Be Your Own Career Coach and Find Fulfilment

When I think of career coaching, the rigour and discipline of professional sport comes to mind. Should we train to prepare for peak performance just as much as athletes? 

What are we doing to recover from strenuous work days? How do we cope with injuries and losses? 

Both sports and career coaches can help communicate your vision and create a strategy to achieve SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Timely) goals. The traditional career coach helps break down goals and ambitions into actionable steps and achievable long term plans. 

The rise of the career coach alongside the self-help and self-improvement movements has popularised the need to find your purpose and a career that aligns with it. The US coaching industry alone is worth USD $2.85billion, according to the New York Times, so it's no wonder there is increasing interest in Australia. 

Can Coaching Help You Secure a Job?

The Career Development Association Australia shows that job search interventions make candidates 2.67 times more likely to secure a job, as well as boost skills, self-efficacy and promote goal setting.

The pandemic has created greater demand for such interventions to help candidates navigate what's important to them, find more balance and deal with burnout and zoom fatigue.

How to be your own career coach

Not everyone has access to evidence based resources to support their professional goals but there are ways to practice self-coaching. It's all about asking questions, fostering self-awareness and personal growth says Harvard Business Review.

Here are some prompts to get you started:

• Open ended questions e.g. What are my strengths? How can I use them to achieve my vision?

• Use "I" to take ownership of behvaiours and decisions

• Patiently ask yourself one questions at a time and reflect on your answers

• Listen to inner dialogue, actions and notice patterns

• Talk to yourself like your friend would

Changing the way you think and view your career and development can provide control and autonomy over your journey. Whilst career coaches can help you navigate changes and give you tools to succeed, it's important to remember human connection is always at the heart of the interview process and our sense of career fulfilment.

There are many more steps to develop self-awareness and a clear vision for what success looks like for you. You can find more resources below.

This blog post is inspired by Harvard Business Review and the Careeer Contessa.