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Career Coaching - the New Competitive Advantage

by Gordon Miller; Gary Resnikoff    

So how can working with an experienced and skilled career coach provide you with a competitive advantage in our change-a-minute, unpredictable job market? It might be best to start with a brief explanation of what career coaching is all about;

Career Coaching is a one-on-one individualized program designed to enhance your job performance and job satisfaction, and to provide you with the focus, tools, and techniques to more effectively manage your career challenges, transition, and change. A coach’s main job is to help their clients determine what is holding them back and to design an action-oriented, results-based path to quickly bridge the gap between where they are in their career and where they can be.

How do you know if you really need a coach? Following is a list of questions designed to help you decide.

Do you know what it is you don’t know?

Are you mid-career and feeling stuck?

Are you interested in developing yourself further?

Do you feel like you are on a career treadmill?

Are you burned out and thinking about doing something else?

Are you new at being an entrepreneur and feeling a little overwhelmed?

Are you overqualified and underutilized?

Do you have a written career plan to serve as your road map?

Are you waiting for a miracle?

Are you about to make a major career decision?

If you have decided to take the plunge and investigate whether coaching is right for you, maybe even go ahead and hire a coach, what do you do next? The best way to locate a coach is through word of mouth. That is, talk to people you know and respect to see if they have hired or if they know of someone who has worked with a coach. A personal experience reference is typically a great way to find someone. There are also professional organizations that can lead you to a good coach. The best is the International Coach Federation. Check them out at coachfederation.org.

Hiring a career coach is a significant investment. Not just a financial investment (the typical coaching engagement costs $350-1500 and lasts 4-10 weeks), but also an investment of time. The coaching client can expect a weekly, one-hour meeting, either in person or over the phone, plus 3-5 hours of "fieldwork" in preparation for the next meeting. What can you expect in return?

A comprehensive assessment to establish a basis to move forward

Direction on how to craft a written, career strategy plan

Assistance in adapting job-search tactics that clearly differentiate you from the intensive competition

A professional who will hold you accountable for your plan.

A non-stop series of questions designed to identify the obstacles you are facing and possible ways to over come them

A relentless focus on how to focus on what’s really important.

Finally, does career coaching really work? Is it worth the money and time commitment? Like most things, that’s up to you. But, consider this. Michael Jordan, Meryl Streep, Tiger Woods, and many others have enlisted the services of a coach to help take them to the next level. Will you?


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Gordon Miller is a nationally recognized workplace expert, speaker, and the best-selling author of THE CAREER COACH: WINNING STRATEGIES FOR GETTING AHEAD IN TODAY’S JOB MARKET (Doubleday 2001). Gordon can be reached at gordonmiller@group56.com or www.grou