If you are unsure about what career coaching is, you’re not alone. I get this question a lot from people who have never had coaching before. This article explains what career coaching is and isn't and how it can help you in your career.
When I realised in 2003, after my own career crisis, that my purpose was to help others find and manage their careers, I didn’t know that career coaching was an actual profession. I’d never even met a career coach. Sure, I knew about school guidance counsellors, but I hadn’t had a good experience and besides I wanted to work with adults. I had just learned about life coaches, but I didn’t want to be one of those either, I wanted to be something more specific. I wanted to help adults find the career that suits them, that fulfils their life purpose. I wanted to help people create and manage their future career.
So, 16 years ago, before I even knew it was an actual profession, with no prior paid experience or career training at that time, I became a career coach. How I became a career coach, is another story. The short version is that I talked my way into setting up the career services arm of a recruitment firm, from scratch with no paid career experience or training (that came later). I can’t say exactly how I pulled that off, except that I had a clear vision of what I wanted and was highly motivated at the time. It was very successful and led me to set up my own career coaching business and complete career coach training within 18 months.
What I want this article to focus on now is what career coaching is and what it isn’t. Because 16 years later I still have people asking me what career coaching is and what it involves. So, if you are one of the people who is unsure about career coaching, I want to demystify it for you, based on my experience of career coaching.
It may be easier to start with what career coaching is not, than what it is.
Firstly, career coaching is not recruitment. I have personally worked for two recruitment firms and know how fast-paced and frantic recruiting can be. Whilst I have hired ex recruiters to become career coaches, there are key differences. Recruiters are paid by companies (their clients) to find candidates (job hunters) to place in roles for a fee. If recruiters get it wrong, they need to replace the candidate at no extra charge. For this reason, recruiters are driven to place the best match candidate to suit their client’s role. This means they are typically risk averse and put square pegs in square holes. If you are wanting to progress in the same career, and in the right place at the right time, then recruiters can you help understand the current job market and salary ranges and potentially place you in a role. A good recruiter takes a long-term view that today’s candidate is tomorrow’s client, sadly, quite a few lack this long-term view. Also, if you are a round peg, jack of all trades, lack local experience, or want to change your career, most recruiters probably won’t be able to help you.
Secondly, career coaching is not like my highschool careers guidance counsellor who pointed students in the direction of some career brochures, or looked at your grades and gave you 3 options in 30 minutes, if you were lucky. Of course, highschool careers guidance has since improved with a lot more training, but with one counsellor per 500 students or more, it’s hard for them to provide a very personalised service. Thankfully career coaching is much more than personal and in-depth than that and because it is aimed at adults it focuses on your work experience and transferable skills, rather than purely on your academic results.
Thirdly, career coaching is not the same as Human Resources, Talent Management or People and Culture. Whilst many great career coaches I know have come from this background with valuable internal recruitment experience, it’s not the same as career coaching. I’ve met some amazing HR people who have gone out of their way to help, mentor and encourage employees to develop their careers and progress within the company. However, few will help someone to progress outside of the company they work for though, even if it is in everyone’s best interests. Career coaching is focused specifically on the needs and best interests of the individual, not the company a person works for.
Finally, career coaching is not counselling, although career coaches may be referred to as career counsellors and many career great coaches come from this background. As a career coach I don’t delve into people’s past emotional issues in the way a counsellor does. Coaching focuses on work primarily and building the future from a solid foundation. Also, counsellors and psychologists are trained to take a less directive approach with their clients. As a career coach, I’m personally not afraid of giving my clients specific advice based on what they have presented and making recommendations knowing full well it is always my client’s choice to take my ideas on board or not. I do take a more instructional role with job-hunting, resume writing and interview coaching, teaching my clients a proven process to improve their likelihood of getting the roles they want.
So, where does this leave career coaching? Well, in many ways career coaching has aspects of ALL the different professions mentioned above. Coaches need to know about recruitment, HR practices and employment trends to keep up with current job-hunting approaches and the future of work. Like guidance counsellors we need to know about training options at universities, tafes or polytechnics. Of course, we need counselling skills to be able to actively listen and support our clients through often challenging times, such as after redundancy or when they’ve had a bad boss or workplace that has left them upset and lacking in confidence.
Career coaching IS also teaching, and many career coaches do come from a teaching or training background. We teach our clients how to fish for life; how to job hunt, how to promote themselves, how to interview, how to negotiate their salary - skills they can use throughout their career. Career coaching is personal branding, these days we are all brands, especially with the proliferation of social media, and we need to know how to manage our professional brand. Career coaches are advisors, facilitators, planners, marketers and copywriters, we help our clients create career plans and write resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles promoting their value. Career coaching has useful parallels with marketing, thinking of role responsibilities and achievements like features and benefits. I’m one of the few career coaches around who has a marketing background, which has been a great help to me and my clients. Finally, career coaches are change managers, we guide our clients to initiate and or negotiate change in their careers, taking them through a proven process to get results.
Career coaching is future outcome focused, change oriented, highly personalised and client centric. It is about helping clients at a crossroads move from not knowing what they want to do next, to having a plan and all the tools they need. It’s not a quick fix, it’s a process. We don’t have a crystal ball (I wish), we don’t tell you what to do with your life - we do help you uncover the answers that are already within you. We don’t do the work (e.g. resume writing) for you, but we do it with you, side by side. With career change, I believe my clients already know what they want, even if they don’t know what career that is and I help them find it.
My role as a career coach is to guide you through the process of understanding your values, strengths, motivations, personality, work preferences, skills and interests to uncover what your ideal career looks like and guide you on how to get there. Career coaching can be about career change or changing jobs; it’s about proactively taking charge of your work life, choosing and planning your career rather than letting it happen to you. Hence my byline, ‘careers by choice not chance’.
If you have been unsure about what career coaching is, you’re not alone, now you can see why - because career coaching is a little bit of everything all rolled into one, whilst still being a specific profession in its own right. To find out more about the profession itself look up the Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA). https://www.cdaa.org.au/about-us/career-development-works
So, if you are an adult wanting to make a career change, or who is at a crossroads in their job and needs constructive, positive and unbiased career guidance about what to do next, then I recommend a career coach. It may be the best investment in your career you will ever make.
Melita Long, is the principal career coach at Careers on Purpose ‘Careers by choice not chance’. www.careersonpurpose.com.au . She is available on +61 413 203 929 or melita@careersonpurpose.com.au. She works with clients across the full professional career spectrum from graduates to CEOs and Board Members in all industries. Her 16 years of professional career experience includes coaching Executive MBA students at the prestigious Melbourne Business School, and providing outplacement consulting and career coaching in two countries. Prior to her coaching career Melita worked in Corporate Marketing and has Learning and Development experience, training employees in workplaces to improve their capability and performance.
Melita is a Professional Member of the Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA), past CDAA Victoria Committee Member and past Member of the Career Development Association of New Zealand (CDANZ). She has a Graduate Certificate in Career Development and Education, a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing & Organisational Behaviour), Bachelor of Arts (European Languages & Literature).
Melita is also a Professional Member of the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) and has completed the Certificate IV TAE in Training and Assessment. She is certified in Majors™ Personality Type, Strong Interest Inventory ™and the Harrisons Assessment Tool ™.
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