Career

» Find a life coach offering Career Coaching

Is your work satisfying, fulfilling and meaningful? Are you using your favourite skills and talents? Are you passionate about your work and does it reflect who you are as a person? If so, congratulations, you’re one of the lucky few who have followed their dreams and discovered their ideal job. However, for many people this unfortunately isn’t the case. Lots of people feel bored, unmotivated and unfulfilled with their current jobs, but may not know what job would satisfy them, or feel they’re unable to risk leaving their current job.

If you are one of these people, perhaps seeking out some career change advice from a professional and qualified career coach could set you on your way to a more fulfilling work life.

What sort of advice can I expect from a career coach?

Often people don't like to move out of their comfort zone, for fear that changing careers is the wrong decision. It may seem easier to stay with a job you already know, with people you've already met and knowing when your next pay day will be. However, if your career is making you miserable it’s probably time to have a think about whether moving out of your comfort zone is a risk worth taking for the sake of your future health and happiness. After all, what's more important than your happiness and ultimately your health?

Life coaches who deal specifically with career change advice are experts in listening to and breaking down your current situation and feelings about your job. You may not realise it, but this can be extremely hard to do by yourself. Even with advice from friends and family, you may struggle to identify the right choices without some professional help.

The advice you receive from your chosen career coach will depend very much on your situation and feelings. Being stuck in a rut at work can make it hard to identify the reasons behind your desire for change. Your career coach will help you breakdown your feelings about not just your work, but your life as well, as this may well be influencing your current mood without you realising it. It may turn out that a career change is not what would truly make you happy, but that a change of job, living arrangements, location, position or any number of other things would get your happiness back on track.

If you simply don't know what career would really excite you, it may be worth spending some time exploring your values and beliefs to find out what matters most, so you can then research jobs which fit your criteria. 

When you discover the job that does encompass your key values, work will then become enjoyable rather than something you dread doing. Everyone has the opportunity to choose their own career path and to change it if their current one is not fulfilling them. Only you can decide to stay in a job that makes you miserable, and only you have the power to seek out one that will make your days far more meaningful and pleasurable.

How could a career coach help me?

If you do choose to seek advice from a career coach, topics covered may include the following:

• Identifying your perfect career.
• Working out what would make you truly happy.
• Looking into issues that could be having an impact upon your work life.
• Helping you to identify negative thought and behaviour patterns so that you can change them.
• Identifying and turning around things that hold you back.
• Learning to make the most of your skills, attributes and experiences.
• Interview coaching to help you stand out from the crowd.
• CV writing to help get you noticed. 
• Assistance with using creative ways to find the job that suits you.
• Realising the importance and impact of your work within your life.
• Formulating a set of attainable goals and a plan of action.
• Taking steps to change your life and become healthier and happier.

Is a career change the right decision?

The following questions may help you to decide whether it’s time to take the plunge and make a career change:

• What do you want from a career apart from money?

• What percentage of the time do you feel positive at work?

• What do you enjoy most in your current job?

• What do you wish you could do in your current job that you don’t already?

• What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work?

• What career did you want when you were young? Is this the career you have now?

• If you imagine you're old and are looking back on your life, what job would you like to see yourself doing? Is it the one you currently have?

If you have mostly positive answers to the above questions, it may be that you don't need a career change, but perhaps a new job or change of company instead. It may even be that your work is not the primary cause of your unhappiness. When you are at the centre of a situation it can sometimes be difficult to take a step back, remove yourself, and understand what's really going on. A second pair of eyes and ears however, can help you to do this from an unbiased and neutral perspective. 

If you answered negatively to the questions then it sounds as if some career change advice could be very helpful to you. A career coach can discuss your goals and aspirations with you and assist you in finding a career that fits with your values and beliefs.

How can career coaching help?

Life coaching focused on your career will allow you to explore who you are and what you really want from your work, and therefore help you to find out what you'll need from a new job to fulfil you. You will then have the opportunity to investigate possible career options and formulate an action plan of how to get you from where you are now to where you want to be.

