A career coach is a professional hired to help people achieve professional goals. They use different techniques to help clients self-reflect, realize their goals and reach their full potential. While their main goal is to help you find a new job by optimizing your resume and portfolio, career coaches are, ultimately, connectors. They may have insight into your industry or industries similar, with a network that could boost your visibility. But career coaches can help you in more ways than just strategy.
So, when is it a good time to seek out the help of a career coach?
1. You Are Indecisive
Have you been on the hunt for a new position for a while? This can be particularly hard if you have a personality that is more prone to indecisiveness. Many of us are not only good but excellent, at an array of trades and skills that could lead us on a variety of career paths. If you have found that you have been applying to multiple types of jobs or engaging in conversations with people from many regions or industries, it may be time to hire a career coach.
A career coach will help to ground you, understand and assess your skillset. They will have the intuitive disposition to understand what path is best for you at this point in your life. Really great career coaches will allow you to be your whole self with them, so they can dissect the behavior that will help you thrive in a given work environment.
While you certainly do not want someone else to make your career decision for you, a career coach will help to put a magnifying glass up to the things that bother you or light you up. They can help you carve a path for yourself worth pursuing, and maybe even help you find joy in your work.
2. Your Habits Do Not Support Your Intentions
On the flip side, maybe you are one of the most decisive humans you know. Perhaps you have had your ultimate career goals planned since you were an adolescent. There’s a chance you have always known, or developed a keen sense of what you need or want very early in life. If that’s the case, good for you!
In the instances where you know what you want but still can’t seem to get there, it may be time to examine some habits. Ask yourself the following questions to get a gauge on how you are treating not only yourself, but the work in front of you and the job hunt expectations you have.
- Are you working when your energy supports it?
- Are you a morning person or a night owl?
- Are you getting cortisol-conscious exercise in the morning?
- Are your sleep habits consistent and healthy?
- Do you stay on top of your inbox?
- Are you attending networking events and putting yourself out there?
- Are you active on online job boards?
- Does your work have an online presence?
- Are you communicative with your team? Do you let yourself express when you do not have the capacity to take on more work?
- Do you carve out time in your schedule for self-care and continued education outside of your work?
3. You Are Experiencing Burnout
The answers to some of the above questions may help you better realize that you have been overwhelmed lately. Have you felt exhaustion or burnout in recent days, months, or years? Is it difficult to get excited when you think of work? Do you find yourself procrastinating most days, even though you enjoy your task load?
It can be difficult to be productive as often as we need to be to keep our careers moving at a reasonable pace. Burnout is real. Even if you are incredibly drawn to the work that you do, you may feel inescapable exhaustion or that you have hit a wall entirely. It is not an easy mindset to escape, and it can absolutely wreak havoc on your physical body. In fact, it could take up to five years to completely recover from the physical and mental ramifications of one bout with burnout.
If you are not experiencing mental distress due to overwhelm, you may want to examine how your body is currently functioning. Have you been sick lately, or frequently? Are you more tired than usual? Have you been getting uncharacteristic headaches or experiencing mood swings? Feelings of guilt, hopelessness, and avoidance are also risk factors.
Not only can a career coach help identify your burnout, but they can address the areas in your life that may be causing it. They can help coach you through the tough times, and provide options for how to avoid it in the future. This can help you manage your new career, position, or promotion in a healthy way.
4. Your Pursuit of New Work is Never Ending
Have you been working for years, but never quite feel fulfilled in your job? You may spend hours on Linkedin, Indeed, and other job search applications applying to anything that feels or looks good to you. Whether you have occupied the same position at the same company, climbed in ranks, or have been able to try your hand in many different industries with many different positions, you never feel like you get it right.
These feelings of dissatisfaction can stem from being bored by your work or disconnected from the project, product, brand or your colleagues. While some of these feelings of disconnect stem from the pandemic, systemic issues may be at play.
Reaching out to a career coach can help you sift through any blockages you may be having. Their ability to provide third-party perspective can really help you shift your focus to find out what you should be doing, or how best your efforts are spent.
Who knows? Maybe that job in marketing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be because your zone of genius is in project management or product photography! Or maybe there is a style of working you are more prone to or a type of boss you work really well with.
5. Your Fear Is Getting The Best Of You
Sometimes, the only thing keeping us from pursuing a new line of work, position or career entirely is deep-seated fear. This could be because you have made changes in the past that didn’t work out. Perhaps you experienced–or are currently experiencing–trauma because of these missteps. Fear could affect you if you are considering a job outside of your comfort zone, or if you do not feel prepared for change.
Another big culprit of fear? Imposter syndrome. Feel like you are not competent enough to handle a different role. Envisioning your ideal job with an amazing company and then thinking you are not good enough to work at that company or innovative enough to make an impact. Your fears can be multiplied if you experience anxiety or do not find that you have a solid support system that can validate you when you are having an off moment.
It is totally OK to reach out to a career coach or other professional to weed through what is true and what is not. Are your fears helping you to identify when a job maybe is not a great fit for you? Or are they holding you back from the life of your dreams? With a coach, you can identify your truths and experience the freedom and access to pursue what you want.
Source: Hive
