Has someone ever asked you what you want to do with your life and you go blank? Or are you stuck in a job that doesn’t seem sustainable but you have no clue how to switch jobs?
These scenarios and questions are reasons why the term professional career coaching exists.
With a primary goal of reshaping the career world, professional career coaches are enhancing the fickle job system by empowering job seekers with sustainable career advice, assisting employees with tools necessary to excel in their chosen path and paving the way for employees to transition into different career fields.
What is professional career coaching
Professional career coaching focuses on aiding individuals navigate the career field.
From early days of career discovering, to career transitioning in the future, a career coach is the ideal professional to visit with all career related issues.
Just like other highly recognized coaches, career coaches provide an arraign of services from career advice, to self-assessment test and guidance during the phase of switching career path.
A professional career coach is most likely to give data-proven answers to your questions, laser-focused your decisions with clarity and precisions while encouraging your progress along the way.
Unlike others, this underrated coaching experience is not for everyone, it’s for a selected few which will be discussed further in the course of this article.
Who is a career coach
The first thing to understand is a career coach is a coach.
They perform the same responsibilities as a typical life or relationship coach but the only difference is they streamline their services to career life.
A career coach is certified to provide expert advice to their clients, assist in career related crisis, and proffer actionable steps to attain career goals.
What are the roles of professional career coaching
From providing career advice to assisting individuals make smart career decisions, professional career coaching revolves around the entirety of the career field. Career coaches are present in the infancy stage of career planning and depending on the package, they can be available throughout the course of your career journey.
- Assist in setting long/short term goals
Lack of clearly defined goals with set-timelines and an achievement curve is the leading cause of career frustration. A sustainable career is one with realistic plans, structured goals and dynamic timeline, absence of these lead to confusion.
A professional career coach understands the importance of setting career goals in the infancy stage, they help clients discover career purpose and streamline their dreams to functional goals hence establishing a system for success.
- Provide tips on building personal brand
With the rise of social media, remote jobs and professional platforms like Linkedin, career growth has gone beyond an office desk.
Corporate staff as well as self-employed service providers are expected to establish a social presence that emphasis their strengths and showcases the benefits a company gains from hiring them.
This might sound unfamiliar to corporate buddies but individuals in the remote world especially tech and sales understand the mind-blowing benefits of an established personal brand.
Professional career coaching manages this service with dexterity providing advice, template and resources for clients to rebrand or build their personal brand in the social space.
- Gives career advice
One important benefit of professional career coaching is the data-backed advice each individual receive from their coach. Anyone can give a career advice but not everyone has the technical knowledge or the perfect understanding of how the volatile job market works.
A career advice from a career coach is a perfect roadmap for future goals.
- Aid in job transition
Sometimes people stay in a job they hate because they have little knowledge of what to do and how to switch careers. Career transitioning is a more tasking than it seems, you may need to take certain courses and get certified, refurbish your resume, create a new portfolio and understand the progressive curve of your new field in the job market.
A career coach has a deeper understanding of job world, has established relationships with colleagues and clients across different industries including your new field, they serve as the bridge and guide for a swift transition process.
- Helps with the job search process
After switching careers, it may take some time to build experience and with exception to transferable skills, you may have little to no experience to be a top applicant in the new field.
However, with professional career coaching the job search process is simplified as you have experts who assist you with your resume, prepare mockup interviews, recommend you to hiring managers in their network and ensure you get into a company that aligns your with long and short-term goals.
- Build a career priority scale
Multitasking is great when you have a goal that you are working towards however, if you are working towards nothing but surviving each day, life becomes repetitive, tiring and nothing worth waking up to.
One of the first things you do in professional career coaching is receiving guidelines to set your long and short-term goals. Next, you divide them into SMART yearly, monthly and even weekly goals.
With a set of well-defined goals, you are able to make informed choices, work with a goal in mind and achieve trackable results that compound to yield bigger goals.
How to know you need a career coach
Have you ever considered the possibility that you are not dumb or bad at working but you are just in a bad job? What if you are so focused on fixing your weaknesses that you don’t consider your strengths and all you can achieve with them?
A professional career coach is a career therapist that helps you see you career needs, refocuses your perspective and assist you in your career development journey.
- You are confused
We are all have days where we feel like we are in the wrong job but that usually happens when we have a bad day or week, it’s normal.
On the other hand, if you always think you should be doing something else, struggle to find passion to work and have more bad days than you can count perhaps you need an intervention.
A career coach will take you through a self-assessment test, help you acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses which will redefine your career goals and set you on the path to career success.
- You feel frustrated by your job but you are not sure what to move to
If you think you are in the wrong job but you are struggling to leave because of fear, that’s normal. You are giving up financial security and your current source of income that’s enough reason to feel scared.
But the big question is will you keep managing “fair” when you can get “distinction”?
In professional career coaching, the experts understand this fear and are trained to help you handle your transition. You don’t have to handle your career switch alone, there are trained coaches available to support you throughout the entire period till you secure a spot in your chosen field.
FAQs on professional career coaching
How do I find a career coach
You can find virtual coaches on Betterup or search for coaches around you using Linkedin or a simple google search. Do your research, read reviews before hiring any career coach.
How much does a career coach cost
The prices are not fixed, a lot of factors such as length of sessions determines coaching prices. Profession career coaching can cost between $20-$50 per hour.
Takeaway
Career development has been more of a trial and error system however the dynamics are changing through the introduction of professional career coaching.
Talk with career expert to build sustainable career roadmaps, receive career advice and have access to job insights and resources to be a top employee in your industry.
