10 ways career coaching can help you with a career change

You may be somebody who has concluded they’re in the wrong part of the employment market. Periodically there may be friends and family who conclude same.

Sometimes it’s really surprising because somebody can be taking the vocation route and be highly qualified only to then realize they aren’t doing what they want to do. Wherever you stand regarding this, here are some ways in which career coaching will help you.

1.    Understand the Present

Don’t move until you have really thought through what your current situation is. Sometimes people move precipitously. Sometimes they speak injudiciously to people in their workplace about their intention to go. The best thing to do is to take stock, ideally talk to career specialist and start a process of thinking professionally about your working life.

2.    Understand the Future

You may not have a clear vision other than what you’re doing is not what you want. Set a clear intention and the type and style of life you want. Sometimes this can be really ambitious. Sometimes it can be anything but that, but it is important to understand that future regardless of what it looks like. What are you trying to create for yourself and maybe your family? One of the things that is quite important about this is the wealth creation that is integral in the future of you pushing yourself. That’s going to encourage a process regarding what you’re about to go through. For example, you might need to invest time and money into the retraining process, depending on what career you choose to switch to. Maybe that’s not the issue at all and your desire is to invest money in another direction. Wherever you want to spend your time, effort and money, understanding the future is paramount.

3.    Use History

It may be that you are really strong academically with a clutch of qualifications, which led you to whatever it is you’re doing now. You had a clear line of sight, took the “right” decisions at age 16, 18, 21 and yet it hasn’t ended up where you wanted it to. You can use the same history to assess where you want to go based on your past and present experiences.

4.    Building your Platform

In the three previous steps we’ve talked about elements of how you build the platform on which you’re now going to move into change. Make sure you capture both the historical and the futuristic so you can make the best choices for yourself. Often we really don’t think hard enough about our capabilities, resourcefulness, creativity. The more we put into it, the more likely we are to get this right.

5.    Pace Yourself

Career change is a quite like a horse race. There are obstacles to jump over. If you are not prepared and if you lose focus on your stride you can tumble at the first fence. We intend to go round the circuit and to not fall. In order for us to do that well we have to be well prepared and well guided. We have to accept that this process is likely to take time. We have to be ready at every obstacle to get our stride right and to be completely balanced.

6.    Connect

Human beings cannot help but connect. We’re all into it, through social media channels, school, college, work and beyond. Professional workers connect also. And through career change it’s likely we’re going to make connections and need existing ones as well. Understanding networking and the importance of social media is paramount. It is an art as well as a science. Something that even those who think they’re doing well can do better with a little direction from a career coach.

7.    Plan

In some senses you can argue that a career change is all input. “90% planning, 10% doing” is actually a truism in career change terms. There is lots of preparation to do to get to the point where you have plans that are effective as well as efficient. You need a plan that you own, a plan that’s practical and achievable for you. Career coaching helps you to build a plan that’s effective.

8.    Action

At some point, you’re going to need to make some significant decisions to move direction. When you do, you want to feel comfortable. You do not want to embark on something which can be quite major till you are convinced that taking this direction is what you want and that you’re willing to go over obstacles or go round them.

9.    Renegotiation and Contracting

One of the things about career change is how useful where you currently are can be for you. It’s not always the case if your career change involves a fundamental shift but even so, if you get the timing right and you really think it through, it is possible that current employers can be helpful. They may even provide you with the opportunity to move from full-time to part-time work because your time is so precious to you during the career change process. At the other extreme if you go and do something that’s different but not that different it’s possible that your current employer can still be useful to you. They might be a supplier or client for you in the future. Thinking hard about how to negotiate and contract as you make this shift is really worth doing with a coach.

10.    Ready to Go

In career coaching terms, there is a moment when we’re ready to go. It’s not always when you believe it is. Sometimes you are more ready than you realise and just sometimes you’re not as ready as you think they are. Getting ready to go and thinking through these different processes, making good decisions and having a good plan will enable you, with a good career coach, to know when you’re ready.

About the author

Simon North is the Founder of Position Ignition and the Career Ignition Club. Position Ignition is one of the UK’s leading career change and career development companies. The Career Ignition Club offers a range of career support tools, advice and e-learning materials for its members. Follow Simon North and his team on Twitter @PosIgnition and get more advice from him on their Career Advice Blog.