Benefits of working with a Career Coach
- melitalongcoach
- Feb 17
- 7 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Career Coaches are experts at helping people navigate all types of change in their careers. A professional Career Coach from the CDAA can help you identify your ideal career, create a career plan, write your resume, LinkedIn profile, job applications, gain new jobs, get promoted, and increase your income.
Whilst all these benefits are intrinsically valuable, this article delves deeper to understand the quantified benefits of working with a Career Coach or CDP, which we will explore below.
A professional qualified Career Coach with the Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA), or similar reputable body, has completed post-graduate career study, they maintain knowledge of current career and labour market trends and adhere to high ethical standards.
This article draws on comprehensive global studies, quantitative and qualitative research on the benefits you can gain from working with a Career Coach and the return on investment.
Here are the top 10 benefits of working with a CDAA qualified Career Coach:
1. Career Clarity
People often work with a Career Coach because they are at a crossroads in their career and want guidance to find a new direction or make a change. This may be a whole new career, a new job, or even becoming self-employed.
Often the answer to our challenges lies in what we don’t know that we don’t know, which makes it hard to solve those challenges by ourselves.
A Career Coach can help you see past any blind spots to gain clarity about yourself, your career needs, and suitable career options. Their tailored guidance can increase your self-awareness, identify your career needs and goals, help you uncover the ideal new job or career, and create a plan for success. They can help you to navigate career transitions to gain that new job, career, promotion, or business.
A 2024 Institute for Employment Studies (IES) Career Coaching study showed 70% - 80% of participants gained increased clarity in their career direction and planning.
2. Increase Confidence
Too many talented people underestimate or undersell themselves, which can limit their careers. Believing in yourself is essential before others believe in you and makes it easier for you to be successful in your career.
A good Career Coach can help you identify your strengths, quantify your achievements and the value you offer, which increases your confidence.
A 2012 University of Melbourne Study showed people “who self-reported higher levels of confidence earlier in school, earned better wages and were promoted more quickly.”
Research on Self Esteem and Earnings, Drago 2008/2011 suggest each standard deviation increase in self-esteem, compared with low self-esteem, equates to a 5-10% higher annual wage, ~$5,000 p.a. a total of ~$200,000 more in a lifetime. A study by Barry Davenport suggests a gap of $28,000 p.a. for white-collar workers, a total of ~$1million over 40 years!
International Coaching Federation (ICF)/PWC research between 2009 to 2023 showed that at least 80% of clients reported an increase in their confidence from coaching.
3. Enhanced Resume Quality
Most people enjoy writing their own resumes about as much as doing their tax returns. It can be hard to write about ourselves and keep up with the latest resume trends. Many people put off writing their resume until they desperately need it, making it even harder. Or they may rely on using AI to write their resume, which can be counterproductive.
A Career Coach or Resume Writer can significantly enhance your resume quality by helping you identify and quantify your unique work achievements and demonstrate clear value to employers, something AI tools can’t do. If you don’t know what you don’t know about yourself, AI can’t tell you that, it can only make up generic statements. Whereas a CDP asks the right questions to draw out your achievements, which come from strengths and can get overlooked, then quantify them to show your value to employers.
A 2019 Top Resume study showed professionally written resumes created the following results for job seekers: 32% higher job attainment rate, 68% landing within 90-days, 42% into higher positions and at least 7% gained a higher salary.
4. Improve Career Opportunities
Having greater clarity about what you want and showing your value can directly improve your career opportunities.
Research and testimonials repeatedly show working with a career coach aids career clarity, boots job search efficiency and readiness for promotion, and increases the quality of career opportunities available to clients. These results hold true across industries and career stages, supported by robust data from surveys, case studies, and longitudinal research.
According to the 2024 IES study people who received coaching were 70%+ more likely to have a promotion or career advancement within a year.
The ICF/PWC research showed that 62% of coaching clients gained improved career opportunities. Professionals who engage in career coaching are also more likely to secure roles that align with their long-term aspirations rather than settling for 'just another job.'
