Career Coaching
We can help you take the next step
Few individuals now follow steady career paths within the same organisation for their whole lives.
Some of us don’t think about careers at all, until we realise we are in the middle of one that we never even wanted! Sooner or later most of us need to make hard decisions about the direction of our careers, to meet the changing needs of our lives or new aspirations.
Changing career in mid-life can be much harder than in our twenties, with significant risks attached. We have helped many individuals through the transition from one career phase to another:
“Hi Phil. Four years ago you provided me with career counselling following my redundancy from the HR department at LC. I wanted to thank you again as I am now well on the way to achieving my ambition………the counselling enabled me to assess that management really wasn’t my preferred choice and ideally I wanted to become a teacher. I have worked my plan and …….. have been offered a tutor position working in a Management and Business faculty. The last four years have been largely successful and, at the times when it has been a challenge, I have had the insight into why that was the case. I am under no illusions that education is not easy now and that a career change at my age is a little scary, but it was now or never so the timing is right….. Thanks again…… There is hope for middle aged men!” Alan Finn. Lancashire.
We tailor our approach to each individual’s needs and aspirations though most career coaching programmes will include:
- Developing a clear understanding of yourself regarding your goals and aspirations, the values which guide you, your interests and motivations, and your unique strengths and abilities. We use a combination of guided interview and psychometrics to help this process
- Assessing alternative possibilities and prospects in the form of a ‘reality check’ of which lines of work are feasible and what is required to secure the right position
- Undergoing a clear reasoning process helping you to ‘bridge the gap’ between aspirations and reality and understand and deal with the consequences of change
- Develop and implement an action plan in order to achieve your goals
- Sustaining the will to succeed through providing support and guidance through the challenges and obstacles which may lie in your chosen path
We can also help with practical issues, such as CV development; interview technique; designing and making presentations and so on. More importantly, we focus on the psychological issues associated with career change. These can include: improving self-esteem and confidence; overcoming self-defeating beliefs; establishing self-fulfilment; and building on personal strengths while accepting inevitable weaknesses.