The Artist at Work, solo mini cast
The more I’ve been talking to people in networking situations, in my instagram community or even just casually in conversations… I’m realizing there is a bit of mystic, mystery or just plain ol confusion around what a few things.
- What does a career coach do?
- What it’s like working with one?
- And why or who might even consider working with one?
Let’s start with the first one.
What IS a career coach?
Career coaches help people with their work concerns, specifically. Typically, people see a career coach during a transitional period; either when they’ve left a job or lost a job. Or sometimes people seek career coaches if they’re dissatisfied, frustrated or “not feeling a sense of fulfillment” at their job.
To build on that… Something someone might say that would lead me to think they were a good candidate for coaching would be…
- I feel stuck in my current role.
- I know I'm ready for the next thing, but not sure what it is.
- I keep getting passed over for promotions. What am I doing wrong?
- I want to change industries but I’m feeling scared of taking that leap.
- I was recently laid off and I'm rethinking my career path or what I should do next.
- My workplace doesn't offer professional development and I'm looking to grow.
Okay so that might be making sense. Get a coach for something when you need accountability, motivation and a fresh perspective.
To come at it a different way, think about fitness. Say you’ve been going to the gym for years just sort of going through the motions. Really it's for maintenance and stress relief. That’s great, but say something switched in you and you decided you wanted to make a change in your routine and body. Maybe work towards weight loss or muscle gain. You’d probably read about it and see what you can do yourself, but generally the best way to make improvements and big changes is to work with a professional. Hire a trainer or a coach to get you to that next level.
That’s what I do for your career.
So if you’re looking to make a change, find accountability and motivation, working with a coach is a natural solution. You talk through your goals, needs, wants and we put together an action plan to get you there.
My main focus is helping those in stages of growth or reinvention figure out their career path and making an action plan for what is next. So growth could be someone junior or mid level who is looking for their next role within an organization, perhaps a promotion OR wanting to get a new role outside of their org with a bigger title or lateral move that makes them happier and more balanced. OR want to gain more confidence in themselves and develop.
Keep reading along or you can hop over to the episode and take a listen. It's a quick one, just about 10 mins! You can take a listen below! 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
And reinvention is very much like it sounds. You are ready for something new but you don’t know what it is. You have a passion you want to explore. You want to stretch yourself. You know you are capable of more. Perhaps you’ve been in a bad culture or demotivating role and need a confidence boost to shut down that imposter syndrome… coaching can help.
So that’s sort of what it is and who it’s for, but I do still think there’s mystery around how it actually works.
So let’s dig into that.
Working with me specifically goes like this…
- You show interest. We have a 30 minute complimentary Zoom call to align expectations, see where you’re at and if we are a fit.
- Then if we decide to move forward, you choose your plan. I offer 3 and 6 month packages. Where we connect every other week for an hour. There’s a theme to each session and generally some homework or exercises to get through prior to our conversation.
- On our calls, we either go through the homework or talk about what breakthroughs, a-has or questions have come out of that homework or your last two weeks in general.
- We do that for several weeks, building your confidence, really digging into what’s really important to you and making an action plan for what’s next. The end result looks different for everyone, but there’s always so much value and learning that comes out of the process.
- After our time ends together, I don’t just go away. You’re always able to add on more sessions, and I often recommend committing to a quarterly check-in to keep yourself accountable to this process. Generally we aren’t going to figure it all out so it’s nice to have some designated checkpoints along the year to revisit this work.
So that’s it. What coaching is, who it’s for and how it works. I hope this was clarifying and helpful. If you have any questions whatsoever, shoot a message or DM on instagram.
