How Does Professional Career Coaching Work?

Work with a coach to advance your career, land your dream job or build leadership skills, from the comfort of your own home. This blog post discusses how to choose a coach, what to look for, what career coaches can help you with, what questions to ask during your chemistry call and much more.

How Does Professional Career Coaching Work?

Do you find yourself just not sure what your next step should be at work? You think you should be thinking ahead but not sure what that really means. You’ve gotten some professional feedback and you don’t know what to do with it. Wondering if you should be searching for a job?

These are the thoughts of someone considering working with a career coach. They might not even know that yet. And many times they don’t know what that actually means to work with one. I’m sharing how the process works with my clients in today’s blog!

For starters, a professional has to decide that they want guidance or advice in some aspect of their career path. Then they seek a professionally trained career coach to assist them in gaining career clarity, setting career goals and achieving their desired career success. Thanks to the power of technology, coaching sessions take place either over the phone or face-to-face in virtual meeting rooms. The transformations that happen for individuals often take place during or in between calls. 

1. How to Choose a Career Coach

When choosing a career coach, make sure there is chemistry between you and your coach. 

While there are many great coaches out there, not every coach is the best fit for every client. I truly believe that coaches should offer complimentary strategy sessions or consultation calls. It is important to meet with each other to see if there is a match. 

Make sure that what you are looking for the career coach can provide. Most coaches have a few different signature programs or packages for you to choose from, so understanding what you’re looking for specifically will help in this process. If you’re not sure - no need to worry, many coaches offer free consultation calls to help you gain clarity.. Every coach has different ways of putting together their programs. There is not a one-size fits all or a specific way that if “must” be done. Your career coach should be able to describe what is included in your package and what you can expect.

When you’re selecting your coach, you might want to consider the following factors:

• What experience do they have?
• What training do they have?
• Who are their references -- do they list testimonials on their website, LinkedIn profile, Facebook Business page or other social media platform? Can you speak to any of their current or past clients directly?
• What client success stories demonstrate their value?
• What is their story?  
• Do you feel a connection to this person?
• Do they offer a complimentary consultation to explain their services and listen to what your needs are and does it match?

2. Consultation Calls

When I meet with prospective clients, I always offer 3 things.

One a piece of value they can walk away with to help them in that moment regardless if they choose to work with me moving forward. 

Two, if one of my programs meets their needs I offer the program or programs that would best match them. 

Three, I offer them to speak to current or past client if they choose. I do this because it is something I look for when I am hiring someone. 

Finally, the question most asked about how does coaching work is how often do you meet with a your coach? Along with for how long? This is quite subjective. I don’t want to set unrealistic standards for anyone. #realtalk  I think it would be fair to say, on average, most coaching packages would include 2 sessions per month and each session is 45 minutes long.

3. Career Coaching Sessions

When it comes to career coaching, as we have been discussing in this series, there are so many different aspects of a career journey that a career coach can be helpful.

Your sessions can be used to:

• Set career goals.
• Gain career clarity.
• Develop career action plan
• Develop and conduct strategic job searches
• Identify areas of personal development
• Pursue career advancement and development
• Hone leadership and communication skills
• Build confidence
• Quiet the inner critic
• Overcome imposter syndrome
• Practice for job interviews
• Build your LinkedIn profile, leverage your network and improve your digital footprint
• Create a standout resume and cover letter
• Learn how to negotiate and effectively communicate

4. No Geography Barrier

Regardless of where you are on your career path, a career coach can be an asset to your career development and beneficial to your career advancement. And the best news is geography is NEVER has to be an obstacle.

For instance, I meet with most of my clients, face-to-face in my Virtual Zoom meeting room. However, I have a few clients who prefer to conduct sessions over the phone. Both ways works 100% consistently. 

As a trained coach, I know how to listen intensively and actively. During a client call once, I said, “What just happened, I heard your shoulders drop. What’s going on?” The client was shocked that I could hear her body language. 

It is the job of your coach to be really listening. To be fully focused on what you are saying and what you are not saying. As well as what the story your body language is telling. And then to hold the mirror up and have you share back what it all means.

Powerful stuff!

Stay tuned for the next article, “How to move up the corporate career ladder!” of this career coaching educational series.

“Professional coaching is empowering and powerful. Professional Coaching is a partnership between the coach and the client. Together the design an alliance of how they want to work together and what they want to accomplish. In order for the coaching relationship to be successful, there needs to be a mutual feeling of trust and confidence. The professional coach holds the client (coachee) naturally resourceful creative and whole and helps the client to unlock their potential and leverage their talents, skills and strengths.”

This Career Coaching Awareness Blog series, brought to you by Romy Weiss, Your NextSteps Career Coach, CEO of NextSteps Coaching & Consulting LLC. I have recently noticed misunderstandings and misconceptions about what professional coaching actually is, specifically what career coaching is and who would best benefit from these services. It is fundamentally important to me as a professionally certified coach to debunk myths and spread awareness on the benefits and importance of professional coaching. 

If you’re currently wondering what Career coaching is?

How you can benefit from Career coaching? Who needs Career Coaching? And how to tell if you are even on the career transitions pathway and how to best strategically navigate it.

Then this series is for you.

If you are just joining the series, be sure to start a Part One “What is Career Coaching?” click here to read it.

Part Two of the series is “Is Career Coaching Right for Me?” Click here.

This is the third part of the series, “How Does Career Coaching Work?”

P.S. Want to learn more about Career Coaching and which of my programs would be the best fit for you? Schedule a free strategy session here.