During our busy lives, do we ever really take the time out that we should to re-evaluate where we are heading, to question whether our job still gives us career satisfaction that most of us seek or just take a moment to truly pause and reflect fully at a career crossroad?
Sadly, career coaching is often perceived as a ‘luxury’ or a benefit as part of an outplacement package when it should become more of the norm – the equivalent of a health check-up on our working lives to see if everything is still working well!
I’ve found that even at times when there’s a perfect moment to pause, such as redundancy, that most people fear the notion of not being employed so much that they will rush into a very similar post, without really questioning who and where they are now in their lives.
But we should, because we do change over time. Nothing ever stays the same. We may have a completely different outlook on our working life ten or twenty years into our career than when we first started out. And that’s all good, normal and ok. There’s nothing wrong with realising that your early career aspirations may not currently suit you if, for example, you’re a working mum or your responsibilities have changed looking after elderly parents and you want to take on a lesser role for a while. Maybe you’ll pick up your previous career later on, maybe you won’t. Trying to make our lives fit into a mould of what we think we should be doing now isn’t a helpful model to apply to ourselves. Instead, we do need to take stock every so often and re-evaluate our career and that may need to be considered alongside how it fits in to our personal lives too.
I’m a huge advocate of change, I think it’s necessary as a form of personal development and so our career should have enough flexibility in it to bend with us.
The joy of career coaching
Career coaching can feel like a breath of fresh air, like a weight has been lifted to talk through all the ruminations that may be going through your head when you’re not sure which is the next best direction for you to take. It gives you a chance to clarify your thoughts, make sense of them and formulate achievable action plans to move forward.
There are many reasons as to why it makes sense to invest in career coaching. It can include:
• Gaining a new perspective of yourself by helping to understand your strengths, values and goals
• Helping you to become focused and clear about what you would enjoy next in your career
• Having a sounding-board with a career expert to offer you a chance to self-reflect and make the right future decisions
• Establishing the type of environment/employer you would like to work with next
• Understanding and knowing your worth; increasing your potential earnings
• Identifying ways in which you could develop with your current employer
• Planning your career journey and mapping out actionable steps to take
• Identifying and pitching your transferable skills for a different role
• Implementing a successful job search strategy
• Establishing whether self-employment is a more suitable route to pursue
• Increasing your resilience for improved work/life balance
As most of us spend more time at work than we do with our families, we should not underestimate the importance of feeling happy in our roles and aspiring to achieve that. Career coaching isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
Get in touch with me here at Professional CV Writing and take up our offer of a FREE 30-minute no-obligation chat to find out how we can support you with the next stage of your career.
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