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Job Profile Of A Career Coach

The duties of a career coach include assisting people in their selection of the right job opportunities and managing their careers. You could either be a career management coach or a career marketing coach. The latter is responsible for building influential contacts, posting resumes and suggesting ways to secure high placement. The main aim as a coach is to market the client effectively in the career market.

Investment

Before you establish your business, you need to take into account the costs that you'll have to incur as a career coach. Initially, you'll be required to make major investments such as website hosting to gain publicity, a Computer for processing relevant information and storing your client's data and other promotional and advertising material.

Equipment Required

In addition to a Computer with the necessary programming software, you also need to have complete access to the Internet, so that you can research conveniently. Besides this, a telephone, printer and fax machine is also helpful.

Financial Resources

If you don’t have the required capital for the initial investment, you can easily get financing from numerous sources. Business loans from banks and governments should be given highest priority. There are other business organizations as well that could help you financially and aid you in setting up your own business as a career coach by providing you with begin up loans.

Getting loans from self-employment programs sponsored by the government is also a good idea. Applying for loans from business capitalists and angel investors is another option available, if you fall short of the necessary finances. However, keep in mind that they both charge a high rate of interest.

Offering Your Services For A Fee

In today's fast paced and competitive world, you have to be careful about how you price your services. You need to effectively price your competent services or else the business might not perform as anticipated.

Scope Of Income

Irrespective of whether you are a career management coach or a career marketing coach, established career coaches charge on an hourly basis. The average billing rate prevailing in the industry currently is $100 per hour.

Marketing Strategies

You can choose from a variety of methods to effectively promote your business, depending on your budget and need. Advertising in the newspapers is the most effective marketing strategy. You could even post ads or distribute pamphlets in colleges and other educational organizations. Circulate your business cards at social gatherings and events. Promoting career coaching by writing relevant articles in newspapers and on the World wide web, featuring ideas and suggestions for people who encounter problems in their careers are other great options.

Large Market

The main targets for career coaching are youngsters and people who are unable to identify the right job opportunities. Many new graduates and other people find themselves confused or at crossroads in their careers due to several reasons. People tend to make wrong career decisions when they're influenced negatively by their peers or sometimes out of dire financial need. As a career coach, you'll be serving this growing market.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal.

8 Signs It's Time to Look for a New Job

Short of being handed your walking papers, there are often telltale signs that it's time to look for a new job. You haven't been promoted since the Clinton administration. The most exciting assignments are routinely handed to your peers or underlings. Your desk keeps moving farther and farther from where the action is.

But some indicators are less obvious, such as subtle shifts in an IT organization's structure that can result in career stagnation. A variety of career experts, headhunters, recruiters, CIOs and IT staffers shared their takes on when it's time to move on.

1.Your role has become marginalized.

If you're being bypassed for promotions or interesting assignments or they're consistently being offered instead to IT workers in subordinate positions, “that would be an obvious sign,” says Robert Rosen, CIO at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Md., and a past president of Share, an IBM user group in Chicago.

Often the handwriting is on the wall. You just need to cease, step back and read it. “If you feel like you're no longer contributing, there's a good chance you might not be,” says Frank Hood, CIO at Quiznos in Denver, Colo.

2. You've stopped growing.

“If you're not learning each day, if you're not doing new things, and if you're not improving” it's time to move on states Sara Garrison, senior vice president of product and solutions development at Sabre Holdings Corp. in Southlake, Texas.

Red lights should be flashing if you've effectively been in the same role for two or three years and haven't taken on any significant new challenges during that time, says Umesh Ramakrishnan, vice chairman of CTPartners, an executive recruiting firm in New York.

3. You're missing from the massive picture.

Most CIOs assemble a road map of where they intend to take their organizations over the next 12 to 60 months, including the top IT/business projects they plan to work on, notes Joe Trentacosta, CIO at the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative in Hughesville, Md. So, if there are a lot of upcoming projects that don't include your area of expertise or in which you figure to play a minor role at best, “that's a warning sign,” he says.

