Has anyone ever used a career coach?

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DH is an engineer and unhappy with work at the moment. Construction industry is brutal, limited progression opportunities and stagnant salary. I work in a completely different area and have no idea what to advise him but was considering suggesting he speak to a career coach to see if he could take work in another direction or how he could map his future to feel more positive.
Has anyone ever used a career coach- did it help? Any advice?

Sorry to hear about your husband's troubles. I used a career coach once for sort-of similar reasons, I was at a turning point where my company was going through a major restructure and I had to decide if I was going to go for one of the new roles where I was or try and use the chance of some redundancy money etc to make a change. The company was offering career coaching as part of the consultation/change management exercise so I thought why not. I have to say (caveated with it might just have been the one guy I saw) I did not find it very helpful. He was a very nice man and a good listener, it was nice to have someone to hear all my thoughts, but no more useful really than a long chat with a sympathetic friend. He had very little career insight to offer and didn't seem to think it was his role to do so - he took much more of a 'coaching' than 'advising' role i.e. his job was to ask questions and probe/structure my own thoughts rather than give his own advice or tell me what to do - fine as it goes but I didn't feel we came to any real conclusion or concrete plan by the end of our first few sessions, just talked around the issues and hit the same blocker of me being unsure what I really wanted/where my skills would potentially best fit in a new company or new industry, what the salary and other T&Cs and pros/cons would be if I did change or any real way of knowing the answers to any of this beyond googling and/or taking the plunge and actually applying for something. I used the last funded session to get him to look at my CV and do some practice interviewing which again was somewhat helpful but nothing I couldn't have found for myself online.

I think what I had actually been hoping for (and what might be more helpful to your DH) is more of an advisor/mentor type, someone with relevant industry/profession experience and able to give some insight into different work areas and transferability. Maybe this is what some career coaches offer but a lot of people who advertise themselves as this (IMO only) are fluffier, more 'life-coach', counsellor-y types rather than people that have a lot of experience and knowledge of specific industries. The former can be useful in specific situations too of course, your DH just needs to be clear on his expectations and goals?

Does he currently work as a civil engineer in construction? If so, there are definitely opportunities for progression in the construction industry. Many engineers work on a self employed basis through agencies and earn a good hourly rate. It's not as stable as a salaried position, but the money can be fantastic. Good engineers with enough experience are hard to find, so they can earn around £400 per day. If he has built up enough experience, he could apply for Project Manager, and then on to Contracts Manager. PMs earn less, with more stress though.
I have no experience with career coaches sorry.

Sort of. My employer offers career counselling (though they don’t use the term ‘career coach’). She talked me through ways I could progress my career, different possible paths, and recommended I seek out people who were 5-10 years further on than me to meet with and discuss how they got where they are, what their roles are like, etc.

It was really helpful in the sense that I identified who those people in my organisation were and realised that all of them seem really bloody miserable, hate their jobs and have no work-life balance, planning full days of meetings when away on family holidays, etc. It was very eye opening and helped me to accept that actually I do NOT want to be like any of them in 5-10 years! 😂

So I’m now looking to retrain and have left my old role (unfortunately, due to illness, I have cancer, but hoping to make a bit of a career change when I do go back). So, yes, it was helpful, but I would look for something in-house or free/cheap, not like £500 because you saw it on instagram sort of coach.

I know someone who did after leaving a toxic work environment and she said it was helpful

Kind of....I'm using a career/employability coach with Uni

Yes. I was in a toxic work situation. The career coach helped me to see that I did not need to put up with it and that I was just putting up my own roadblocks to leaving. I had a 3 month notice period and felt that was a barrier to getting a new job. She helped me to see that I had options. I put in my 3 months notice and used that time to find another job.

i got a $£10k pay rise in the new job and many more career opportunities.