Be Your Own Career Coach

Great career coaches offer a unique blend of objectivity and expertise that can nudge job seekers in the right direction and give them a different perspective. When there are so many avenues to explore, an expert view can help to narrow down the options. However, the best career coaches are in demand, so their services can be prohibitively expensive. You can choose to be your own career coach.

There are “cheaper” career coaching services, but you get what you pay for. If a coach has built up such a reputation that they can charge a premium price, why wouldn’t they? Cheap career coaching comes with predominantly cookie-cutter advice. 

Poor career coaches (and there are plenty of them) simply tell the job seeker what they already know and often suggest fixing what isn’t broken in a search to “add value.” Social media has created a zombie army of barely qualified fly-by-night career coaches who all have their own “special formula” to peddle to any desperate candidate who might come onto their radar. It might sound dramatic, but poor advice can mean missed opportunities.

Be your own coach

If you don’t want to spend a small fortune on coaching, you can be your own career coach with a change in attitude and a few honesty pills. Look at yourself differently.

To be your own career coach, there are a few ground rules:

…. You need to view your career through an “external” and objective lens.

…. You should act on honest feedback from colleagues who know you well.

…. Any career assumptions should be backed up by factual evidence.

It is undeniably challenging to look at yourself and figure out what lies ahead, but in practising such introspection, you will sense the way forward. 

Career coach tips

It is paramount that you approach such self-coaching sessions with the same discipline that you would a session with an external coach. Random thoughts in the shower might lead to some revelations, but you will find that the most incalculable insights come when you sit down in the right frame of mind for an hour in a calm setting and mentally step to one side. Objectivity will be easier to find when you limit yourself to specific questions and aren’t distracted by other side issues.

Being your career coach will mean that you will come up with certain conclusions and plans that you can then discuss and analyse with others that know you well. You need to be open to the opinions of others and not take the intellectually lazy path of assuming that your initial plan is the best. Acting on feedback from others is still crucial.

Another benefit of deciding your career direction is taking ownership of it. Any job search is a test of resilience, and when you are acting on the advice of a third party, it is often easy to doubt it, no matter how good that advice is. When you have expended so much effort in working out the right path for yourself, it is more likely that you will stick with it.

You can become your own career coach with mental discipline and emotional distance.

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This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists. 

Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).