Anyone unhappy in their career can benefit from career coaching, whether you're in the first phase of your career and unsure of the direction you want to head in, or in the height of success within your career but feel unfulfilled. It may be that you discover how to feel more fulfilled in your current job, get a new job or decide to change careers completely. Exploring your values and beliefs and what makes you happy in your work will often lead to the right decision for you.

What will a session with a career coach be like?

Life and career coaches can usually offer to coach you in a number of different ways which will suit you both. Many will coach over the telephone, and you could also contact each other online and sometimes face to face sessions are available. Which ever way your life coach talks you through things there will be some important things you may cover in your sessions.

Of course, the contents and direction of your sessions will greatly depend on your situation and what you hope to gain from the experience. Below are some of the things you may cover during your career change advice session.

Exploring your skills and attributes

You may think that you are fully aware of all the skills you have picked up throughout your working life and this may be true, but often there are many skills or attributes you posses which you may not realise would be very interesting to any potential employers. Career coaches have an ability to pick up on these skills and attributes even if you are not aware of having them.

Dreaming about new career choices

When we start to think about our 'ideal world' many of us come up with elaborate dreams where we don't have to work in order to pay the bills. In reality this would probably get boring after a while. There are many people who love their jobs and look forward to going to work each day, finding themselves more enthusiastic about life because they are truly happy in their career. This can be the norm for you as well if you start to think about what you really want to be doing. Being suck in a rut at work can make it extremely difficult to think about what you would love to do and explore new possibilities. Make sure you take some time out to dream and get creative about the opportunities open to you.

Finding out whether a career change is the right choice

There can be many things which may depress your mood and start you thinking about a career change. However, it may not always be a change of career that is needed and you will need to try and detach yourself from your current feelings about your career to try and establish what else might be affecting your mood at the moment. If you can make more simple change such as moving to a new job within the same career, and they still don't leave you feeling great then it could be the right time to start thinking more seriously about changing your career path.

Looking into what's holding you back

Choosing to change your career is a massive decision to make and when you have bills and family to take care of it gets even harder. Before taking the plunge it’s sensible to look at all your options and make some more subtle changes to your lifestyle. This can put you in a better frame of mind and give you the energy boost that you need to make bigger career decisions. There are many excuses people have for sticking in a job that makes them miserable, but ultimately you are in sole charge of your life and career and you deserve to be happy with the job that you generally spend a lot of your life doing! Your career coach can help you identify the issues that might be stopping you from pushing yourself to achieve your career goals.

Assistance with CV and cover letter writing

Once you have made the decision to change career, you will need to take a serious look at your CV. Many people won’t have done this for a very long time and after dusting away the cobwebs you will probably not recognise the person you once wrote about. You acquire skills and experience new problems to solve everyday. While you may not perceive things you can do with your hands tied behind your back as skills, an employer will often take a very different view if you think about how your skill relates to their business. Even seemingly unrelated skills can sometimes prove your abilities in areas that your employer is looking for. Try to see your life experiences and attributes from an employers point of view and pick something positive from each one that puts you in a good light. This will make you feel more positive about the skills you have acquired and help showcase your best bits!

Interview coaching and making a good impression

You have probably heard the saying about having very little time to make your first impression and how important that first impression is. This is true specially in an interview situation where you don't have much time to change the interviewers mind about you if your first impression is bad. Interviews can vary massively depending on the industry that you are going into and it is important to get a good idea of the sort of things to expect at any interview for your new career. Time is of the essence in an interview situation and so is making sure that you stand out among the crowd, this is where interview coaching comes in and can be a really big advantage even for seasoned interviewees. Your career coach can use different interview coaching techniques with you and discuss ways in which you can improve your interview skills to help you make the best impression on your future employer.

These are just a few of the things you might cover in your session, but it might be that your career coach chooses completely different things to work on which are more tailored to your situation and aims for the outcome of your life coaching sessions. Whatever you work on, make sure you tell your life coach about what you expect to gain from your sessions and be open about your current situation to get the most from your time together. 

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