What A Career Coach Can Or Can't Do For You

This article is directed toward anyone who is looking for a new job, facing downsizing, ready to retire, or of any category of job seeker. My definitions of what a good career coach can or can't do for you. They are:

1. Coaches can become your friends. They can be friends of a kind that you can tell your secrets to and not fear recrimination or judgement about you and your decisions. (Becoming a personal friend is not what we frown upon or promote as career coaches).

2. Career coaches have resources for you, the job seeker. We know about different kinds of resources for you to use or we ask you to find some yourself. The various kinds of resources can be: Videos, books, websites, people to know or meet, articles, etc. The resources I provide are meant to awaken a job seeker's desire to find new information that fits them.

3. The career coach is a cheerleader. We are cheerleaders who wants a job seeker or career changer to win, and win at the new job or career decision.

4. Coaches guide you, the job changer, towards the decisions you want to make. Most job seekers know what they want, but need confirmation about what they want to do, no matter how zany the choices may seem.

What a Career Coach Cannot Do is: Be your therapist or analyst unless LICENSED to do so. The coaching experience may be therapeutic by the job seeker or changer becoming more realistic or authentic within the coaching process, but they/we are not hired by you to be your personal therapist.

A career coach is not a financial advisor. We can talk about what you need to do or want to do about your finances, but we do not help you budget or spend your funds. That's what resources we give you, are for.

Finally, a good career coach is a person who can celebrate with you when you have career success or support you during the not so great times. Good coaches, in my mind, go an extra mile and often not for just money. nnn