Career transitions can happen for many reasons and at many points in your career. However, they’re not all about changing career. For example, a career transition could include:
- Moving into a leadership position.
- Moving to a new area or country.
- Moving to a new company following redundancy.
- Returning to employment after a career break due to family, health or study reasons.
- Leaving work due to retirement.
When a career transition is the result of redundancy, your employer may want to help you find a new role either within the organisation or with a new company. This is where outplacement services – career coaching and help with fining a new position – can be enormously valuable.
However, if you haven’t been made redundant, you can still hire your own career coach. If so, you need to know what career transition coaching is and how it works so you understand who to hire, what services you need and how you want to use them.
But first, let’s establish what a career coach does so you’ll know if this is a service you need.
1: What does a career coach do?
Very simply, a career coach helps you clarify the work you want to do and find the roles you’re seeking. A career coach works with you to discover your underlying life purpose so you can find work that’s fulfilling and motivating. That means a career coach can suggest satisfying careers you might not have considered before and help you find work you’re aligned with.
By assessing your personality and skills through tests, a career coach can give you a different perspective on who you are so you have a better understanding about why your current role or career isn’t working for you. Through asking questions and discussion you can work with your coach to clarify your long-term career goals and create a career plan that will help you achieve them.
Help you figure out what you want
Your ideal career will help you make the most of your greatest strengths and tap into your passions. It will offer you the right balance of personal satisfaction, financial compensation, creative challenge, and time flexibility so you can enjoy your life.
Help you get clear on your career path
Some careers pathways are easy to discern but others aren’t. An experienced career coach will help you design a career plan that will get you on the right career path and going where you want to go.
Work out how to create a coherent career story
If you’ve had a few different roles or worked in more than one industry, your CV could come across as confused and make it difficult for an employer to understand what you offer. An objective assessment of your CV by a career coach will enable you to tie together your career story and make it clear to any recruiter or employer what you have to offer.
Help you figure out your true potential
Until you speak to a career coach, you may not even to understand your true potential. This is probably the biggest benefit you will gain from working with a professional career coach. You can’t reach for the stars until you know they’re there.
How is a career coach different from a career counsellor?
You may have seen references to career counsellors, career coaches and career consultants and wondered what the difference is between them.
Career coaches and consultants take a practical approach. They will help you assess where you are in your career, challenge you to change, help you set meaningful goals and give you support, encouragement and the resources you need to make your career transition a reality.
Career counsellors focus on the emotional barriers to career success. They help you figure out why you’ve not been making the progress you want. If you’ve been unable to recover from redundancy, feel confused about what you want or have suffered any kind of bullying or harassment at work, a career counsellor will help you work through your emotions so you can move on.
2: What you can gain from using a career transition service
Periods of change can be difficult and disruptive. If the reason for the change is redundancy or a role becoming too stressful, having support can be crucial in making a successful change to a new field or company.
That’s when career coaching (or outplacement) services can help you most. Not only can you fully explore your career options, you can understand the possibilities and make informed choices.
Most of all, working with a career coach will help you align your working life with your personal priorities. You will also begin to feel that you’re directing your career rather than feeling it ‘just happens’ to you.
The key benefits of career coaching
- Confidence-building at a vulnerable time.
- Greater clarity and focus about your next step.
- More time-efficient job search campaigns.
- Improved success rates in being shortlisted for target roles.
- Enhanced interview skills to win the job offer.
Of course, any service you use must be right for you, otherwise it may not deliver the results you’re seeking. So let’s look at what you need to look for in career transition coach.
3: How to find, use and benefit from a career transition coach
Selecting a career coach or outplacement service isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. There’s a lot to think about. Here are some ideas to help you choose the right service for your needs.
What level of support do you want?
It might seem a good idea to attend workshops that teach you generic job hunting techniques, but this is unlikely to address your specific issues. Face to face coaching is often seen as the preferred choice, but this has its disadvantages too. Regular appointments can be restrictive and help might not being available when it’s most needed. It could also entail costly and time-consuming travel to a specific location.
