What do you want from your career? When asked this question, many of us might answer, “I want the opportunity to grow,” or “I want to make a difference.” While these ambitions are noble, they can be hard to pin down and actively work towards on a day-to-day basis. Not having a clear enough sense of direction is often what leads to disengagement, a lack of fulfilment and general unhappiness.
Knowing what you want, why it’s important to you and how you can make it happen are key to feeling satisfied and excited about your career. If you’re unsure about how to make this happen for yourself, a Career Coach can help you. Here’s a closer look at how Career Coaches assist learners on Career Accelerator programmes offered by FourthRev, and how working with one can help you unpack, plan, and realise your goals – no matter what stage of your career you’re in.
What is a Career Coach?
A Career Coach is someone who helps people navigate and overcome challenges in their careers. While some coaches might specialise, most work with professionals across industries, roles and experience levels. They offer a personalised service by working one-on-one with a client to understand their particular problem and develop a tailored solution to help them move forward.
When working with a Career Coach, you are in the driver’s seat. The coach’s job is to provide you with career support that will help you reach your own resolute decisions. They cannot make things happen for you, like getting a new job or securing a better salary, because you hold the key to your own career development and success. The value they provide is helping you lay the right stepping stones to get there.
A few examples of challenges that a Career Coach can help you navigate include:
- Deciding what you want to do next: If you know what you can do but it’s not what you want to do, a coach can help you consider new opportunities that differ from your past experience.
- Create an eye-catching resumé: A simple Google search will tell you what key things to add to your CV, but a coach can work with you to set it up in a way that aligns your skills to the job you’re looking for and sends a clear message that attracts recruiters’ attention.
- Letting go of previous bad experiences: Because work plays such a big role in our lives, many people can be left scarred by toxic environments. A coach can offer advice on how to forward and reset a negative mindset.
- Effectively prepare for interviews: If you’re not getting past certain stages in the interview process or find yourself coming short of other candidates, a coach can help you practise answering common interview questions and presenting yourself confidently.
- Advancing your career at your current company: If you’re happy where you are but want a promotion or role change, a Career Coach can help you understand your strengths, areas you need to work on, and how to approach your boss to discuss your ambitions.
While a coach helps you understand what you want to do and overcome ways of thinking or behaving that might be holding you back from achieving your professional goals, it’s important to note that they are not therapists. If the challenges you’re facing extend beyond your career, you might want to consider getting a different kind of help.
A structured approach to making your career goals a reality
As with anything, having someone to bounce your ideas off or talk to when you’re feeling stuck is the best way to make meaningful progress. That’s why we’ve included one-on-one career coaching as an integral part of our Career Accelerator programmes. Whether you’re just starting your career, making a change or looking to move up in your current role, we have a dedicated team of coaches to help you understand and set your short and long-term career goals so that you can work through the programme with intention.
“This course included everything that I was looking for: someone to support and hold me accountable, access to Career Coaches and a course structure that felt achievable.” – Aoife Duggan, a Career Accelerator student.
Hear more about the benefits of career coaching from one of our Career Coaches
Our approach to working with learners during the Career Accelerator is three-fold:
- 1) 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 enable you to begin articulating your personal brand.
- 2) 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.
- 3) 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.
Reflecting on her experience working with the learners who are currently 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.”
If you’d like to find out more about our Career Accelerator programmes and how career coaching can assist you in feeling more confident and fulfilled in your career, you can get more information here.
Written by Summer Smith
