This is the culmination of the first part of the Career Coaching process, where you analyze your client’s career path or strategy.  This is the meeting when you make your recommendations on career path and strategy to your client.  All the discussions you have been having, all the questions you asked and clarifications you got throughout this whole career exploration process so far, were the seeds of the conclusions you are going to share with your client.  You have been collecting data, listening to your client’s concerns and wishes, discussing your impressions and having them validated, confirmed, or challenged by your client.  What now?

The Difference Between a Job Counseling and Career Coaching

Now you present your client’s options as you see them, and also detail his potential challenges and where further coaching might be of benefit .  This is where your client really sees the difference between what a Career Coach does and what a job center counselor or even a headhunter does.  What a Career Coach does is to lay out a career strategy and to make recommendations on the type of career or job best suited to his coaching client–not necessarily what particular career the client has already learned the skills for, but where he will be happy, fulfilled and productive.    Based on information, assessments, and intuition, the following are some possible recommendations.

Possible Recommendations1

1. Staying in the same type of job or industry, but moving to a different company:  This might be your recommendation if the culture or the values of the management of the particular company don’t mesh with your client’s style or values, but the actual tasks are a good fit.
2. Staying in the same company, but either moving laterally to another department or type of position within it, or somehow incorporating other interests or values:  You might recommend this, for instance, to someone who is in a technical support job within an industry, but often finds herself teaching or helping colleagues with work or personal problems.  Perhaps she would be happier in a personnel or training job in that same company, where she already knows the people and how the company works.
3. Staying in the same type of job but moving to a different industry which is more aligned with your client’s values:  For instance, your client might be a great technical support person in a big oil company, but very unhappy because that setting doesn’t satisfy her desire to help people directly.  You might suggest other settings where her skills could be used and her desires honored, for instance, a hospital or social agency of some kind.
4. Using a combination of skills and abilities developed over the course of his career so far, his willingness to set and reach goals, and his business acumen, perhaps he should consider starting his own business.
5. A drastic, but sometimes necessary, complete change in career: Like the client who left a successful but miserable career as a lawyer to fulfill a lifelong dream and has become a joyful up and coming choral arranger and conductor.

The End– But Not Really1

What a Career Coach does is to evaluate all the facts, intuition, and desires it’s possible to gather from and about your client, and make recommendations which come from your skill and experience as a Coach.  And along with suggestions and recommendations about the types of job, careers, career path and, possibly, industry your client will be happiest in and best suited for, at this point in the Career Coaching process, what a Career Coach Does is segue into your other job.  You have the in-depth knowledge of your client to give you a massive head start on what a Career Coach does on an ongoing basis–inform and coach your client on his strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and possible threats which can contribute or derail his success on an ongoing basis.

Give this strategy a try and see for yourself that it works.   If you liked this coaching tip, leave a comment or use the handy bookmark buttons below to share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. Thanks!

Dorine Kramer,

JTS Advisors Strategy, Accountability, & Assessment Coach