How to Become a Career Coach

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Do you like working with people and helping them realize their potential? Do you enjoy talking people through their management or personnel problems? Have you ever been told that you’re a great communicator, or that you give valuable advice? If so, you may excel as a professional career coach.

However, career coaching isn’t for everyone. To become successful, you must have exceptional people skills, confidence in your judgment, and an ability to communicate effectively. If you’re at a place in your career where you feel like you need a change, and you’ve always enjoyed mentoring others, it may be possible to pursue career coaching professionally. Here’s what you need to know.

What Is a Career Coach?

A career management coach is someone who offers career advice professionally. Business coaches may offer their assistance to individuals or entire corporate teams. Their primary responsibilities include:

  • Identifying clients’ skills, goals, and opportunities.
  • Providing clients with actionable advice for advancing in their professions.
  • Aiding clients in the job-seeking process by providing resume critiques, conducting mock interviews, etc.
  • Helping corporate teams manage conflict and other issues.
  • Facilitating team-building exercises.
  • Assisting companies with strategic planning of business initiatives, product launches, and more.

Career coaches do not tell people what to do. Instead, they’re similar to therapists, skillfully prompting professionals to ask questions, examine possible solutions, and reach conclusions on their own.

Become a Career Coach

There’s no single path to becoming a career coach. Some individuals begin by starting their own businesses, while others seek positions at established coaching companies. Although career coaching isn’t a specific area of study in most colleges, there are a variety of certificate programs that teach people the skills they will need to find a job in the career coaching industry.

However, career coaching certifications aren’t necessary to become a career coach, especially if you plan to go into business for yourself. You can become a career coach simply by gaining experience in the workplace and developing skills through everyday life. A great way to do this is by:

  • Teaching – Most career coaches have to train or teach in some capacity. You can develop these skills by seeking out opportunities to educate people in professional settings.
  • Working in Career Services – There’s a lot of overlap between career coaches and career counselors. In fact, people who want to become coaches can often start by getting a job as an entry-level career counselor. This is an especially valuable experience for those who would like to learn resume building and goal-setting skills.
  • Holding a Management Position – Career coaches must have many of the same qualities as a good manager, including leadership, reliability, and more. If you’re interested in becoming a career coach, it can be beneficial to become a manager first. This will help you understand the challenges that leaders face in standard workplaces.

To become an executive career coach, you’ll need more than the right experience – skills are just as critical for success. You should aim to develop the following qualities:

Effective Communication

Career coaches must be able to express their ideas in a way that is meaningful to others. Ideally, they should have a way with words and be able to communicate in the clearest and most concise way possible to ensure their points are understood.

Interpersonal Skills and Emotional Intelligence

Career coaches work with people every day; therefore, having well-developed interpersonal skills is crucial. It’s not enough to be able to communicate with clients – coaches must listen, understand, and connect with them, too.

Active Listening

Listening is perhaps the biggest part of any executive career coaching job. Career coaches must be able to follow complex problems as they guide their mentees in the direction of solutions. They should also be able to jump into any workplace situation and provide useful, constructive feedback. This is only possible through skilled, active listening.

Confidence

It takes a special person to have the confidence to jump into any workplace, evaluate what may or may not be going wrong, and then provide constructive feedback. Therefore, career coaches must be confident enough in their own skills and abilities to assess client and workplace situations quickly and correctly.

Seeking a Creative Career Coach in NYC with Unique Skills and Abilities? Contact Strong Training & Coaching

Leadership coaching has become very popular in recent years, and the use of career coaches is on the rise in many workplace settings. However, not all people have the unique skills and experience it takes to become a good work coach for today’s industry leaders. Therefore, when you need career advice or guidance, it’s important to seek help from a highly qualified professional.

Strong Training & Coaching hires only the most skilled and talented career coaches. We thoroughly vet all potential coaches and provide extensive training upon hiring. That way, the quality of our career coaching in NYC is consistent, no matter who we send to do the work. Our elite employment coaches have worked with top industry professionals to help them advance and succeed in the workplace, and our proven track record of success makes us one of the most trusted career coaching services in the industry.

To get started with our business coaching services in NYC, contact us today!