Little known reasons to engage a Career Coach?

My Story and how it applies to your career

Learn from my journey and why I believe everyone should engage a career coach

In 2018 my gluteal tendon fell off my hip. 

This was after three years of pain and various treatments. When a major tendon is no longer connected to your hip, things become quite limited! 

My life was very restricted as I couldn’t walk without experiencing discomfort. This made me housebound. The doctor who was treating me told me that there was nothing that there were no remaining options.

 I’m not someone who gives up easily and I didn’t like the doctor’s constraining opinion. 

So, I made it my mission to find a specialist who could put me back together. It took some time and research, and I eventually found a surgeon in the Blue Mountains who had invented the operation I was after.  

Today I have fully recovered and only have a large scar that I wear as a badge of victory. 

What’s my biggest takeaway?

Don’t give up on the life you want. Find the right expert and she’ll get you there.

The same applies to your career.

Your resume is no longer enough

In today’s competitive job market, you need more than just a great resume to get ahead. 

You need to engage a Career Coach who can help you navigate the process to switch roles or make a career transition. Steering your way through this course alone is not as straight forward as it may sound. 

If someone told you that you could pay a few hundred dollars to secure the role of your dreams, at your preferred level, within the right organisation, wouldn’t you consider making the investment? 

Let’s say you’re striving for a CFO role, but you cannot seem to get past the Financial Controller level, making an investment to guarantee the title would make sense, wouldn’t it?

Once you are established on your CFO journey that initial investment will be long forgotten, it may even pale in comparison to the results it delivered. 

Imagine this…

You eat junk food and watch TV all day for six months.

What would that do to your health, mind, and wellbeing?

Now contrast that scenario with spending the same time eating carefully and working out with an inspiring personal trainer.

How would that feel?

The investment in a Career Coach is similar. Specialists and guides are there to ensure that we receive proper support to achieve our goals. 

The Secret Power: Engage a Career Coach to Transform Your Career

A Career Coach can be impactful as this is what they do: 

• build rapport, develop trust, and learn about your background
• support and guide you to identify and reach your career goals
• challenge and train you while holding you accountable for your goals and actions
• assist you to achieve growth and transformation
• encourage and provide you with affirmation

How a career coach can change a career trajectory

If you engage a Career Coach with the right soft skills, it means they have the capacity to influence your career. Here are the attributes to look for:

• a good listener 
• Someone who asks the right questions
• understands what you want to achieve
• has integrity and builds confidence
• has a strong knowledge of the market, integrated with research
• is good at what they do
• is trustworthy
• understands what you do
• sustains relationships

Having an independent coach brings benefits and a neutral view that will not be influenced by personal agendas or opinions.

Picture your friends or family members who have been through the hiring process before, finding out that you are examining the job market.

They might be able to offer some advice based on their own experience, but is it objective or does it resemble professional advice?

Listening to biased viewpoints can get in the way of you making the right decisions. 

When you engage a Career Coach, they will help you gain clarity and keep you on track to ensure that the steps you are taking are life-changing and make sense. 

Without the right questioning, you could go down the wrong path or a rabbit hole.

When you make a career change or transition, you will question many things. 

Some of these questions are overwhelming without a sounding board. 

You may not even know what questions you should be asking. 

Some important things to ask are:

• What are my goals? 
• Do I know my preferences?
• What are the challenges I am seeking? 
• Am I willing to relocate or commute long distances? 
• What package do I need to secure? 
• Will I be able to secure work/life balance?

Do you know how to answer or manage the answers to these questions?

It’s hard to have these conversations on your own.  

Having someone to point you in the right direction makes all the difference. 

Not being rewarded for hard work

Have you ever applied to hundreds of roles without ever receiving any response? 

This exercise is soul destroying and resembles pouring valuable time and energy down a deep dark hole. 

I had a client who was feeling crushed after applying to over 200 roles in two months without receiving one response, let alone a rejection letter. 

He was using two job boards and applying every day with absolutely no results. 

When I asked why, he explained that this method had worked in the past. Using previous strategies is not necessarily the answer as the job market changes.

What you quickly realise after a few weeks of negative reinforcement is that looking for a job is a job in itself! 

Since we don’t get to look for roles very often, it takes time to learn the ropes. 

Relying on the experts can really expedite the process. They know the tricks and tips and latest techniques.

Making your resume and LinkedIn profile stand out

Your resume is the only part of your job search that you can truly control. 

Resume writing is a specialist area and there are proper techniques to apply.

It would be foolish not to engage a Career Coach!

Using online templates and resources is not the best way to go. There is a reason these templates are free – they are often written by people who don’t understand Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).  

You could be ruled out before your resume ever gets read by a person. These templates might look fancy and colourful, but in truth they are not good products. 

Career Coaches, especially those with recruitment backgrounds, understand how to achieve good ATS scores and impress resume reviewers.

All the positive statistics surrounding LinkedIn prove that it is utilized extensively in recruitment. 

Having your profile optimised with the right keywords and ensuring your voice is heard on LinkedIn is a game changer.

Your professional branding is important and knowing how to stand out gives you the upper hand.

Interviews are a game

To be the best we can be, we need to learn the skills and how to play the game. 

Career Coaches are experts in interview technique. They have worked with hundreds, if not thousands of interview candidates to teach structure and build delivery confidence. 

Since we don’t interview very often in our careers, it is important to learn the latest techniques. Understanding which competencies are valued and how to make a good first impression is key.

Going back to the story of my hip. 

I could have accepted the opinion that nothing more could be done to improve my mobility. If I had chosen this path and had not performed the research to find my valiant surgeon, I would be in a wheelchair in a world of pain. 

My specialist changed my life and gave me back my freedom. 

Considering all the ways you can receive support and expertise to change your career process, I hope to have convinced you of how valuable it is to engage a Career Coach.

You’ve got this

You deserve the life you want, and all it takes is a small outlay to make it happen. You deserve proper support to point you in the right direction and to achieve your goals. All by taking one step, to engage a Career Coach.

Learning the rules to resume writing and the interview game will bring rewards to far exceed your investment.

Just imagine what you’ll accomplish!

Reading about tips on how to engage a Career Coach may be helpful, but nothing can top having an expert in your corner. If you're ready to engage a Career Coach for individualised support to reinvent your career, take a look at our career coaching services for individuals here, or contact us to book your first coaching session.