Before engaging in a conversation with a career coach, it’s important to know what a career coach is and isn’t. A career coach is not synonymous with a counselor or recruiter. Counselors are trained in areas of mental health and recruiters are focused on filling roles for companies. Those aren’t necessarily the responsibilities of a career coach, so let’s talk about what a career coach does.
Self-analysis and discovery
A career coach is trained to help you better understand your interests, strengths, weaknesses and workplace preferences. They are experts at identifying the intricacies of your personality traits. This doesn’t happen just through observation and conversation, but also through assessments,tasks and guided reflection. Having a good understanding of yourself provides major insight for identifying a career field and path, then growing skills and securing a position that is best fit for you.
Goal-setting and planning
Career coaches help you establish and communicate clear goals. Through an assessment, they help you explore and understand where you’d like to take your career and provide clear steps for making it happen. They also can help you to know what a realistic goal might be for someone in your shoes. Becoming the CEO of a corporation straight out of college might not be attainable immediately, but understanding the paths to get there can help you establish reasonable steps to do so.
Job Search Assistance
For many of us, the most intimidating aspect of establishing a career is building a resume, networking and interviewing. Thankfully, helping you with the job search process is another area where a coach can provide guidance and feedback. Career coaches can offer assistance with the content, formatting and wording of a resume in order to get you that interview. Once you have landed the interview (congrats!), a coach is a great resource for holding mock interviews and giving feedback for your answers to common interview questions. And, although many people are uncomfortable networking, it is a critical step in the job search process. A career coach can help you do this in authentic ways that, while outside your comfort zone, are way easier than you might think.
An experienced, certified coach, like those at Crosworks, will focus on YOU: your goals, your progress and your success. They will meet you where you are and lead you where you choose to go. Your next step is simply to schedule a brief introductory phone call and you’ll be well on your way to a satisfying and fulfilling career.