5. Higher Employee Engagement & Performance
Incredibly, only 16% of Australian employees are fully engaged at work, according to ADP’s People at Work 2025 report. This is lower than the global average of 19%, which is still low. Contributing factors include high workload, burnout, shrinking flexibility, misalignment with values, limited career development or a lack of meaningful work.
Career coaching can help clients identify and address causes of low engagement in their current organisation, create a career plan, and/or secure a new role where they feel motivated, valued and engaged.
A study by the Human Capital Institute showed that 62% of employees in organizations with strong coaching cultures rate themselves as highly engaged, which is far above the average.
In the ICF/PWC Global Coaching Study, 70% of coaching clients reported improved work performance and engagement.
6. Boosted Resilience
Resilience is essential for career success because modern workplaces are fast‑paced, unpredictable, and full of rapid changes and challenges that require adaptability. The Journal of Positive Psychology states coaching produces significant positive effects on clients’ coping capacities, resilience, and subjective well-being.
Over 50% of Australian workers and nearly 60% of employees globally report low resilience or difficulty coping with work pressures, so building resilience is a critical career advantage.
A career coach helps by providing structure, strategies, and support to strengthen resilience, rebuild confidence, and create a clear plan that makes setbacks easier to navigate and long‑term success more achievable.
Participants in the IES 2024 longitudinal study reported increased confidence and resilience sustained up to 12–22 months after coaching.
7. Better Career Planning
Many people create business and project plans as part of their work, helping their employer to grow, but don't plan for their own success. A global study by LinkedIn found that 73% of people spend more time planning their holidays than they do planning their career!
The Wall Street Journal found that only 20% of people have a career plan. No wonder many people find their career isn't where they want it to be.
Having a Career Plan doesn't make everything perfect, but it helps you plan ahead to get the career and job you want, secure mentors and sponsors, and to create contingency plans.
The IES study showed significant improvements in career planning, observed immediately after coaching, with effects lasting at least 3–6 months.
8. Higher Career Satisfaction
Global studies show that 40-50% of employees globally, and 45% of Australians are unhappy in their jobs and careers. That's a lot of unhappy people who aren't enjoying their work.
Career coaching gives you a structured, supportive space to step back from the overwhelm, clarify what’s causing your frustration, helps you to tap into what you enjoy and regain a sense of direction. It helps you rebuild confidence, set healthier boundaries, and make informed career decisions that lead to more sustainable, satisfying work.
The Journal of Applied Psychology found that employees who receive coaching feel more satisfied with their careers compared to non-mentored employees.
In the IES study, a year after coaching, participants reported significantly higher career satisfaction, particularly regarding achievements and progress toward goals.
9. Reduced Burnout & Better Work-Life Balance
Similar to the point on resilience, burnout is a key career problem with 48% of employees globally and 50% of Australians reporting burnout. It is also 26% higher for women!
Career coaching can help alleviate burnout in many ways by creating career clarity and boundaries, strengthening motivation and resilience, as demonstrated by various studies.
In the IES study, clients set and maintained a healthy work-life balance, sustained for months after coaching and burnout levels stayed significantly lower one year after coaching.
67% of coaching clients in the ICF study reported improved work/life balance.
10. Increase Return on Investment (ROI)
Working with a Career Coach can provide significant financial benefits, much like working with a Tax Agent can help you to gain a better tax return.
With career coaching this is usually gaining a new higher paying job, a promotion, or annual salary increase, or avoiding paying thousands of dollars on the wrong career courses.
The ICF/PWC studies have calculated that on average a person working with a coach can expect to gain an ROI of 3.4X - 7.9X.
In other words, spending $1,000 with a career coach can typically generate $3,000 - $8,000 of value.
Working with a Career Coach
So if you have been sitting on the fence about career coaching, maybe now is the time to reach out to a trusted, professional Career Coach.
Melita Long is a Career and Executive Coach with more than 20 years’ experience guiding over 3,500 clients to achieve career success.
She works with mid-career professionals up to C-suite and Board level, has coached MBA students at Melbourne Business School and Macquarie Business School and worked for three Outplacement providers supporting people after redundancy.
Melita is a Professional Member of the Australian Career Development Association, a skilled career strategist, resume writer and personal branding expert, who helps clients identify and quantify their value and earn what they are worth.
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