Has anyone ever used a career coach?

[Efoci]

I'm not looking for a dramatic change of career or even to apply for new jobs yet but I'd find it helpful to sit down and take stock of my career to date and think about how I might move forward - is that something a career coach could help with?

I've not felt right in current role since back off mat leave and whilst I'm not planning to move for a while, I'd like to think about my skills/ options for the future properly.

Has anyone done this kind of thing?

I did! Well, a life coach. My employer paid for them to help me 'grow in my role' / avoid paying me more and I told them I wanted a career change. It took 3 months to find an incredible new role / career change and I haven't looked back since.

For me they just got me focused on what I wanted so when the right opportunity came I was ready to grab it instead of letting it pass me by.

@HappyCaroline thanks for your reply. I've never considered using one before but just feel stuck in a rut so definitely going to look into it

Following with interest. I haven't but interested. I have for the past year tried to change career without success and feel I would benefit from some guidance

A true career coach will have the postgraduate or masters in career guidance and be registered with the Career Development Institute.
Anyone can call themselves a career coach, even your average person with no GCSEs, but you want someone who actually knowss what career guidance is.
So not someone with an HR qualification (totally not the same thing)! nor someone who is a life coach or whatever.
You wouldn't call a nursery nurse a teacher, so get a proper qualified careers adviser to coach you.

@sassanach true, my mums actually a certified careers coach with the degree etc. The only thing I'll say is true career coaching is very closely aligned to life coaching in that it's about negotiating matching your life goals to your necessities, responsibilities and skills. Unless you are actively seeking work, you don't want a HR recruiter as they'll just be filling roles. But a life coach isn't a bad shout if you need to do some soul searching. The one I worked with actually made some introductions to her network for me so I met a number of women from trainees to CEOs and got to discuss salaries, work/life balance, work experience and job types. When looking for life coaches it's important to research them, have an introductory chemistry can with them and know what you want from them.

I've worked with 3 different coaches, 1 for careers, 1 for relationships and 1 for ADHD support. In finding them I sat down with about 8 different ones who were part of professional bodies - a good coach doesn't tell you what to do. Any decent coach won't charge for a 15-30 minute chemistry call.

A careers advisor will have the benefit of maybe being plugged into formal resources like databases of different career paths and the qualifications needed, but they shouldn't just be cookie cutter sending these over to you like "if you get x you can get a job in y".

Hope that helps

I'm a qualified Executive Coach. I help people who are feeling stuck and unsure of what their next career move is or dealing with challenges at work. I help people to identify what they want to achieve, what's getting in the way and make progress towards achiveving their goals.

A career coach should be able to help you with what you are looking for. Some may give you career advice as well helping you identify what you want. As others have said coaching is not regulated so make sure you do your due diligence and look for someone who is qualified and has some reviews.

Good luck, coaching can be transformational when you get the right person for support.