If you like helping people, especially those who have trouble making important decisions regarding their lives and future careers, getting a job as a career coach might just be the perfect fit for you. Although this kind of job requires a lot of dedication to just get started with, your effort will be worth it whenever you see the smiling faces of your customers who succeed have finally succeeded in life thanks to your help.
As we have already said, just getting started in this field of work can be pretty time consuming, as you will have to first gain a lot of knowledge, build your profile on a few social networks, set up a perfect resume and gather even more knowledge (which won’t hurt in any way whatsoever). Even then, finding a job can be hard, and might involve you scouring online classifieds for a few consecutive days before landing something acceptable.
Now, if finding work is as hard as career coach, why even bother getting your diploma of coaching in the first place? First of all, let’s all understand one thing: coaching is something you do because you have a passion for it, and not because you are in for the money. Second, there are actually quite a few ways to increase the chances of finding work. Most of them will involve some more knowledge gathering, so it is highly recommended to take a look at all of these opportunities if you already are a coach having a hard time with finding work of late.
By now, you should already have at least a master’s degree in coaching if you want to consistently find jobs for you to do. This is very important if you want to become a licensed counsellor, which is what you need to aim for if this is your full-time job. Some colleges do offer a specialised course in career counselling, while others will follow a more generalised degree program encompassing counselling in general. In addition to your degree, you should also consider getting a few more qualifications, such as a certificate iv small business management.
As a career coach, specialising in one particular area is also recommended if you have trouble finding jobs. Try to choose something which you are comfortable working with every day, and make sure to master the skills relevant to the specialisation you have chosen. In the same way, you should also stay up to date on the current events and market situations, more so if you have chosen a specialisation like job seeking or career planning. Of course, it is possible to specialise in more than one area but try to at least master one area before moving on to the next.
Another way to have an easier time finding jobs it to actually get some experience first. To do so, consider working as a volunteer in a non-profit organisation or similar. You will find out that there are more things to counselling that you initially thought, and if you lucky enough, you might even find a good mentor to teach you even more about your chosen profession. In any case, working as a volunteer will provide you with a lot of first-hand experience, which is something that any prospective clients of yours will take into consideration.
