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What is career coaching?
Why use a coach?
Does coaching work?
What are the benefits of hiring a career coach?
How does coaching differ from therapy or consulting?
How is career coaching different from career counseling?
How do I know if coaching is right for me?
How long will I need to work with my career coach?
How does career coaching work?
Do you provide other services?
Like Resume help?
Interviewing Skills?
In a nutshell, Career Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship designed to help you clarify your life purpose, identify goals, develop strategies, and take action resulting in a career and personal life that will make you happy, feel fulfilled, and challenged.
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It is useful to think about finding your life’s work in the same way you might think about taking a road trip to somewhere you have never been. On this trip you only know the general direction and you are not exactly sure where you are headed. On your road trip to finding your life’s work, your coach provides the map and directions as well as the support and focus essential to completing the journey.
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Yes, coaching does work. I have seen it time and time again, when someone arrives at the understanding about their life's work, they have radiance, a glow, and a joy that shows up in their whole being. They feel confident and strong about the direction they are going. One of my clients recently finished her search and as she was leaving she said, “I feel like this is graduation!”
For me, when I discovered my life's work, I had this amazing feeling of standing right in the middle of my own life and it felt like it had been waiting for me all along.
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| What are the benefits of hiring a career coach? |
You might have already discovered that finding your life’s work is a difficult thing to accomplish on your own. There are four major benefits to working with a career coach.
1. A step-by-step process
Sometimes the process of discovering your life’s work can feel overwhelming and confusing but it does not have to. When you work with a career coach you will be guided through your career transition using a step-by-step process in a time frame that works best for you.
2. It’s faster
As with anything new, career transitions involve a learning curve, some confusion and uncertainty. Your career coach will keep you focused, help you stay on task, support you when it gets difficult, hold you accountable, celebrate your successes with you.
3. Seeing the big picture
A career transition is the perfect time to really stretch yourself and think about creating a career that is almost too wonderful to imagine. Your career coach will help you challenge yourself to consider career options you might not have considered before.
4. Recognize and manage personal roadblocks
Because you are a unique individual you will probably have some of your own unique roadblocks. But there are a few we all struggle with. Inherent in the personality structure is the well-documented inner critic. Originally designed to keep you safe, the inner critic interprets any change as an unsafe move. Even though a new career will make you happy in the long run, your inner critic will not like the threat of change and will begin sending limiting messages to prevent you from taking action. These messages will have you doubt your decisions and abilities and have you believe your options are way more limited than they really are. Listening to and allowing these messages to run your life will stop the process and leave you feeling frustrated and dissatisfied. Your career coach can help you identify these messages, give you tools to manage them, and help you move forward with more ease.
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| How does coaching differ from therapy or consulting? |
Both therapy and coaching deal with human emotions but how we work with them is different. Becoming more self-aware is a big part of the coaching process. In therapy, the goal is to get in touch with your feelings and to resolve old issues associated with them. In coaching we use our emotions to inform us about what makes us happy and allows us to feel fulfilled. The goal in career coaching is to deepen the understanding of yourself and then based on that information identify and move into a career right for you.
When you hire a consultant, you hire them because they have more information about something than you do. You pay them for their experience and knowledge. Coaching assumes that you are the expert about you. Your coach will help you deepen your understanding about who you are, what motivates you, makes you happy, and the conditions under which you feel most fulfilled. Then she will help you design a career to match those criteria.
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| How is career coaching different from career counseling? |
The biggest difference between career coaching and counseling is the focus. Career counseling focuses on the career or job and where to find it. However, when you work with a career coach the focus is on you; what career best fits your gifts and talents and what kind of environment will allow you to work at your personal best.
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| How do I know if career coaching is right for me? |
The best way to know for sure is to take advantage of our free coaching session. Also, if you agree with any of these questions coaching can help you:
- I love the work I do but I am unhappy where I work
- I want to find a career that feels more rewarding
- I have a desire to be of service, to feel like I can make a difference
- I have gifts and talents I am not using
- I have taken jobs as they have come along but now want to be more proactive
- I feel that there is something else I need to be doing but do not know what it is
- I have worked at careers that pleased others but were not what I really wanted
- I feel stuck
- I am unsure of what I want
- I know what I want to do but have not been able to move forward
- I need more understanding and clarity before choosing a career
- I need unbiased support for a new look at your career
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| How long will I need to work with my career coach? |
There is no absolute answer to this question. The time it takes to go through the process depends in a large part on how much time you can devote to the work that needs to be done. My goal as your coach is to help you find the most efficient way for you to move through your career transition with the maximum amount of satisfaction and learning.
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| How does career coaching work? |
Once you have decided to start coaching you will schedule an hour and a half intake session. During this session we will do two things. First, we will spend some time designing our alliance. In other words, we discuss and come to an agreement about how best to work with each other. In the coaching relationship the client is an equal partner because we believe with some coaching support you have the creativity and resourcefulness needed to accomplish anything you want. Our goal is to help you figure out exactly what that is.
Next we talk about the coaching process, my policies and guidelines. Then we go over your history, any assessments you have completed, and find out exactly where you are on your journey. By the end of the session you will have a good idea about how you will work through the five step career coaching process. Although the steps are clearly outlined, each person will bring his or her own needs and rhythm to the process.
From there we will talk about how you would like to schedule your next sessions and design homework for you to do to prepare for your next session. Each session after the first will last an hour. It is normal to meet at least three times a month for the first three months. If that creates a conflict for your work or travel schedule we can discuss other options. Be prepared to put your career search on the front burner as it will require time and energy but the progress you will make is well worth the investment.
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| Do you provide other services? |
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The very nature of resumes has changed over the years. In the past, they were simply chronological information about where, when, and how long you were employed. Today, your resume is your own personal marketing tool written so the interviewer feels excited about meeting you.
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Once you have discovered what work will make you happy it's time to find a great place to do it! Remember, the interview is a two-way conversation. The employer wants to know all about you to determine if you are the right person for the job, but you also want to know if this company is the right place for you! Learn what is needed to make the best impression possible and to conduct your own interview to make sure the company meets your needs.
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