What do you want in your career? When asked this question, many of us might answer, “I want the opportunity to grow,” or “I want to make a difference at my company.”
Knowing what you want to achieve is the first step, but knowing how to do it is often where we get stuck. When our goals are to change career paths or step into a leadership position, deciding on the steps to take can be a daunting and even lonely process.
Turning your ambitions into a reality takes goal setting, planning, and actionable steps, and often, a bit of professional guidance and support. That’s why we’ve integrated career coaching into the learning journey on our Career Accelerators.
From the start of orientation, you’ll meet with your coach to map out a tailored approach to the next six months and your career. Our learners have said that they had no idea what to expect, and a few have doubted the value coaching could bring them. That doesn’t last long. When our learners achieve results – like changing careers, getting a promotion, salary increase, or advancing in their current role – they often say that their coach was essential to helping them do it.
Here’s a closer look at how FourthRev Career Coaches support learners on Career Accelerators.
What is a Career Coach?
A Career Coach is someone who helps people set and achieve goals, and overcome challenges in their careers. They offer a personalised service by working one-to-one with someone to understand their particular career goals and develop a tailored solution to help them move forward.
When working with a Career Coach, you’re in the driver’s seat. The coach’s job is to provide you with career support that will help you reach your own decisions and outcomes. They cannot make things happen for you, like getting a new job or securing a better salary, but they can help you lay the right stepping stones to get there.
This is how coaching has impacted our learners:
The goals our coaches can help you achieve
We’ve listed a few examples of the work our past learners have done with their coaches:
My Career Coach helped me boost my confidence
Iryna was transitioning from a career in fashion to product management. With no previous experience, she assumed she’d be starting as an intern. Her Career Coach helped her see the value of her experience and transferable skills. She said: “Just this one hour was so important for me because she boosted my confidence so much.”
It also motivated Iryna to aim higher – in the last two weeks of the programme Iryna landed a job as the sole product manager in an exciting startup.
Rethink my career as I prepared to make a change
Transitioning careers and totally reskilling is no small feat, but our coaches turn it into a manageable and exciting journey.
So I think the most rewarding thing from this programme was just how manageable and bite-sized the pieces of advice were. So rather than thinking about: ‘I need to get a job in this industry by this time’, it was: ‘have you thought about what motivates you, what interests you,’ then think about where you’re most engaged or at least engaged, and then you start thinking about where those skills might be most applicable.” – Hussein Farook, LSE Data Analytics Career Accelerator
For Hussein, his coach gave him a foundation to rethink what was possible in his career and gave him the skills to build his brand on LinkedIn, which ultimately helped him land a new role just four months into the programme.
Take stock of my transferable skills and potential
Elodie’s coach helped her realise the value of the skills she gained and mastered during her 16 years in education. She was able to take those transferable skills and apply them to a new career in data analytics; she’s now a data scientist.
It’s been a complete eye-opener for me. As someone who’d just turned 50 when I started the course, I really questioned whether it was too late for me to do something completely different. My coach completely opened my eyes to the world of possibilities that are out there. It’s never too late to start something new.”
Prepare for interviews
Aman felt her Career Coach was invaluable, and it was one of the features of the Career Accelerator that stood out to her.
My Career Coach was really helpful in prepping me for interviews, telling me what I was doing right and also what I needed to improve on, and just helping to build my confidence because I think that was personally something I was lacking when I first joined. To have that mentorship was really valuable.”
Our coaches have also supported our learners in approaching their managers to discuss their career ambitions, like promotion goals and salary increases.
You can listen to Clare, our Career Coach Community Manager, explain the benefits of coaching here:
Professional, unbiased support for your goals
Our coaches are here to support you in achieving long-term fulfilment in your career – whatever that may look like for you. It’s totally tailored for you and can evolve depending on what you need at that point in your journey. Iryna said “They study your needs and explore your background. After that, they offer you the best plan for you.”
It’s through this professional and unbiased lens that they’re able to reframe your challenges, limitations, and insecurities, and offer solutions and perspectives that could radically alter the career choices you make and opportunities you chase.
The coach is fantastic and was able to take what I was saying and reframe it in ways that I hadn’t thought about that offered clarity to my personal and professional goals. And so that’s been super helpful just to have that unbiased outside perspective, saying, you know, ‘have you thought about it this way?’”– Kelli Wingfield, King’s Product Management Career Accelerator learner
A structured approach to making your career goals a reality
Our approach to working with learners during the Career Accelerator is three-fold:
- Goal setting: During the Orientation phase of the programme, coaches work with you to reflect and gain insight into your strengths, values, and career drivers to develop meaningful career goals, which then enables you to start building your personal brand.
- Developing key outcomes: Once you’ve identified your motivations, your Career Coach will help you craft the practical components you need to move forward. These include polishing up your LinkedIn profile, resumé, and cover letter. They also work with you on strengthening your leadership skills and networking strategies.
- Walking the journey with you: With the foundation for your progress solidified, you’ll set short-term priorities that your coach can assist you with during the programme. This might include support during the interview process or guidance as you implement leadership practices at work.
From the coaches’ perspective
Reflecting on her experience working with the learners who were enrolled in the LSE Data Analytics Career Accelerator, one of our Career Coaches shares:
“I’ve had the chance to meet and work with people who come from multiple backgrounds with completely different career goals. Taking the time to really dig into who they are and what brings them a sense of joy and success as an individual has helped us work together to achieve incredible results. Over the last few months, I’ve seen learners double their salaries, secure positions at dream companies and even pioneer new teams. My goal is always to help people build a “bigger picture” path so that they can take the next step and keep on going as the future unfolds.”
So, how can we help you go further in your career, faster?
If you’d like to find out more about how Career Accelerator works, visit this page.
