It’s no secret that finding a job in today’s market is tough. Career coaching in London is about helping place you in the best position to find a job that suits your passions and life goals. Career coaching is for both people who are completely without current work and if you indeed have a job, but still don’t feel settled or that your position is the dream career that you desire.
A London career coach can help you realise a career which is satisfying and brings you closer to your values too. In this article you will gain a better understanding about how career coaching can help you feel ready to find your calling or ideal work and then compete against those fellow job-seekers.
What is career coaching in London about?
Really career coaching is both coaching and some light therapy work too. The goal of coaching is to support people get more familiar with what their career development and trajectory needs to be. Alongside this, a career coach will offer various tools that will help you understand yourself better. You might see why interviews can be anxiety provoking or examine some limiting beliefs you have about success or your abilities in your chosen field.
Although not all career coaches will have therapy training, as I do, many might be more industry specific. So you might find a career coach dedicated to, say, human resources, or to the fashion industry specifically. However, in general, career coaching tends to be a solution-oriented approach. This means that career coaching in London and increasingly online, will emphasise working with clients to see which concrete steps they can take to achieve chosen career objectives.
My approach is extremely process driven. This means you look at whether there are any behavioural, emotional or psychological barriers that could be holding back your desired career ambitions. However, often we start by really working out for certain what those career ambitions actually are. The core of career coaching in London, as I provide it, is to help people assess their current professional situations, always with honesty, curiosity, empathy and compassion.
What are common misconceptions about career coaching in London?
Often people think that a career coach is just there to help you write an excellent résumé. I have rarely helped someone write a CV. There are plenty of articles and help around to guide you and I direct people to read that. What a coach gives you is more than just how to put together a CV. There is much deeper work that a real career coach of any real value will do with you.
People often think that they just need a good resume and their career worries will be over. Well, yes, if you are happy to take any job or aren’t focusing on where you want to be in five or 10 years time, I’d say that’s true.
There’s also the popular misconception that you only have to attend one career coaching session and all your job challenges will be resolved. Like any change, it is actually a process. This is why I offer coaching packages. It actually takes about four to six hours of coaching for the typical client to begin internalising the key benefits of coaching.
What can someone expect to get from career coaching in London?
By and large, clients would reasonably expect to gain not just clearer vision of career direction but also confidence, insight into their challenges, and importantly how to overcome them, but also encouragement and inspiration. Clients frequently feel as if the coaching relationship allows them to feel more comfortable within themselves too. It is a safe space to talk about any issue, even if not directly about work or career.
Career coaching in London lowers job search anxiety
A job search, especially in a competitive city like London, can create a fair amount of anxiety and fear. We can all feel exposed, like we have to be perfect or that we can’t show any weakness, though inside we feel vulnerable and ill equipped sometimes. I love working with clients, both online and in central London, to unwrap those difficult emotions, so they can better understand how these may be keeping them stuck in their careers or not achieving the success they want.
For example, I might help someone wanting to break the pattern of just submitting resumes to online to any and all job postings repeatedly and nothing resulting. Sometimes our patterns are a reflection of lifelong patterns of behaviour and it’s time to review whether they are still serving us or not. For some it’s a struggle to be assertive or ask for help. How often do we get nervous networking or applying for a job because we are scared of rejection? It is these issues that good career coaching will address.
Though many career coaches rely on assessments, personality tests, or interest inventories, I tend to not use them, but allow the client to guide the conversation. It is a mutual investigation, an unearthing or exploration. Like explorers or archaeologists digging deeper, to find the gold which explains or helps limiting beliefs be identified and removed.
Some coaches get clients to get constructive feedback from family and friends. This might be circulating a list of questions to colleagues and loved ones. Then the replies are sent directly to the coach and not the client. The coach then compiles a report for the client to review. However this type of activity is relying on the subjective and often misplaced viewpoints and judgements of people without a real stake in the client’s future. I see these as valuable but only to a certain extent. A person could be insulted or feel insulted by some comments.
At what point is career coaching in London most useful?
Career coaching can be helpful at every point of someone’s career path. Some know from an early age what job they wish to have. Some people will move career every decade or so. However, good career coaching during the early years of university or soon after that, can put individuals on more solid ground. Career coaching can ensure a mindset that helps a person gain an understanding of what they truly value and wants from life and work in particular.
Are there certain frustrations career coaching in London can help with?
Of course, I frequently hear, “I hate my job, but I don’t know what else to do!” But what might be a surprise to some is that I also will hear, “I have no idea what I can do with this degree or these skills,” or “I need help deciding on what exactly I want to do with my career and how to get there.”
Career or interview anxiety is also something that I frequently encounter as well. For some older people there can be a frustration with using social media, especially LinkedIn, as an way to achieve career goals. In some industries social media is a main way to get leads, for example in journalism. However, many people returning to the job market may be reluctant to use social media in a job search, doubting its usefulness. It can go the other way too. An over reliance on internet searches when good old fashioned meeting people face to face is needed in many industries still.
Who is best suited to career coaching in London?
Coaching is for you if you are someone who is open to new ideas and willing to step out of your comfort zone. You will need to be ready to face what is holding you back and motivated to start the work that makes up the career change process. It’s about allowing the coach to be a partner with you in that process. It’s actually an essential part of coaching because there are so many steps along the way.
Will career coaching in London bring career satisfaction?
I do hope so! If you are doing a job you really, truly enjoy, then work is satisfying and rewarding. I enjoy guiding clients through the process to reaching that. It is normally a sense of alignment between work and your values. This may relate to a person’s sense of purpose in the world.
If you are looking to find a genuine sense of career satisfaction or fulfilment, career coaching in London may be able to help. Get in touch today to discuss how you can achieve career goals though my services – life coaching and career coaching.