Talk to me about careers in mentoring and coaching

[dodi1978]

Hi!

I am a University lecturer who is, due to some frustrations with my job, looking for a career change.

I've always been interesting in mentoring / coaching, and my current role already includes These aspects to some extent through personal tutoring.

My questions:

• What formal qualifications are needed / useful?
• How do you go about entering the job market in These fields?
• What can you earn?

I apologise if these questions apprear a bit naive - I am trying to get a first idea of this field.

My apologies as well about posting further queries on other job fields. I thought it is best to keep the different fields separately!

Credibility is more important than qualifications, in my view. The successful business coaches I know have owned and run successful businesses. I do a bit of executive coaching but only with companies I do other work for. If I don't feel I should do it (i.e. too close) I'll refer them on to someone else.

I had a personal coach (paid for by former employer) who was a qualified occupational psychologist but was also well known for a major sporting achievement. (tmi to say what!). She'd also held a high rank in the NHS. She charged £250 per hour to the company, and when I recommended her to a friend her individual rate was £75 per hour. She did a fair amount of telephone coaching.

I guess you build up a client base by referrals so getting these initial clients is critical. Social media is probably a useful tool for this.

I'd also solicit some views on self employment. It's not easy, and having an unreliable income takes a lot of getting used to.

Thanks for the reply. I agree - credibility is worth more than qualifications, and based on that, I'd be hard pushed to be a credible Business Coach! What I do have tons of experience in is the educational domain - so Coaching somebody to educational success is something I can do, I have done (as part of my job) and that I'd enjoy doing - e.g. helping someone who is coming back to learning after some time off, helping someone who is struggling...

The difficulty in the educational field is getting people to pay for it. There is an expectation that this kind of support is part and parcel of the offer from the provider. It's probably not to any kind of standard (unless the student gets lucky) but preparedness to pay is a big consideration when you're thinking about freelancing.

Who would your customers be i.e. who would pay you? Parents of pupils and students, or mature students, who will often be self funding or living on reduced income? Will a parent pay for support from someone who is not a subject expert?

I know I sound as if I'm pouring cold water on this - and I don't want to - but you have to establish where your revenue is coming from before giving up a secure job. (Unless making a living isn't a consideration)

Three rules for going into business for yourself:

1. Do something you are really passionate about
2. Only do it if you can be better than everyone else
3. Only do it if it makes economic sense for you

You need all three - two out of three is bad!

If this is really what you want to do, I'd suggest not being too rigid about the field you work in. Explore coaching as a skill-it's 99% listening imo. If you can inspire someone towards academic success then there is every chance you can inspire them to achieve personal success however they define that. Get a website, blog regularly, use twitter, do free talks to groups (business, WRIs, NWR, Rotaries etc) Your challenge is getting established. If you're good, and you sound as if you are, you'll get business from referrals. You'll just have to work very hard in the beginning - and could possibly do that while you keep your day job?

Best of luck.

How about Career Coaching based in higher education? See "working for us" page of Careers Group for one example. Pay's okay and I think they value various sector experience more than qualifications.

Is there a particular age range of person that you would particularly enjoy coaching? Or people facing particular challenges?

Genius Within is perhaps another organisation you might like to look at for ideas. Quite education/specific learning difficulties related some of their work is I believe. May spark an idea of interest.

I agree that credibility is very important but that also comes from coaching technique. Yes as a business coach or business mentor you need to have a background in business, but other types of coaching I don't think necessarily require experience of having worked in a particular field.

Would slightly disagree with pp who says that qualifications aren't important..I believe that coaching skills need to be learned over time and quite formally in order to be able to practise safely and effectively. Not always the case but increasingly though I understand from coaching friends that corporate type organisations are requiring specific coaching qualifications before they contract a coach. I think it also makes coaching much more rewarding when you learn more about the theories and techniques, gain feedback from more experienced coaches and peers about how to motivate and support change rather than just relying on your own occupational experience.

I work as a careers coach with clients with mental health needs. Pay is approx 35K and I find it is extremely rewarding (been doing it about 8 years and have a masters in career coaching) Incredible variety of clients who are working at all levels from entry level to burnt out high flying exec. or with clients who may be looking for jobs in a variety of sectors and need coaching/advice on how to retrain. I find my job fascinating as it draws upon so many theoretical fields including educational psychology, occupational psychology, sociology etc etc etc!

For more info on Career Coaching qualifications you could look at the Careers Development website. For other types of coaching qualifications check out ICF or ILM

Good luck. Coaching is a very rewarding job. (I know less about mentoring). Agree self-employment can be difficult but if you find a niche not necessarily impossible.

Be really interesting to hear more from other types of coaches/mentors.

NB there are loads of initiatives these days that require volunteer mentors and coaches if you want to try it out and build experience. CIPD runs a few initiatives I believe with young people.

HI OP, I have just seen your other posts you have some really interesting skills and knowledge areas.

I think its quite interesting in a way that you have separated them out into different posts (I know why you've done that for simplicity) but you might want to find a way of synthesising your "motivated skills" from all this experience, knowledge and skills bases which could be very marketable. E.g. educational resources+ coaching+ coding. Check out the old classic "what color is my parachute"--- the workbook version is cheap secondhand and could help you prioritise your skills, needs and interests. Getting info on the different career ideas is really good too as you are doingm but also make sure you are as clear as you can be about your own motivated skills and requirements before you try and match it with a career idea.