Career Coaches SUCK

Coaching has grown in astronomic popularity (thanks to the internet). However, coaching is looked at more skeptically than EVER before.

There are typically 4 groups of people. People who feel…

⓵ Coaches are typically shady, unqualified, or—sorry to say it— useless!

⓶ Receiving coaching means they’re weak, lazy, unintelligent, or incompetent. (Negative stigmatization.)

⓷ It’s nice…but not necessary; some feeling they’ll never need it, or should never need it.

⓸ They can’t afford it, many feeling that they’ll never be able to afford coaching services.

Whew 😪! Coaches and coaching service providers have a lot to fight against! There’s a lot of negativity and apathy out there! Before digging specifically into career coaching, I would like to make a few comments about these general sentiments toward coaching.

⓵ There are bad coaches out there, but there’s plenty of good ones out there as well. I used to think that many career coaches are phony, until I joined a career coach community, where I found out that there are many legit career coaches out there. 😮

⓶ Regarding stigmas, many of the most successful people ever have had coaches or mentors. If you can’t find a mentor, many people pay for coaches; even a consultant can be a coach (and vice-verse). In addition, coaches will always have various backgrounds and qualifications. You can’t standardize their paths or qualifications like a normal job.

Coaches are just problem solvers, and coaches arrive at their solutions in different ways. Case-and-point: you can have a F500 executive that is good at their job, but that doesn’t mean he/she would be a good career coach. Great resume, but very limited in practical help he/she can give you.

⓷ What is a coach? A coach is more than a teacher, more than a consultant, more than a mentor… A coach is someone that’s working along with you toward a goal, adding their knowledge and expertise to yours, to help you get more out of a journey.

Yes, many don’t need coaching, but it’s not a question of needing coach… It’s more of a question of how successful you want to be, and how far you want to go!

⓸ Many say they can’t “afford” coaching… But can they afford to NOT have coaching?

Don’t Be a Statistic

When I think of an active job hunter.....or [honestly] even a corporate professional who is NOT job hunting, they typically look like a chicken running around with their head cut off! Running around; doing stuff; lots of activity; busy! (They can make me dizzy!) They have busy schedules and extensive to-do lists, but neglect key things for are important for a successful job search. I'm referring to those who say they're "actively searching" and those who say they're "passively looking." Professionals find a way to [negligibly] fill up their hands either way and ignore some of the finer details of what results in a successful career.

Some professionals know what they need to do, but they don’t execute. Some execute, but they execute poorly or wait forever till they execute. I’ve met so many professionals who say they’re going to do XYZ, and they never do it; or they try on their own but give up because they get little to no results.

In short: it's very hard for many professionals to (1) stay focused, (2) stay consistent, and (3) sit down and really learn about modern job search.

Many…

↳ Put off tackling their job search until they are laid-off or fired, which puts them in a bad situation: they’re desperate and in a rush. This makes jobseekers make very poor job search choices… Limiting their career prospects. (In short: the best time to find a new job is while you have, not when you lose it.)

↳ Say they’ll do job search on their own, not realizing how difficult it is; how long the checklists are; how much trial-and-error they need to go through on their own. This, therefore, can lead to anxiety, depression, confusion, exhaustion, etc.

↳ Get laid-off or fired, anticipating their job search to take ~1 or 2 months, but because they use generic or outdated methods, their job search doubles in time. Or takes even longer!

↳ Give up on their dreams because they just can’t seem to make things work in their favor—on their own.

5 Reasons Why Career Coaching Can Change Your Life

Faster. When it comes to job searching 1 month can turn into 1 months, 2 months into 4 months, 3 months into 6 months, etc. There can be a lot of trial-and-error involved. Some people go through 100+ applications before knowing key issues in their resume; spend hours networking before realizing their approach simply doesn’t work; hours procrastinating; lose many interviews before realizing there’s something wrong with their interview skills/approach; etc. So if you can fix those issues before you spend the ineffective hours trying to figure them out, you’ll have a faster job search.

Less stress, or anxiety. Avoiding depression. More predictability. Going through a lot of trial-and-error and spending a lot of time trying to understand various aspects of job search can cause a lot of stress, as you can imagine. And if it happens long enough, it can lead to depression. I have met some people who do find jobs by themselves despite job search challenges. For example: I’ve met people who have succeeded by sending out 100s of applications over the course of months, or sending out something crazy like 600 applications over the course of a month. But the amount of anxiety during those journeys is unimaginable to me.

Less lonely. Job search is a lonely road. Often jobseekers don’t have anyone to share their wins and losses with. They have no feedback loop, no way to get specific, accurate and honest feedback on things like resumes, interviews, networking, LinkedIn and more. Jobseekers also get anxious, depressed and/or lazy, so it’s important to have someone that’s going to keep pushing you toward success.

