think this could be a great option for people who may need some extra motivation or insight from someone.
The Fatal Flaw with 360 Surveys
I should love 360 degree surveys. I really should. After all, my research, and that of many others, reveals that the best managers and leaders are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and have taken steps to capitalize on the former and neutralize the latter. And the ubiquitous 360 degree survey — our reality check […]
Whether you like Alex Rodriguez or loathe him, his apology for using performance enhancing substances, was — like Alex himself until the steroid story broke — nearly picture perfect. Rodriguez took full responsibility and accepted blame. And by doing so Rodriguez demonstrated how to apologize in public, in an interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons: Say […]
Resources:
https://getfive.com/blog/career-coaching-guide/
https://thecareerexperts.com/jobseekers/career-management/what-is-career-coaching/
https://upskillcoach.com/blog/what-is-career-coaching-and-what-to-expect/
https://hbr.org/topic/career-coaching
https://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2013/07/09/10-things-you-should-know-about-career-coaching/