What is career coaching and what can be easily confused with it?

Career coaching is a personal service designed for individuals who want to improve their career situations. Coaching is a process of questioning, discovering, and problem solving ... all centered around the individual's career situation and goals.  Career coaching services are fee-based and paid by the individual.

The mission of career coaching is to improve career achievement and satisfaction through support in many areas.  This requires focused effort, which means identification of desirable (and achievable) career options  ...  industries, employers, occupations, etc.   Career coaching frequently focuses on helping people establish clear goals, develop self-marketing strategies, enhance resumes, improve interviewing skills, and become accountable for actions needed to achieve their goals.  Most career coaches understand how the job market works and they leverage this knowledge for the benefit of their clients.

Career coaching can be contrasted with more limited services such as career counseling.  Traditional career counseling helps career seekers match their skills, knowledge, and interests to occupational options.   This service is most helpful for the person who wants to intensely examine their career options.   Many career counselors stop short of advising clients in the mechanics of the job market and few counselors provide expert job search skills.  If a career seeker only wants to identify occupational options and the fees are reasonable, a good career counselor may be the best option.

Career coaching can be contrasted with other types of coaching such as life (personal) coaching, executive coaching, and business coaching.  The differences here are pretty obvious.  If the challenges to be addressed involve a person's life or business, then a life or business coach is the right genre.   If an employer is grooming an employee for succession plans or to be more effective in their current job, then an executive coach is the right person.  It is important to realize that executive coaches are not paid by employers to help the employees find a better job outside. 

Career coaching can be contrasted with a service that sometimes includes a minor amount of support similar to career coaching -- corporate outplacement.  Corporate outplacement services are paid by employers for the purpose of easing employees out the door.  The bulk of most outplacement programs consist of database access, resume mailings, cubicles with phones and desks, basic group training sessions, and (for some) peer networking sessions.  All of these can be delivered with minimal labor costs and fixed facilities costs, which makes the business model work well for the vendor and the employer.  Outplacement people have their hearts in the right place and sincerely want to help job seekers, but they don't have the ability to provide much personalized support.  Industry names include Lee Hecht Harrison, Drake Beam Morin, and Right Management.

NOTE:  A new business trend is the entry of outplacement firms into Executive Coaching and Career Marketing :-)

Career coaching can be contrasted with a descendant of corporate outplacement -- career marketing services.   Career marketing firms tend to sound like outplacement firms who have jobs in their back pockets, just waiting for job seekers to walk in the door.  Some suggest they have a "clientele" of employers who look to them for candidates.  Others claim that they have a "book of jobs" that employers have sent to them, hoping the firm can fill them.  At least one national firm has multiple web sites that claim to have jobs to fill at $60,000 to $1,000,000!  To keep it brief, it is fair to say that these services are similar to outplacement, are fee-based, and are paid by the individual.  Industry names include Bernard Haldane, McKenzie-Scott, CTP Enterprises, and Chandler Hill Partners.

Career coaching can be contrasted with one antithesis -- independent recruiting and executive search services.  Recruiters and executive search consultants are not in business to help people manage their careers or find their next jobs.  They help employers find the exact octagonal purple peg desired to fit into the octagonal purple hole ("the job") they are paid to fill.  Most recruiters don't coach job seekers in the ways of the job market because (1) they don't have time and (2) they don't make any money doing it.  The vast majority of job seekers find that recruiters won't even return their calls and emails.  Look at it from their perspective:   If you were receiving 5 calls a day and 25 emailed resumes a day, all from job seekers who do not match the jobs you need to fill (even though the seekers are confident that they do) and who want to take up your time trying to get you to help them for free, would you schedule them into your 10 -12 hour work day?  Good recruiters make $100K to $300K.  High end executive recruiter make $500k+.  They view their time as valuable and job seekers are a waste of time.  High end executive search industry names include Spencer Stuart, Heidrick and Struggles, and Korn/Ferry.

NOTE:  A new business trend is the entry of independent recruiting firms into Career Marketing :-)

Career coaching can also be contrasted with a second antithesis -- internal (HR employee) and external (1099 contract) recruiting services.  These recruiters who work for employers as full-time employees or as contract workers tend to reconfirm the stereotype that everyone dreads --  the HR staffer who treats all job seekers with equal indifference.  "Submit your application on line and we will contact you if we have a match" is their brush-off line and, in almost all instances, job seekers never hear anything back.  Simlarly, when a hiring manager tells a job seeker they must first apply for a job on line . . . or that they will "forward your resume to HR" . . .  it is almost always the kiss of death.  Internal and external corporate recuiters are generally nice people, but like their independent counterparts they are very busy and bombarded by hundreds of job seeker inquiries.  Popular firms such as Cox are known to receive hundreds of unrequested job seeker resumes each day. 

When would be the best time to consider career coaching services?