Therefore, an online solution could make help more accessible and easier to use.
Who is delivering the support?
Find out who’s delivering the support. How much experience do they have and do they have any knowledge of roles in your current or future career? Are they available for calls outside working hours so you can fit sessions around your working and life commitments?
How much support is available, when and for how long?
Is the support provided on a reactive or proactive basis? In other words, do you need to go looking for it or will someone chase you up if you don’t keep up with your sessions? Will you have access to your own dedicated coach or will you be speaking to different coaches? Will you be limited to a set number of sessions? What other help is on offer, such as access to career search resources, help with your CV and cover letter and feedback on your interview skills?
What does a career coach charge?
Like any service, career coaching can cost the earth or be very affordable. It depends on how much and what kind of help you need as well as what you’re willing to pay.
While individual career coaching is the ideal, there are many other ways to get useful and affordable help. These include career workshops, online career coaching and distance learning options. It’s worth checking out all the possibilities so you find the right fit for you.
Is career coaching worth the cost?
The best way to answer this question is to consider where you’ve got so far in your career and what would be different if you had achieved your career goals. Only you know whether what you can achieve is worth the cost.
But in general, a good career coach will more than likely have a positive impact on you and your career. That means it’s almost definitely worth investigating and trying out.
6 top tips on choosing a career coach that’s right for you
- Research your options: Check LinkedIn profiles to see client recommendations and ask people in your network for suggestions and referrals.
- Check experience: How much experience does your coach have – and are they any good? Check out their background here and read what their clients have had to say about them. [Link to Sarah’s About Me page]
- What is their area of expertise? Some coaches have different areas of focus, such as working only within specific industries or only with executives. Decide what you’re looking for in your career coach and then find out if they offer what you want and need.
- Are they right for you? Finding the right person for you is as important as any other factor when looking for a career coach. Do you find them easy to talk to? Are they available when you need them?
- Dip your toe in the water: If you’re unsure whether coaching is right for you, book a single session if possible. This will give you a sense as to whether coaching and the coach are right for you before making a big financial commitment.
- Take responsibility: Your coach can do a lot for you but in the end, the only person who can get the results is you. Take responsibility for yourself and remember, it’s your career transition so it’s up to you to put in the effort.
4: How career counselling works as an online service
Online career services have many benefits, including the fact that you’re not paying for swish city offices. Working online means you can still get the help and advice you need but can do so where and when it suits you. You can do assessments and exercises when you’re comfortable and feel at home rather than within a bland office environment. Online career options are likely to offer more and cost less than one-to-one consultations.
Online career transition coaching is something you can access via your computer at any time. That means it’s a flexible resource. And because it’s online, you don’t have to travel to see someone or take time out of your working day for an appointment. Information is available whenever you want it and you can read and digest it at your own pace.
How we can help
At Career Consultants we offer a broad range of services. Your dedicated career coach will work with you to help you identify what you need so you can use your time efficiently and start your job search as quickly as possible. Below is a summary of our main services:
Career review and analysis
- Assessment of your career.
- Psychometric testing.
- Exploration of career options.
- Help with making informed decisions about your next move.
- Assistance in creating a practical career plan so you can see beyond your next job.
Marketing your skills to employers
- Locating target roles.
- Help with writing CVs, covering letters, application forms and so forth.
- Practicing for interviews, presentations and networking.
- Advice and tips on using social media for your job search.
- Managing your relationships with recruitment agencies and head-hunters.
- Support and advice around negotiating your salary.
- Help with settling into your new job.
As well as enjoying the support of a dedicated career coach who will help guide you in undertaking research and assessment of the market, you’ll also have online access to professional resources.
Contact us by completing our contact form and one of our team will call you to discuss your requirements. We can then discuss what you’re looking for and we’ll then share some different ways we can help you solve your concern and find greater work happiness.