How to Choose a Career Coach

Working with a career coach can supercharge your career results like crazy! Because let’s face it: some things shouldn’t be DIY’d, and your career is one of those. But how exactly do you select a career coach to work with? In an age of competing information and a multitude of options, how do you determine if you and a coach will be a good fit?⁠ In this blog post, I share how to choose the career coach using the 3 Ts.

How to Choose a Career Coach

Before I jump into these tips, it’s important to note that when I use the term “career coach,” I’m referring to any career development expert.

So, whether that be a career coach, career counselor, career expert, or maybe even a career strategist, I’m referring to a professional that can help your career thrive.

Often, career development experts go by different names. And the main difference between one and the other would be their training, experience, and expertise.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the 3 Ts to help you choose a career coach to work with.

Training

The first T on how to choose a career coach is training. What is or has been the training of the coach you’re considering? Some questions to ask yourself:

• Do you know this person’s credentials or their expertise?
• Are you aware of their career story and career journey?
• What have they achieved in their career?
• In terms of education, certifications, licensure, continuing education, what kind of training do they have?
• What do you know about their qualifications?

The answers can help you figure out if you want to work with someone or if they’re a right fit based on the goals that you’re looking to reach.

Notice the different options I shared around training – there’s more formal training, but there’s also informal training that experts develop on their own journey. Both formal and informal training can be used the support your career development.

It’s important to note that the career coaching industry (for the most part) isn’t very regulated. Why? Because almost anyone can put up a website and call themselves a coach. So before you hire a career coach, you have to do your research and make sure they’re actually an expert.

The good news is, one way to figure out if they’re an expert is by getting familiar with their training, qualifications, and credentials.

The Training Caveat

However, remember that even if a career coach appears to be credentialed or qualified in general, their qualifications might not be enough or aligned for you based on the goals that you’re trying to achieve. Everybody has different goals and paths to take.

The point is, before you even try to find a career coach, you must be clear about what you want to achieve. And if you’ve found a career coach, research their credentials and training to figure out if they will be able to help you get results.

And that brings us right to the second T!

Testimonials

The second T you can utilize when trying to choose a career coach is their track record or testimonials.

What kind of results have they been able to get for other people? Specifically, have they been able to get other people the kind of results that you are looking to achieve in your career?

For example, if you’re someone who needs help job searching, you’re going to want to find a career coach with testimonials that say they have helped other people search for a job.

If you’re looking to achieve a promotion, you’ll want to work with the career coach who has testimonials saying that they’ve helped other people achieve promotions.

Generally, most coaches will have this information readily available on their website or if you ask for it. Looking at testimonials, track records, and receipts is an excellent way to determine if a career coach is a fit. It can help you achieve the results you want to accomplish in your career.

Temperament

The third and final T you can use to choose a career coach is their temperament or personality. Is this someone that you would want to sit and chat with for an hour? Because that’s really what you’re going to be doing with them during your coaching sessions.

Obviously, it’s not going to be a casual chat, but having a conversation with someone for any length of time is usually easier if you like or enjoy their personality.

So, thinking about their personality and style is another good way to figure out if a career coach is a fit for you.

In addition, if you want to know more about who they are, check out their social media. With most career development experts, their social profiles show a bit of their personality and branding.

You can also check out the free resources that they have available and see if those resources get you results. Imagine if you get results in your career with something free that they’ve shared, what more can you get if you actually invest in working with them?

I can’t emphasize enough how important fit is.

Consequently, if you don’t check for fit before investing in a career coach, you’re almost guaranteed to have a negative experience. What’s likely to happen is that you might start to regret your decision or feel like you wasted money.

That’s why talking with a prospective coach, watching their videos, reading their articles is an important step. It can determine if you think their temperament or personality is one you can gel with.

If it’s someone that you’d be happy to sit and talk with for any length of time to help you make career choices, then maybe you’ve found the right career coach!

The Importance of Personality Fit

It might seem like something small, but a personality fit is seriously important.

I can’t tell you how many of my clients have said that one of the reasons they’ve chosen to work with me is specifically because I’m a Black woman. I recently was on a call with a woman who became a client, and she was asking about my results for other clients. And I said, “Oh, you want my receipts?”

And she said even the fact that I could say the word “receipts” was such a relief for her.

Working on your career can be a vulnerable process. You’re likely to get better results when you work closely with someone you can trust, respect, and get along with to achieve your career goals.

So, when you’re looking for a career coach, pause and check for their temperament. Try to have a sense of their personality to see if you think it will be a good fit with your work and style.

There you have it, the three Ts on how to choose a career coach!