To ask you for careers advice instead of paying for a life coach?

[Careerchanger2017]

Hi everyone I am a name changer.

I have been thinking about paying to see a life coach as I am at a career crossroads but not sure if I would be wasting my money.

Before dc I gained a business studies degree and then worked as a hr administrator for 2 years with the intention of one day working in either HR, recruitment or careers advice (oh the irony!)

Then came along dc, the youngest of which starts school next September. So I have been career planning. Three ideas I have come up with are 1) get back into HR admin and work my way up from there like I had previously intended 2) study make up/beauty which has always been a passion of mine 3) find something to do working from home to fit around dc.

I am having problems with each of these choices though. Choice 1 will cost us £600 out of the family pot in childcare 😮 We will still be £500 better off a month but dc will be in childcare before school after school and most of the school holidays. I'm not sure if that is worth it for £500 a month when we can manage fine on DH salary. Although I would enjoy the work. Choice 2 is expensive I think to study make up/beauty and buy all the kit and would it be possible to use the qualification to fit around the dc as childcare would probably eat up any money earnt from this. Although it would be amazing to find work from a hobby/passion if it's possible. Option 3 do something from home. I have been doing bits off of people per hour (admin) from home since I gave up work but I find it so boring! I could carry on with this and maybe set up as a virtual assistant but my heart is not in it. What else could I do from home? I've thought of book keeping but that would bore me to tears too!

I'm so confused I am thinking of seeing a life coach but not sure if I would be wasting my money as I'm not sure how they could help me?

Thank you if you have read this far! Does anyone have any careers advice for me? Or advice about seeing a life coach? Thank you

I can't remember exactly what it cost, (though I probably have the details somewhere at home.) It was a service through my union, so it was cheaper than full price, and I remember thinking I wouldn't have considered it at full price. I got more out of it than I expected, though. It was a few sessions with me doing some work in between. I can't remember how many sessions, either... Maybe 4 or 5. (It's been a long day.)

Thank you for your reply. I'm just thinking it might help me as I lack confidence, am a people pleaser and am so indecisive so it might be good to have someone to be accountable too to make sure I reach my goals.

As with all counselling, you do the work - but it helped me to have someone guiding me, and saying things like, "that's an asset - a lot of people can't do that, you know!" If it was someone at work saying that, I 'd be thinking, "you're just saying that, because you want me on this crap project," or similar. I still have problems recognisin what I'm good at, because if I can do it, it must be easy, so anyone can - despite any evidence to the contrary! And I still need to work on assertiveness, particularly in meetings, but half the time, I feel like I'm there by accident, and they didn't really mean to invite me - or if I organised it, they've just come along to be polite. Rationally, I know this is bollocking, but... Anyway, my point is that it's not a magic wand, but it can be really helpful.