If you want to become a certified career coach, the following 10 steps will put you on the pathway to success in a dynamic and rewarding industry. Get started now and be on your way to a great career!

How to Become a Certified Career Coach in 10 Steps

1. Determine your goals. Do you want to run your own practice, work in a career counseling office, or in a school counseling center? Identifying these goals is not an absolute necessity when you start out, but it helps to provide focus as you go through training.

2. Identify a coaching niche. What type of career coach do you want to be? Do you want to become a certified career coach who specializes in recent college graduates, stay-at-home mothers reentering the workforce, or managers and executives who are exploring career options? Finding your niche can happen at any time during the education and training process, or it can wait until you are already working as a career coach.

3. Select your education path. If you are considering college, you should select a major related to career coaching, such as sociology, psychology, or counseling. If you already have a bachelor’s degree, you should consider working toward a master’s degree in one of the pertinent majors.

You will also need to consider certified coaching programs. Whether you have a related college degree or not, these programs offer targeted instruction in the coaching field of your choice. These accredited programs start you on the path to becoming a certified career coach.

4. Volunteer to gain experience. You can volunteer to work in a counseling center, or with any volunteer organization that helps people find employment or work training. Part of process when you become a certified coach is to gain an understanding of human emotions and needs. Working in a volunteer capacity offers interaction with people who are seeking help in various ways.

5. Strengthen your listening skills. Coaches must be excellent listeners. To become a certified career coach, you must understand active listening; this is a type of listening which involves listening with all the senses.

6. Learn how to run a business. For those coaches who desire to open their own coaching practice, it is essential to understand the minutiae of operating a business. Business plans, licenses, office set up, and billing are only a few of the aspects of a business that must be addressed by an entrepreneur.

7. Learn how to ask questions? Seems like a simple task, right? Wrong. Coaches rely on their ability to ask questions, and then listen for the answers (see #5 above). Asking questions is much more than “why” and “what” and “how.” It’s about having a plan, and asking question in a logical progression that helps the client find their solution or reach and outcome.

8. Marketing and promotion. To become a certified career coach and own your own practice, you must have the ability to market and promote your services. You must know how to create a marketing plan, develop marketing materials, work with social media, and explore other alternate forms of promotion.

9. Understand what alternate streams of income can do for you. To make the big money in coaching, you need to fire up some other profit centers – DVDs, books, seminars, group coaching, and other alternative streams of income.

10. Have confidence. If you go through all the education and training, and take all the proper steps to set up a business or land a great career coaching job, yet you lack the confidence in your ability to help others, you will fail as a coach. To become a certified career coach who finds success, prosperity, and personal satisfaction, you must start out with confidence.

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Life Coaching Business Blueprint” video toolkit. Just go HERE  now to get your life coaching business blueprint videos.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
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