Growing options. If you’re receiving coaching services, you’re going to have a much wider perspective of everything, so you’re going to be able to grow your amount of prospective opportunities. You go from looking at a chance of working at a small no-name company to looking at a Fortune 500 company; 2 companies to 4 companies; 4 companies to 8 companies; so on so-forth.

Self-sustainability. One of the coolest things about having a coach is that you learn so much. After you reach your goal; taking advantage of the knowledge, expertise and resources that your career coach had to offer… You can implement everything over-and-over again.

Career coaching’s especially good for those who are….

New to the US. Resumes, interviews, networking, and personal branding are completely different in the US compared to other countries.

Seeking an executive role. There are typically very few roles posted on public job boards. In addition, companies are slower to hire non-referrals for executive roles.

New to job search. You may not understand what works and what doesn’t. It also may be hard to execute and develop the right mindset.

Out of work. If you’ve been out of work for some time, it’s going to be harder to get noticed by companies and to get people to give you a chance. In addition, your self-esteem and confidence may be low.

Transitioning to a new field or industry. This typically requires creativity, networking, and much due diligence.

Have a nontraditional background. This typically requires creativity, networking, and much due diligence.

Seeking a higher role. This typically requires creativity, networking, and much due diligence.

Being Kicked in the Butt by a Career Coach is Better Than Kicking Yourself in the Butt

The big culprits of a jobseeker’s demise are (1) anxiety, (2) depression, and (3) laziness.

⓵ Anxiety, or fear, manifests itself in many ways. It can make someone overthink whether they should start their job search, how good their resume is, should apply to a company, reach out to a hiring manager, etc. Anxiety can also manifest itself as low self-esteem, making someone think they don’t deserve or qualify for an opportunity. Heck—people even fear success.

⓶ Depression is a—thorn in the side—to say it politely. Needing to leave a job we’ve been at for a while can cause depression. Feeling stuck at a job can cause depression. Working in multiple jobs consecutively that we hated can cause it. Thinking you won’t ever be successful can cause it. Obviously, being out of work can make us condemn ourselves. Job searching for an excessive amount of time can be demoralizing.

⓷ If you’ve put little effort into your resume, LinkedIn profile, network, applications, etc, but expect big results then there’s a high chance you’re lazy. The idea of sending tons of applications, having to do interviews, or aggressively growing a network can make many people barf 🤮. Some people cannot just bring themselves to work on a quality and wholistic job search.

These are reasons to hire a career coach! These are glaring issues than can be overcome when you have someone experienced, passionate, and caring on your team!

The Other Jobseeker Weaknesses [That No One Talks About]

Anxiety, depression, and laziness are weaknesses that many struggle with but there’s other weaknesses that can be conquered with a career coach.

Including but not limited to:

→ Low interview skills, subpar interview answers, or crippling interview anxiety

→ Lack of research skills (search engines + social media)

→ Scarce time, or subpar time management skills

→ Lack of familiarity with LinkedIn

→ Low emotional intelligence

→ Low social intelligence

→ Subpar speaking skills

→ Subpar writing skills

→ Resume confusion

Working with a career coach is a perfect opportunity to work on these skills, and through these weaknesses. Career coaches are accustomed to dealing with clients who have these issues, and see it as their duty to help their clients despite such obstacles.

My Ideal Client (Personally)

I love helping people who are seeking executive roles, or leadership, roles. They’re skilled, determined, and hard-working.

However, It’s challenging for them to get a chance, or shot, at the opportunities want. This may due to…

↳ Lack of job postings, high job requirements in the JD, or slow hiring processes.

↳ Having difficulty with communicating; whether it be with personal brand, networking, resume, or interviews.

↳ Juggling serious responsibilities at work or home. They need accountability, frameworks, shortcuts, and an organized job search.

↳ Many companies preferring, or at least prioritizing, referrals. This makes networking, or building relationships, important for executive roles.

↳ Having difficulty with adapting to the American style of promoting themselves; effectively + appropriately drawing attention to their hard skills, soft skills, and expertise.

A Career Coach is NOT…

A career coach is not a magic trick or pill.

A career coach is not an excuse to be lazy.

A career coach is not going to do everything for you.

Rather, working with a career coach is a collaboration, like a partnership. My clients take my advice and they make it work for them. They find their own way, take initiative, and they get creative. They experiment. They make sure to make an effort in areas that they’re familiar with, comfortable with, or that are important to them.

For example, I’ve had clients…

↳ Use AI tools to tinker with their resumes

↳ Reach out to peers in their field or industry for advice

↳ Network with people who were outside of our target list

Career Coaches Suck

Yes, working with a career coaches is a horrible idea….for many.

For people who aren’t progressive, motivated, and determined, it’s not the right choice.

If you are shortsighted, not a team player, lazy, hopelessly anxious, extremely negative, and/or impatient then career coaching may not work for you.

If the idea of working with a career appeals to you, then make sure to choose your career coach wisely.

And get ready for the excelling benefits of having one of the best teammates you could ever have!