When Does Hiring a Career Coach Make Sense?

 Basically, it makes sense whenever you are seeking to land a new role with some sense of urgency. If you have plenty of time, maybe it's not right for you.

 A Harvard Business review released this stat: The odds of obtaining a new role is 2.67 times higher for job seekers who use a job search program that includes a career coach, as noted in the “"Effectiveness of Job Search Interventions: A Meta-Analytic Review".

 Put more succinctly, basically working with a career coach one-on-one cuts job search time in less than half the time of going it alone.

Benefits of Career Coach Program

A professional, certified career coach will help you build and market your professional brand. Your career coach will help you refine career essentials, like your resume and LinkedIn page, build your brand, and your job search/application strategy.

Many people look at what a career coach and think “I can do this myself, no problem.” Indeed, a career coach is a seasoned professional with a wealth of professional knowledge and experience to help guide you. Most of them have worked as recruiters, so they know what gets results.

Pro Tip: If the career coach has not worked in a role as a recruiter previously, keep scrolling on by and look for one who has done this.

You can write your own resume and submit applications (warning, this is not as straightforward as it looks). However, a career coach will be able to pinpoint the most important aspects of your professional experience for the jobs you’re interested in and present them most attractively, even if the jobs are in a new field.

With the help of a career coach a job seeker has someone in their corner to build their resume with insider knowledge, navigate LinkedIn effectively, prepare for interviews, and get insider tips on how to actually locate the unadvertised role (up to 75% by most estimates) and secure a new role in typically less than half the time, compared to when a job seeker goes without this guidance.

The Cost of Hiring a Career Coach

As with all professional services, the cost of hiring a career coach varies based on several factors including experience, credentials, specialty, success rate, location, and the extent of services. On average, career coaches charge anywhere from $75-$600 per hour. However, many career coaches recognize the unique needs each client has and will offer different packages for their services, so you can choose the option that best fits your needs and budget.

How Investing in a Career Coach Pays Off

Hiring a career coach is one of the best ways to fulfill your career desires through proven methods. Here’s how hiring a career coach will pay off:

Money Impacts of Finding a New Job Faster

According to the Department of Labor, the average duration of a job search is 5.2 months. High-level positions often take far longer. Hiring a career coach will save you time in the job search process. Career coaches can help you refine your resume, cover letters, skills, and more to make you a stronger candidate for the jobs you apply for. They know the best practices and will help you stay on track throughout the job search process. I always say that the most challenging job anyone will ever have is a job search.

 Imagine a senior executive with a high salary in a limited industry. That kind of job search is typically estimated to take up to a year, but with a career coach, it can move much quicker.

When it comes to a job search, time is money. [1] The average salary for a Senior Executive Director is $103,945 with an $11,700 profit-sharing bonus.

If a career coach can reduce the job search time from 12 months to less than 6 months, the career coach may save the Senior Exec $50,000 or more (based on a minimum salary of $100,000 and job search time of 6 months). Even if the person invested $5,000 (a very high estimate) in a career coach, their ROI would be 10X their initial investment.

 Additionally, most often the jobs landed with the help of a professional coach, the respondents also cited greater job satisfaction and higher salary levels. That factors into all future raises that would be calculated from that new role as well. 

 Strategy

According to Rebecca Renner of Business News: “The (sic..) biggest pro of hiring a career coach: They help you learn from someone else's mistakes. Their expertise and unbiased attention will help you get the results you've been hoping for, often in a fraction of the time it would have taken if you'd continued making mistakes on your own.”

 Your future earnings are too important to leave up to a “figure it on your own strategy.” No one would expect to be able to figure out how to lay the foundation of a dream home they are building. Why pour the foundation for your future new role, by “figuring it out”? It can be done, but it is certainly the most expensive way to go.

 An effective career coach creates a tailored plan. Sure, you can search online you can find cover letter examples, sample interviews, resume templates, and other job search advice, but you won’t get the customized strategy. How much is your career and next opportunity worth to you? I think more than ever. 

 Knowing where you want to go is only part of the solution. You also need to bridge where you are now to where you wish to land. To get that done requires more than general networking, but requires a personalized strategy, based on your industry location, requirements and more. The coach also serves an accountability partner, reality checkpoint and sounding board on those hundreds of questions encountered during a search.

 Some of the most often asked questions include:

 ·       When, how and what NOT to say during salary discussions

·       How do I handle those pesky “get to know you” questions so common at the interview start

·       What to ask that will uncovers how this potential new boss really acts as a leader

And, lots more, of course.

When to Hire a Career Coach

Far too many people wait until they’ve been job searching for months to hire a career coach. Only after dealing with the frustration of submitting several applications and once they are desperate for a job do many people consider a career coach.

By the time you need a career coach, it can be even more challenging to pay for one. It’s best to hire a career coach before you are in desperate need of one.

Here are some times to consider hiring a career coach:

●      If you are considering leaving your job.

●      If you’re unsure about which path to take.

●      If you’ve been in the same position for a while and have not updated your professional portfolio (resume, social media, etc.).

●      To chase a new passion.

●      When you want to move to the next level of your career.

●      As soon as you lose a job.

The key is to be proactive and turn toward the expertise of a career coach if you are even considering looking for a new job for any reason.

Conclusion:

I think one of the things the pandemic has highlighted more starkly than any other event in recent memory, is that time is limited and how we spend it matters now more than ever. 

If you want to spend less time in search and land a desirable spot, rather than a random opportunity that you happen upon, it is wise to hire a career coach.

In addition to expert support on crafting your personal marketing documents (resume, LinkedIn, cover letters and more) what matters as much is to craft a tailored strategy for that fits your expertise. Sometimes it’s best to hire a professional to skip the mistakes, streamline your efforts and shorten the job search process.

 Hiring a career coach is definitely an investment, but it can be affordable and accessible. If you have any questions about your career journey, feel free to reach out at [email protected] or here is a link for scheduling a"virtual" cofffee discussion: https://tinyurl.com/icgcof