Further, if you've been relegated to a commodity-type IT function that offers tiny value to the organization or can easily be outsourced, “it's time to move on to a new opportunity,” says Hans Keller, chief technology officer at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

4. You're being excluded.

If you're a CIO or other senior IT manager, the warning signs can include not being asked to participate in new business decisions or being excluded from formal or informal executive committee meetings, says Craig Urrizola, CIO at Saladino's Inc., a Fresno, Calif.-based food distributor.

The view is equally bleak if you're an IT staffer whose input on new projects is no longer requested or is sought out on just a limited basis.

5. Your level of influence is waning.

A CIO certainly has more clout within an organization than a network engineer. But all IT professionals possess some level of influence within their work teams or at least among their own peer group. If you see your powers of persuasion shrinking, it's time to move on, Keller suggests.

6. You no longer enjoy the work.

“Someone once told me that we're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time,” states Michael Nieset, managing partner for the technology practice in the Cleveland office of Heidrick & Struggles, a Chicago-based executive search and leadership consulting firm. “Sometimes people stay in suboptimal situations because it's comfortable for them. You've to take control.

“If you're not excited about the projects you're working on, fix it,” he states. “If you're wholly engaged, passionate about what you're doing and doing what you're good at, you'll be fulfilled and rewarded accordingly. “

7. Continuous improvement isn't part of the mantra.

Sometimes there are organizational changes — or lack thereof — that you should regard as career alerts. These include stagnation within a corporation or an IT department. If your IT organization has been using the same application development techniques for 15 years and has made no effort to update its approach, “then something's wrong,” states David Van De Voort, principal consultant at Mercer LLC in Chicago. If your company is unwilling to invest in continuous improvement processes such as CMMI, ITIL or Six Sigma, it might be time to seek a company that's, he adds.

8. Greener pastures truly are greener.

If you've reached a crossroads where you've become disenchanted with your employer for one reason or another (long hours, infrequent promotions, career malaise, etc.) and you've received a job offer from another company, it might be the right time to jump ship. “In situations where things don't fix themselves — if you hate what you're doing or you're not proud of what you're doing or there's an issue you need to talk to your boss about but you don't because you know it won't do any good — that's when it's time to look for a new job,” says Joel Reiter, an application analyst at U.S. Bancorp in St. Paul, Minn.

In this situation, however, be certain that you're not jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Make sure you're moving toward a good opportunity and not just moving away from one that's gone bad.

Coaching can aid in changing jobs, growing business

For many middle-aged workers, the desire or the need to change jobs is commonplace. Whether brought about by downsizing or a growing dissatisfaction with the trajectory of their careers or industries, many baby boomers have made a job switch or want to.

That has led to a boom in the number of career and life coaches, whose mission is to help those unsure of their next career step analyze their aptitudes and get back on a career track.

But not all of them possess all the skills to be effective.

Intimate-apparel executive Nancy Fox hired a career coach after she left the bra business almost 10 years ago. After meeting with her coach and taking some training courses herself, Fox decided to start her own home-based coaching business, Fox Coaching Associates in Mamaroneck.

After some early struggles, Fox learned she had a talent for bringing people together, introducing her clients and colleagues to one another.

“I found a way that makes it enjoyable and painless,” says Fox, who works with attorneys, accountants and other professional-service providers who, she states, don't like to sell. “They hate it, and so do I,” Fox states.

Accountant Barbara Lane, a partner at the White Plains office of Citrin Cooperman & Co., states one way Fox has helped her is in presenting herself to potential clients.

Rather than simply telling them that she's a tax accountant, Lane may, for example, explain how she recently helped a client.

That can help spur a deeper and more robust conversation, whereas simply telling someone that you're a tax accountant can be a conversation killer, she states.

“It kind of turns them off,” Lane says. “It's like telling somebody you work for the IRS.”

As a Citrin Cooperman partner, Lane pays Fox about $500 a month for her coaching services.

“But it was very useful,” Lane states.

Coaches in the United Says earn an average of $52,478 a year and account for slightly more than half the $1.5 billion in revenue generated worldwide by coaching, according to the International Coach Federation, a trade organization.

The ICF has about 7,000 members in the United Says and more than 13,000 worldwide. Record-keeping firm PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates there are 30,000 coaches worldwide.

