It is estimated that the average person will change careers five to seven times in their working life and that approximately 30 percent of the workforce will change jobs every 12 months. But how do people manage to do this? In some cases, they seek the help of a Transitional Career Coach.
What is a transitional career coach?
A "Transition Career Coach" is a professional whose job it is to help you transition from one job to another, or from one career to another. They help people to rethink and re-imagine their options, just like you would seek the services a lawyer to understand the specifics of a legal case.
Many people do it themselves with their careers and talk to friends or family before making a decision. A transitional career coach is a competent and trustworthy professional who has a lot of experience helping people make significant and strategic career transitions.
The client must come prepared to do the work and be motivated to commit and engage with the coaching process. You may not have all the answers, but you need to come prepared with questions and be committed to the process and exploring the solutions.
How do Transition Career Coaches Work?
They won’t have you perform an online assessment, and a career suggestion pops out the other side. Instead, you’ll be engaged in the process of zeroing in on your skills, abilities, and educational training. Also, your coach will take into consideration your passions, lifestyle, personality, values, and areas of interest.
Step 1
The first step in the coaching process is to help a client develop their value proposition by capturing what they’re good at, their transferable skills.
Ultimately the individual being coached must keep their target audience in mind so they can speak their language, pique their interest, and ultimately get an interview and be hired. This process serves as the foundation for their outreach to the marketplace.
Step 2
Next, you’ll work on tweaking your resume and marketing materials. Most people view their resume as a historical document that enumerates their jobs since the beginning of their working career, but that’s not the right way to look at it.
Your resume and marketing materials are selling tools that enable a prospective employer to immediately understand what you’re able to do for them and why they should be interested in you.
Step 3
The Transitional Career Coach works with their client to identify their transferable skills — and in many cases, telling you what they are.
For example, a software engineer will know they have the required skills for their job (coding and building software applications), they may not realize they also have the skills to project manage and problem solve that are transferrable to a number of other careers.
Many individuals looking for a career change don’t realize there are three processes of skills: hard skills, educational skills, and soft skills. The coach helps you determine transferrable hard and educational qualifications, your inherent soft skills — which are more in demand than ever before.
Step 4
Transitional Career Coaches can help you find — and in many cases, infiltrate — the job market. Cracking into the hidden job market that most people don’t know about is a valuable service they deliver to their clients.
The visible job market, like the postings on job boards or company websites — applicants for these need to learn how to get the attention of the first-level screener to be considered.
There’s a hidden market that’s larger, more interesting, and more lucrative. It’s also a lot harder to play, and people must engage in focused networking to become noticed. The hidden job market is space where employers and entrepreneurs are open to new ideas or to being inspired by alternative skill sets that they believe can bolster their business.
Step 5
Transitional Career Coaches can help you connect with people and tune your networking skills. Whether you’re looking at the visible or the hidden job market, your coach will work with you on developing interview skills and how to negotiate contracts and salaries.
Time and Costs
It can take from two to four months before finding a new job, and the rates can range from $1,000 up to $10,000 for senior and director-level positions — although the average is between $2,000 to $4,000.
This may sound like a lot of money; however, it’s an investment in your future, just like an education.
