Career Coaching
Career coaching is a great profession. A coach can help clients find the passion they have lost in their chosen careers or find the courage to move into a new career. The entire process – from exploring possibilities, to the moment of discovery and finally, implementing the plan – is very rewarding for the client and the coach. And, for the coach, it can pay well too.

What Career Coaching Is Like
If you know what it is like to be dissatisfied with your career and you have done something about it, or if you have worked in the employment or human resources field helping others with their careers, you might be a good candidate for career coaching.

A coaching relationship can take many forms (personal visits, email correspondence, telephone calls), but the key to successful coaching is regular communication over a period of months. During those months, clients rely on their coaches to provide meaningful support in many ways.

Common client expectations include:

• Insight - They want a deeper understand
  ing of who they are and what type of career
  would bring them purpose and meaning.

• Planning - They seek roadmaps for taking
  their career to the next level.

• Listening – They need a sounding board to
  talk out ideas and brainstorm.

• Prioritizing skills - They want strategies to
  gain balance at work and home.

• Editing – They want ideas for editing their
  resumes, and other correspondence, so
  they can convey their skills successfully.

• Interviewing – They want to prepare and
  role-play so they can showcase their skills
  effectively.

• Networking - They want to be comfortable
  with networking and leveraging existing
  relationships.

And, finally:

• Accountability – They crave a supportive,
  yet disciplined presence, that will keep
  them on track.

How Career Coaching Is Different
At some point in your life, you have probably seen a career counselor who gave you a standardized test, reviewed your answers, and then told you what career would fit your skills and interests. Even if the test results made sense, you may have left feeling empty or incomplete because the answer had simply been handed to you. Career coaching enables our clients to discover their own answers; and this self-discovery is what breathes life and power into the decision-making process.

If your clients want to know what they should be doing with their lives, it is best if this answer comes from them. I have found that some clients truly do not know the answer and they need a coach to help them to discover it. But most clients know the answer, and are either afraid to listen to it (because it will involve work), or are unsure where to begin. Career coaching is effective because it provides the courage, support, and direction necessary for these answers to come to life.

What You Need To Know To Be A Career Coach
What keeps many people from taking action in their careers is fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Sometimes when a career is no longer satisfying, you will find that your clients will want to wait until their situation improves on its own. And in many cases it does, their careers do improve; but in many cases they do not. You will find that some of your clients feel trapped in their jobs because they do not have the time or energy to look for another one. They worry whether their next job will be any better and if they will still get paid their current salary.

Clients who are out of work are scared and need help rebuilding their confidence. Clients who are overworked are discouraged need help building back their energy and belief that their current situation can get better. Interesting enough, when a potential client becomes a paying client, they feel better immediately because they are taking control of their career again.

What Else You Need To Know
Unless you have been working for years in a coaching capacity, training is essential. There is a difference between having people ask for your advice on a casual basis versus getting paid for your services. Good training (initial and on-going) is vital to your success.