If you are feeling like your career has hit a wall or are struggling with finding a new direction professionally, you might benefit from meeting with a professional career coach. I’ve had the opportunity recently to consider a new direction with my work and found a coach’s advice and support beneficial.

A little back story

Recent years have brought a series of transitions to our lives – transitions both personal and professional. The two are so intertwined in life, but I’ll stick with the professional side in this entry.

In the challenging climate created by the recession, my husband made the decision to put his own consulting business based in Vermont on hold and to seek employment as an employee with another consulting firm. His new job brought him to Washington D.C.  For three years he commuted back and forth to our home in Vermont – not a recipe for long-term happiness, shall we say, especially for someone who was used to being independent and also accustomed to working out of a home office surrounded by 10 acres of beautiful northern forest. Of our two careers, his provided primary financial support to our family. Therefore, we began talking about a move to Virginia so that he’d be close to his job and put an end to the Commute From Hell. Once our kids left home it was time to put a plan in place.

Finding and working with a coach

As this was unfolding, I had been thinking about my job in public relations and wondering about other opportunities that might be available. Even if we didn’t move, I felt it was time for something different. As a move was beginning to look likely – I’d say we had the barest glimmer of a plan – I remembered a colleague’s mention of a career coach she had worked with whom she had found to be exceptional.

Having a personal recommendation meant I began the process with confidence, which was confirmed when I met my colleague’s referral, Professional Certified Coach Amy Magyar of From Within Coaching in Burlington, Vermont. Amy and I got together a handful of times over a six month period. Meeting in person was my preference; you’ll likely find that coaches also offer phone consults and virtual meetings as options for their clients’ convenience.

Amy offered clarity coaching (identifying what’s next personally and professionally); career development coaching; resume review and adjustment; cover letter development; reference sheet creation; LinkedIn profile development or adjustment; and more. As you start to research coaches, you’ll see that they offer a variety of services, from “finding your path” guidance to personal and professional tool kit enhancement.

In my sessions with Amy, our discussion focused on identifying a direction for me to pursue professionally by closing the gap between “where you are right now and where you want to be in the future,” as Amy highlighted in the initial proposal for our work together. After the first meeting, our sessions focused on reviewing my completed assigned homework, which provided a framework for step by step progression. I took the Gallup StrengthsFinder survey (now the CliftonStrengths assessment) to identify signature themes that direct my style and interaction with others, then used the results to clarify professional fields that would be a good match. I then spent hours on web research identifying businesses of potential interest. The combination of the homework and our review sessions yielded many “light bulb” moments that helped me pick a path forward.

Three ways coaching benefited me

Reflecting on the experience, I particularly value these three benefits of working with a coach:

A coach has tools that will offer you a clearer picture of yourself. Because I was looking at making a turn from my public relations track, I had spent time thinking about what new opportunities might match up well with my skills, hard and soft. I had a general sense of my career likes and dislikes, as well as goals and aspirations However, chatting with Amy and taking the Gallup StrengthsFinder Survey provided clarity that I couldn’t develop on my own. Before taking the survey, I reviewed the list of survey themes and chose discipline, learner and responsibility as characteristically “me.” But my answers to the survey also identified softer themes like harmony and empathy to round out my top five signature themes. The StrengthsFinder fully develops each theme with descriptions and even identifies complementary jobs. This allows the themes to be easily applied to guide your job search to a fulfilling position.

A coach brings clarity to a potentially very murky and changeable situation. I found Amy’s perspective as a thoughtful bystander to be invaluable. From the beginning, one of her goals was to provide me with a road map. She stayed calm and collected while my own thoughts spun faster and faster as our plan to move fell into place. Our meetings provided me with time to talk through my situation, and she would keep me on task – no veering toward complaints about my job or sweating through potential situations that hadn’t even happened (I’m the queen of “what if”). In retrospect, as much as I felt like a good whine might be gratifying at times, her gentle guidance to stay focused on moving forward was much more productive.

A coach can do some of the dirty work. An example – editing your LinkedIn profile. Sure, I could’ve upgraded my profile after our session in which we reviewed my experience and skills. But my time was also occupied by a full time job and demands related to putting a house on the market for sale. If your coach offers the service of profile editing, and you’re comfortable with it, collaborate with them to produce a draft and then let them make the online changes. They’ll likely be abreast of the latest LinkedIn bells and whistles that you might have to spend additional time reading up on before taking on the revisions yourself. Ditto for tapping a coach to do a review and adjustment of your resume.

Thumbs up for my experience with a coach

I found my first coaching experience to be very rewarding for the clarity it provided about what makes me tick – in fact, I wish I had thought to work with a coach years ago during times of transition or periods in my work life when I could have benefited from a jump start. The experience has proven to be an investment that continues to guide my professional and personal goals and interests. When referring back to coaching resources like the StrengthsFinder results, I realized the benefits of periodically revisiting and rereading resources on life guidance or personal interests that I’ve saved over the years. To take full advantage of the benefits, never consider those saved nuggets as “one and done” reads. And perhaps that’s a topic for another post…

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