Typically, coaching is a second or third career for many people, ICF states. Workers might have been an executive, consultant, trainer or teacher, or in counseling or a health-related field, with the majority, 53 percent, holding a master's degree.

One critic of career coaches states they often miss the mark when it comes to providing realistic career-transition services.

“In other words, they're very pie in the sky,” states Barry Miller, manager of alumni career programs and services at Pace University, which has campuses in Manhattan, Pleasantville and White Plains.

“You have to translate it into people's financial needs; what is available in the marketplace; and how accessible that marketplace is to that transition,” says Miller, who is also a private career consultant.

He states many coaches go into coaching because they've expertise in a given field.

But that doesn't always mean that they are aware of all the resources available to jobseekers or those professionals looking to build their business or careers.

One example, Miller notes, was one female information-technology professional who began coaching IT clients but wasn't aware that there was an organization known as Women in Technology International.

A good coach needs more than empathy, Miller states.

Though not as critical as Miller, Fox knows that some coaches don't have all the requisite skills necessary to be effective.

That's one reason, she says, there's been a “huge shakeout” within the industry.

“A good coach knows not only what's going to aid a client in terms of what they're looking for,” Fox says, “but also put them on the right path to find structures to help them fulfill their goals.”

You are looking for a career that is fulfilling and exciting. One that will get you out of bed in the morning with a smile on your face. So you begin looking for that career. Weeks go by. You are still stuck in that life-sucking job. How do you keep motivated enough to do the work it will take to find your next career?

The key to success that is most often ignored or forgotten is this… Take time to celebrate! I can hear you saying, "I have nothing to celebrate. I am stuck in this job and I haven't made the career change I want." My answer is find something to celebrate. Researchers show that people we consider successful tend to focus on their past successes . People who we would consider failures tend to focus on their past failures. We get more of what we focus on. Plus how motivating is it to focus on past and current failures? It doesn't get you out of bed filled with energy to work on moving towards a new career!

I will share with you two simple activities to help you focus and celebrate your daily successes. (Yes, you have them!) The first activity is a "Success Log." Peter Thigpen, a former vice-president at Levi Strauss & Co. kept a "Success Log" on his desk. Anytime he had a success whether it was big or small he wrote it down. Everyday he wrote at least a couple of entries. Sometimes the entries were about work, sometimes they referred to success in his personal life. When he had a bad day or when he was about to do something uncomfortable like make a speech to the board of directors or negotiate a big deal Peter pulled out his Success Log and read his previous entries. Doing this kept him focused on success and prepared him for a confident speech or negotiation.

Start a Success Log today! I don't want to hear that you have nothing to write down! Are you out of bed? Did you get the kids off to school? Did you drive safely to work? All of us have many successes everyday so write some down! Give yourself credit. Most of us have a double standard in regards to taking credit. When we complete something successfully we tend to downplay it. In contrast when we make a mistake we tend to blow it up and take full credit. Not fair! It is time to take full credit for our successes instead. Focus on success.

The second activity to help you focus on success is the "Mirror Exercise". Every night before bed simply look in the mirror, right into your eyes and say your name… I appreciate you for _______ today. For example I might say, "Leanna, I appreciate you for going on a run today." or "I appreciate you for making that hard phone call." List five successes you have had today. When you are done look yourself in the eyes and say, "I love you." Many people have trouble with this last part because they truly have a hard time loving themselves. Do it anyway because as you change careers you need the confidence that will come from loving yourself. If you can't look into your eyes at first then look away and say it. It will get easier.

In order to have courage and motivation to take the risks necessary to have a career you love you need to gather strength from your past successes. You need to celebrate each step of the way. Doing this will not only give you confidence but it will help make this career change journey exciting and fun.

Leanna Fredrich works with professional and executive women in the 2nd half of their careers who are burned out and don't know what to do next. She helps them go from burned out to fired up by finding meaningful and passion-filled work. Are you serious about creating an amazing life? Get the FREE report, "The Top 10 Secrets to Finding Your Passion-Filled Career." To get your report go to http://www.LeannaFredrich.com