What is Career Coaching?

“Career coaching is a highlighter/ eye opener into your inner strengths, motivational skills and career values, which fits with your personality type to find your desired career path/ goal.”

William Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making The Most of Change, 1991, Addison Wesley

When people hear the word career coaching there are usually couple of questions that come to mind:

• How the sessions are conducted?
• Will I really benefit from it?
• Is it worth the money?
• Does it really help to change career, to find career, or to get to know your personality type more?

 In this article you will find answers to all these questions and understand more about career coaching in the modern era.

First, it is important to know the different types of coaching:

Life Coaching: Higher performance level in their everyday life

Business Coaching: Centered on the development of the business

Executive Coaching: Assist senior executives to maximize their potential

Career Coaching: discovering the interest, talents, skills and attitude

When do people need a career coach:

People usually hire career coaches as they want answers to the below questions;

1. How to change the nature of their careers?
2. How will our work life change?
3. How to deal with organizations?
4. How to deal with workplaces?
5. Does lifestyles drive career decisions?

How can a career coach help?

By going through the below career coaching techniques with the client;

• Knowing your career values
• Knowing your Motivated Skills
• Discovering your Career Interests
• Making a personality test
• Knowing your abilities
• Knowing your own motivational skills

What is career coaching?

Career coaching is drawing a road map, and plan several career progress stages with the client as follows;

1. Ventilation Stage – it is when the client expresses him/herself in favor for the issue they have
2. Assessment Stage – at this stage the client discovers who is he through different personality types tests / career value exercise conducted by the career coach
3. Focus Stage – it is when the client knows with the support of the coach what is the best option for him/her
4. Strategy Stage – it is when the client wants to know how to get there to his/her  career path goal, the coach will support with a customized strategy to do this

Here below is a glimpse of the career values, which is offered to the client to choose from, in order to decide which job/ career path is better for him/ her

• Comfortable Life a prosperous life
• Equality brotherhood and equal opportunity for all
• An Exciting Life a stimulating, active life
• Family Security taking care of loved ones
• Freedom independence and free choice
• Health physical and mental well-being
• Inner Harmony freedom from inner conflict
• Mature Love sexual and spiritual intimacy
• National Security protection from attack
• Pleasure an enjoyable, leisurely life
• Salvation saved; eternal life
• Self-Respect self-esteem
• A Sense of Accomplishment a lasting contribution
• Social Recognition respect and admiration
• True Friendship close companionship
• Wisdom a mature understanding of life
• A World at Peace a world free of war and conflict
• A World of Beauty beauty of nature and the arts

Finally, one of the career coaching techniques is doing the personality type test through PSI (Personality Style Indicator)

This is to show the below types of characters,

• Behavioral Character – mostly concerned with action
• Cognitive Character –mostly concerned with analysis
• Interpersonal Character –mostly concerned with harmony
• Affective Character –mostly concerned with expression

As there are several types of coaching, there are several types of clients. Its very important to know them, as it really affects the process:

Coachable Clients

• Accepting and understanding their situation
• They know their needs
• Self-motivated
• Seeking to achieve their career goals

Non-coachable Clients

• Blames Others, Procedures..etc
• Never Takes Accountability
• Rarely Accomplishes Assigned Duties
• Always Defensive
• Refuses To Participate
• Always Argumentative
• Not Committed
• Doesn’t Communicate
• Always Absent
• Has Emotional or Mental Disorder (needs help/ support from professionals not coaching)

In brief, combining your career values, your motivated skills, career interests and personality types are going to help you find your perfect job match and the desired career path. All these exercises are being conducted by the Career Coach, and the results are amazing!