A typical career coaching client is seeking a change.  Some examples of positive and negative signals that a person could benefit from career coaching are:

Positive / proactive signals

Desire for more: income....challenging work....professional growth....varied work/industry experience....job flexibility (hours, etc.)....better work/life balance

Negative / reactive signals

Lack of: effective results from outplacement or other support....motivation or enjoyment....positive relationship with boss/peers....interest in current work....interest in current profession or industry

Why not do everything myself?

There are many reasons to consider professional career support.   Here is an analogy to consider:  When most people are faced with the option of taking off work for a month to paint their house versus paying a painting company to do a professional job in a few days, most people opt for the painting company.  They want experienced professionals to get the work done faster and with higher quality. They don't want to injure themselves falling off a ladder.  They don't want the paint to peel prematurely due to incorrect prepping. 

Identifying a great career match and landing a dream job is far more sophisticated and difficult than painting a house.  Nevertheless, the vast majority of career seekers (whether employed or unemployed) chose in the 20th century to  search for their next career opportunity without professional help.  That was then, this is now. 

For many middle and high income professionals/executives in our post-9/11 twentieth century, the do-it-yourself option has become increasingly costly and frustrating.  A $120K unemployed job seeker is missing a $10K paycheck (less taxes, etc) every month they spend looking for a job.  A $200K employed job seeker may not be losing a lot of money, but their DIY approach is likely to delay their happiness and future opportunities by months or years.

So, what type of people seek out professional career coaches?  Those who recognize the limits of their abilities and who want to make a significant positive change in their lives.  They see coaching as an investment in themselves and their future happiness. 

Why is getting career help more important in the 21st Century employment market? 

One of the difficulties with "do it yourself" career searches in the 21st century is that the U.S. employment market has changed radically in the past decade and old style strategies are now far less effective.  With average job tenures of 24-30 months (even for senior executives), more people are changing employers far more often than in the past.  It is not uncommon for 40-50% of the employed population to be job hunting behind the scenes.  This means there are more people than ever competing for the better jobs, even in times of low unemployment.

In addition to increased competition among candidates, employers have become more sophisticated in their interviewing and hiring techniques. Some employers troll the internet for large numbers of applicants, making the odds of getting an interview miniscule and the odds of getting the job upwards of 1:500 or 1:1000.  Many employers have trained their hiring decision makers in the art of behavioral interviewing and have added assessments as an additional hurdle for candidates. It is not unusual to find that hiring decisions that were traditionally made with 2 or 3 rounds of interviews to now require 4-7 rounds of interviews. Reference checking and credit/medical/background checks have also increased.

No one teaches undergrads, MBA's, or other well educated job candidates how to manage their careers and job search effectively.  Many are forced to rely on anemic college career centers staffed by underpaid career counselors.  Career coaching is intended to fill an educational void and provide highly important life skills.  To the extent coaching programs accomplish this mission, they deliver a lifetime of competitive career advantages.

How can I benefit from career coaching without wasting my time and money?

There are many constructive and economic reasons for an individual to invest in themselves through coaching.   However, career coaching is an unregulated profession and there is large variation in effectiveness among the coaching population. Due diligence is always suggested before starting to work with a coach.

There are many factors that contribute to an individual's career success. Some of these factors are difficult to identify, isolate, and improve. The "coaching model" that is taught in many coach training programs may or may not be efficient at addressing such factors. A person considering career coaching would be well advised to evaluate individual coaches on the basis of the following questions:

1. Am I speaking to the person (coach) with whom I will work?  If not, can I speak to that person?
2. What length of experience does this person have coaching people like me?
3. What specific actions/strategies contributed to this coach's successes with former clients?
4. What jobs has this coach held that allow them insights into the "real world" of my profession?
5. What are all the specific deliverables this coach is experienced at providing?
6. What is the coach's success rate?   When have they failed and why?
7. What are my options for customizing a program specific to my needs?
8. What specific deliverables are included in the program I prefer?
9. What are the costs and how do they compare to other programs?
10. Do I like and trust this coach?   Would I enjoy working with him/her?

Summary

Career coaching is a narrow discipline that is frequently confused with other disciplines such as recruiting.   Millions of individuals have already experienced the benefits of coaching.  There are identifiable signals in a person's career when they should consider working with a career coach or other career expert. As with any significant purchase, individuals would be well advised to do their homework before purchasing career or other coaching services.

PS:

In our company, we offer several enhancements and additions to traditional career coaching services.

(1) We rely heavily on our practical business management experience to act as subject matter expert consultants. 

(2) We provide exclusive, detailed step-by-step program reference manuals. 

(3) We supplement our manual with informative books, tapes, and videos. 

(4) We believe that personal (non business) issues, self-confidence, professional image, and belief systems are important for career success.  We are unique in providing our clients integrated in-house access to life/personal coaching, image consulting, and psychological counseling.  These services are provided by someone other than the career coach, so that personal issues do not get entangled with the career coaching relationship.