Need a Career Coach? - 10 Ways a Career Coach Can Help You

Author: Karen Williams

The word coaching is synonymous with sports teams. A coach can help athletes to develop the mindset to achieve, to set and achieve goals that to many people seem insurmountable, but with focus and clarity, can be met or exceeded. They can help a sportsperson to reach their full potential by planning structured training programmes, providing feedback on performance, and helping them to become more effective.

However, coaching has become more prevalent in other areas. Life coaching has developed significantly over the last few years, with many coaches specialising in niche areas such as health, financial and career coaching to name a few.

To concentrate on the rising demand for employing a career coach, why should you choose a coach to help you to progress in your career?

A career coach will help you in many ways. Like in the description of a sports coach above, they will help you to develop and reach your potential, be successful and achieve results. A career coach will normally work with you on a one-to-one basis and will often offer group workshops, teleseminars and e-books to support you to progress in your career.

A career coach can help you in the following areas:

Career exploration and discovery

You may be unhappy or dissatisfied in your job and feel that there is something else out there, but are not sure what it is. A career coach can help you to discover what is important to you in your job and make sure that it uses your talents, skills, and strengths, and provides you with the reward you deserve.

Understand your strengths and weaknesses

A career coach will help you to develop an insight into your strengths and weaknesses. This will allow you to understand yourself better and support any decisions you make in your career. It will highlight areas you may not have considered before and you can address any weaknesses that may be holding you back or use them to your advantage.

Develop your career vision and design your career

A career coach can help you to structure a plan to progress your career. By helping you to understand your skills and abilities, they can help you to plan your ideal job and how you are going to get there.

Develop confidence in your own ability

You may have a plan for your future, but you may be consciously or subconsciously holding yourself back. A career coach can help you to develop greater confidence in your ability as well as providing you with the support and motivation to help you to achieve your goal.

Provide job search support

A career coach can help you during all stages of your job search. From helping you to develop your CV, to finding the ideal job and then succeeding at the interview, a career coach will support you every step of the way.

Help you to get ready for promotion

You don't need to want to change your career to benefit from employing a career coach. They can help you to get ready for promotion, plan for the next step in your career, and support you to develop your talents.

Support you in the workplace

If you are unhappy at work, there may be many reasons why this may be so. A career coach can also help you to deal with difficult situations or people and become more assertive. You can increase your profile at work, build better relationships and improve your own personal effectiveness.

Make sure that your goals are congruent with other parts of your life

A career does not exist on its own and is part of your overall life. It is important that a career coach makes sure that your career goals fit in well with other parts of your life. For example, if work/life balance is essential for you, they will ensure that you consider this when planning or progressing your career.

Provide you with greater self awareness

Some career coaches will use psychometric tests or other techniques that will help you to develop a greater self awareness of yourself. A greater self awareness will help you to understand yourself better, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.

Support you every step of the way

Like other coaches, career coaches will support you every step of the way.

Their role is to:

- Challenge you and ensure that you commit to making the changes you desire.

- Hold you accountable to the actions you want to take. You will need to report on your results, which means that as well as being accountable to yourself, you need to demonstrate what you have achieved to your coach.

- Question you and challenge your ideas and thoughts.

- Listen to you without any agenda for themselves, which gives you a chance to come up with your own solutions which are right for you.

- Celebrate your successes and recognise when you have overcome difficulties or challenges.

- Keep you motivated even when the going gets tough!

Copyright Karen Williams 2008. All Rights Reserved

About the Author:

For more information about career coaching, go to http://www.selfdiscoverycoaching.co.uk/ You can sign up to receive the free e-book "7 steps to recession-proof your career" and find out more about one-to-one coaching, group workshops and e-books (http://www.lifecoachingebooks.co.uk) to help you to rediscover your career. Karen Williams is a Personal Development Coach and runs her own coaching practice, Self Discovery Coaching. She has over ten years experience of working in Human Resources, training, coaching and management roles and is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

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Resume Writing - How To List Your Certifications and Licenses

by Tradepla

Your resume is a compilation of your professional life; from your education to summer internships, from publications to technical skills, it is critical that your resume includes anything that would help you get the job that you are interested in. Most professionals make a mistake of focusing on experience and education only. As a result, they disregard any additional information, such as certifications they have in their field, that would enhance their qualifications and assure that they stand out from the competition. Any professional certifications and licenses that impact your career and your ability to do your job should be listed on your resume. This concept is straight forward for those professionals who cannot actually perform their jobs without having a license to do so. This is the case for teachers, real estate agents, medical professionals, etc. If you are in a profession that requires specific certifications and/or licenses, your resume should contain a section specific to this information. The heading should state Professional Certifications or Professional Licenses.You should list, in reverse chronological order, any certifications and licenses that you have acquired in your professional experience. However, it is a lot harder to consider this information and include it on your resume if your professional field doesn't require any certifications or licenses. For example, having a certificate from a seminar on managing multiple projects may not be required in order for you to do your job effectively. However, such a certificate can be very helpful in virtually any field, and if included on your resume, it can help you stand out from the crowd of available professionals and catch the employer's attention. Consider any courses or training seminars you attended in your professional career.Don't forget to include any courses you may have taken as part of the training at a current or at a previous job. For example, if you have completed a course on using Microsoft Access Database as part of the training on your current job, and you know that you will be required to work with this program in a new position that you are seeking, make a note of this on your resume. Treat the list of licenses and certifications as you do your professional experience; make a list, in reverse chronological order, and consider which of the items you listed are relevant to your professional goals. Your resume should have no more than five most recent certifications and licenses. List the date when the certificate or license was obtained; if you took a course over time, for example, indicate the completion date in form of month and year only. he exact name of the certificate or the license should be listed, along with an issuing organization. No additional information is necessary for this area of your resume. Additionally, make sure to highlight any certification and licenses in the cover letter if they promote your qualifications for the job you are seeking. If the listing of licenses or certifications is lengthy, you can include this information on a separate sheet of paper. You should always list a few most recent items; however if the listing exceeds five items, let the potential employer know that additional information is available upon request.Your resume or your cover letter can point out this information, as well as highlight only those elements that promote you as the best candidate for the job.

About the Author

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