Career coaching is a discipline that focuses on helping you set and achieve your career goals.
Whether you're looking to change careers or simply get a bigger salary, the career coach will work personally with you to come up with a plan to help you get where you want to be.
A career coach will ask you questions, support you, give you feedback and hold you accountable for your goals.
The average career coach will charge anywhere from $75 to $200 per session/hour. Experienced coaches and coaches in bigger cities will charge on the higher side of the spectrum.
Getting an online coach is generally more affordable than hiring a coach for face-to-face consultations. Online coaches can consult from their homes, lowering the cost of providing the service.
You can use sites like noomii or Trusted Coach Directory.
You can also find coaches by searching LinkedIn or Google. You can search Google for "career coach in [city name]".
If you'd prefer to work with a coach with specialized industry knowledge, you could search for "[industry] career coach", where [industry] is the industry you work in.
Ask for testimonials. However, understand that these will be biased testimonials as the career coach will always select people who like his services.
Most career coaches allow for a free 15 to 30 minutes free consultation. You can take advantage of that to test for compatibility and trust.
If you feel you are not being paid what you deserve, a career coach can work with you to help you negotiate a higher salary. This will entail collecting information about your performance and then successfully presenting the case to your manager.
Have you been working hard but feel unappreciated by your boss? Do you feel invisible no matter how hard you work?
A good career coach can help guide you through the process of getting a promotion at your current job.
Tired of your job? A career coach can help make the jump from a boring, dead-end job to an exciting job opportunity at a new company. Coaches focus on action and results.
If you've been unemployed for a while, how do you come back to the workforce? A career coach will help you explain away your employment gap and coach you to a well-paid job at a good company.
Do you dread getting up every day to work for a job you hate? Felt like you make a mistake choosing your career? A coach will help you make a side move to a new career, without having to start from scratch.
Your college degree will have a big impact on what jobs you can get after graduation. A career coach will assess your personality and personal preferences, and assist you in choosing a degree that suits your strengths.
It can be very scary to go from a college graduate to your first job. Fortunately, a career coach can help you get into the company of your dreams at a very competitive salary.
A good coach will employ personality and cognitive skill tests to help you understand your strengths and weaknesses.
This information can be used to make a career change or to work on the weaknesses that are stopping you from having a successful career.
If you have a bad resume, you might never get called for a job interview. A coach can assist in you writing a resume that gets you interviews even at very selective companies.
Do you know what recruiters do first thing after checking your resume? They Google you or check you out on LinkedIn. Having a good LinkedIn profile can be the difference between getting job interviews or never getting a call.
It doesn't matter how good your resume or LinkedIn profile is. If you don't interview well, you will never get the job. Your coach will use mock interviews and help you prepare for common interview questions.
The advantage of getting a specialist career coach is the specific industry knowledge they have accumulated over the years. If you work in finance, would you rather get help from a finance career coach or a generalist coach?
It's important you understand that a coach won't magically solve all your career problems. Yes, they are there to help you, but ultimately, it's all about your hard work.
The coach will assist you in setting career goals but won't do the work for you. Career coaches are also not therapists and can't help you with emotional issues.
It depends on the complexity of your problem. For something as simple as revamping your resume, a couple of sessions might be enough.
If you want to change your career, you may need a dozen sessions. Start with a once a week session and then reduce your sessions to once a month.
In theory, career counseling focuses on your past to understand how you got to where you are in your career. Career coaching is more forward-looking, focusing on setting goals and creating plans to achieve them.
Most career coaches also offer career counseling.