Help! I need somebody

The job hunt can feel isolating, especially if you’re the only one in your circle looking for a new role. Similar to the solitary writer or artist, we can paint the picture of the lonely job seeker combing through offers, writing cover letters, and scheduling interviews. However, why go through the job hunt alone when you don’t have to? Admitting we could use some extra help is easier said than done. In this week’s edition of the Confident Candidate, we’re discussing why sometimes two really is better than one. Finding the right support for you can enliven your job search, offer needed perspective, and give you that boost towards a career breakthrough.

Career support: Understanding the roles of coaches, mentors, and therapists

No matter how focused and determined you are to succeed in your career, there comes a point in most people’s lives when you feel a bit stuck or that things are not working out the way you want. The lucky few have a wise elder on hand to dispense sage advice, whether that’s a parent, boss, or family friend. While we could all do with access to our own version of Professor Dumbledore—headmaster of Hogwarts and an example not just to Harry Potter but to us all—that’s not going to happen.

For the rest of us, there are experts in such areas as therapy, coaching, and mentoring. Evidence shows that each approach has value. Studies consistently show that behavioral and emotional interventions “work just as well or even better than medication to treat mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder,” according to Mental Health America. Coaching has been shown to have “a significant positive effect on individual effectiveness,” according to research published in Frontiers in Psychology that examined studies conducted over the past 30 years.

?Mentoring is also effective, which is probably why 92% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs, with all of the Fortune top 50 using them as an “engagement and retention strategy.” Mentorship has an “outsize impact on a worker’s career across several measures,” according to research conducted for CNBC. More than nine in 10 workers (91%) who have a mentor are satisfied with their jobs, including more than half (57%) who are “very satisfied,” it says. In an earlier study of 1,000 employees conducted over five years at Sun Microsystems, 25% of those in the company’s mentoring program had a salary grade change, compared with 5% of those not in it, and they were promoted six times more often than their colleagues. Of the 1,348 chief executives surveyed for the 2020 Vistage CEO Confidence Index survey, 86% agreed that mentors have been a critical part of their career accomplishments.

That all sounds encouraging, but how do you know whose expertise is best suited to your needs? To help you answer that question, we canvassed experts in these three areas for their advice.?

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