If you are thinking of working with a careers coach you will obviously want to make sure that you have made the right choice.
My approach is to ask people to send me some details about their situation by email. This means that I can reflect on what you have to say and make some comments on how I see the persons situation. I like this, it means that a person can take time to tell their story and the purpose of reflection can help them to gain clarification, and I can also reflect on what I think will be the best sort of help.
I’ll sometimes exchange a few emails before we talk – that means that our conversation is much more focused and is much more on the specifics of how we can work and me being able to answer any outstanding questions.
Other coaches take different approaches and many offer a complimentary one hour session. This is generally undertaken by coaches who want to sign people up for the 3 sessions a month means of working with a client.
I don’t take that approach, as many of my clients only take one or two sessions. The last thing I want to do is to seek dependency with my clients.
I’m also busy – I’m booked up at least a week and it can be almost a couple of weeks in advance and so an enquirer would need to wait for an introductory chat. The approach I take means that I can reply in short breaks between appointments or outside of normal working hours and it is much easier to fit in a 15-20 minute appointment.
I’ve been prompted to write this as I’ve exchanged a few emails with a potential client and she has told me that I’ve demonstrated more empathy with her situation and already come up with some suggested ways of working that demonstrates I know what will work for her, whereas by the end of a free hour with another coach she still felt that he hadn’t got it.
Interested in working with me – tell me your story and let’s see how we could work together.
