Advance Your Career with a Career Coach

Chris Goodwin, SHRM-SCP, CPC

Keeping on track to achieve your goals and managing your career trajectory are essential to job success and satisfaction. But if you find yourself constantly losing sight of your goal and floundering as you attempt to move forward and up in your career, you may need a little coaching. Enter the career coach.

 

What A Career Coach Does

A career coach is there to assist you in the next steps, support you in your career goals, and offer sound and experienced advice to help you along your journey. And it makes absolute sense for anyone to take advantage of this invaluable service. 

After all, you manage your health through diet, exercise, and regular check-ups, your car goes in for oil changes and maintenance regularly. It’s wise to be proactive. And you do this so you can move through your days in the security of knowing all that’s within your control is good until the next checkup or the next 3,000 miles. So it is with a career coach.

Successful executives and C-suite members have used career coaches on a regular basis for years. It’s their secret weapon. But you don’t have to be an upper-level executive to harness the power of the career coach. 

Career coaches work with clients at all levels. They help their clients find and land the position they desire and often continue the relationship by offering career advice on an as-need basis. Having a career coach in your corner helps provide the support you need for career growth and job satisfaction. 

 

Career Coaching Defined

One common shared definition of a career coach is someone who helps you update your resume and optimize your online profile on LinkedIn and other career sites. While that’s true for some in the industry many coaches can assist you in a wide variety of ways. 

A career coach is a consultant who helps you grow and develop in your career. The goal of the career coach is to empower their client so they make informed and well-thought-out decisions regarding their trajectory. Clients may be those students who are preparing to graduate and searching for the right job, someone established in their present job but who decides to go on to a different career, someone who feels stalled on their current path, or even those looking for the best road to retirement. 

 

Specific Ways Your Career Coach Helps You on Your Path to Success

No matter where you are, a career coach helps you maintain the focus on your goal. Here are some ways a career coach can help you on your journey.

• Coaches Help with The Search Process: A career coach works with you on your job search so you find and go after the position you want. From helping you polish your resume and prepare for interviews to utilizing your networking skills and optimizing your LinkedIn profile your coach acts as a guide along the way. Your coach even helps you negotiate a salary that’s fair.

• Want to Advance Your Career? Your career coach is there to support you as you prepare to advance your trajectory through a promotion, build relationships with leadership and senior management, or take on an impactful project. 

• Get the Support and Encouragement You Need to Change Your Direction: We’ve all felt stuck on our path from time to time. Sometimes it’s a momentary stall awaiting a kernel of motivation and sometimes it's a job that’s, well, run its course. Your coach helps you understand what isn’t so satisfying any longer and what degree of change will help you feel fulfilled in your career.

• Evaluate Your Options: Do you stay where you are, take on a managerial role that’s been offered, or take your skills and move on to a new path altogether? Sometimes evaluating your next move is a bit overwhelming and, let’s face it, emotional. A neutral party not only has a better perspective from a career standpoint but as your coach, more easily identifies the path that aligns with your goals. Your coach sees the big picture and the best way for you to achieve that which makes you happy in your career.

• They are Project Managers and The Project is You: Having success and fulfillment in your career is one of the most important projects you’ll ever undertake. Just as with any other project you manage there are roles to be played by members of your team. These people help you reach those specific mileposts and measurable goals that guide you toward a successful culmination of your project. Your coach helps you see your career holistically and together you design a plan that leads to the life you envision for yourself.

• Your Coach Helps You Define Your Personal Brand: Just as a company works hard to achieve its brand, so it is with your personal brand. What comes to mind when people hear your name? Your interactions with others and your work roles within the scope of your job are part of it. So is your body of work apart from your company. A career coach helps you develop your brand in your career as well as externally thorough content creation, thought leadership, and the like. 

• Your Coach Helps You Develop Skills to Advance Your Career: A good career coach understands the skills required as your career evolves. If up-skilling is necessary to advance your career then your coach will work with you on developing a plan to acquire the tools and skills you need and how you can effectively use them to promote a new opportunity.

• Is There to Help You Stay the Course: Once you achieve your immediate goal your relationship with your career coach is far from over. As your journey unfolds it will certainly evolve and change as certain milestones are realized. Your coach helps you continue to build your roadmap to success, define what your priorities are at each stage, and how to maximize success at each turn along the way.

 

What Makes a Great Career Coach

A good career coach is someone who will meet you where you are and, by focusing on actions and accountability, supports you as you move in the direction of your goals. At Cornerstone Coaching & Consulting we have the tools to help you on your path to success and job satisfaction. Our professional consultants provide as much or as little guidance as you want. Whether you’re looking for a new start, just starting out, or feeling stalled where you are let us help. Contact Cornerstone Coaching & Consulting today and let’s get ready to achieve your career goals.