Why You Need A Career Coach In 2019

By Perminus Wainaina

When you hear the term “career coach”, what comes to your mind?

For me, a career coach is simply someone who helps you design a road map to attaining your career success.

He/she enables you to critically analyze the gaps in your career, analyses your strengths, shows you practical ways of overcoming your weaknesses and helps you position yourself as an expert in your field.

Having coached over 600 candidates from diverse careers and backgrounds, I can attest that most of these professionals struggle with issues that cut across the board.

Issues range from elements like: poor pay, toxic work environment, under utilization or simply stagnating in one’s career.

Quick Read >>> How to finally get out of career stagnation

With 2019 just around the corner, it is estimated that a lot more professionals like yourself will be looking for increased avenues to either make a career shift or get a new and well deserved job in a different industry.

Competition is bound to be even tougher especially considering disconnect in the job market where we have more graduates and experienced professionals than jobs.

This is why getting a career coach is so instrumental in helping you pan out your career in the right direction.

Here are 3 key reasons why you should get a career coach in 2019…

1. A personalized and practical strategy on how to resolve your career issues

If you have been struggling to finally get a road map towards career success, then a career coach is a good way to start.

Together with the coach you will get to determine where you are currently in your career and where you want to be and at the same time get a clear strategy to do that.

For instance, there was one lady who during one of my career coaching session disclosed to me that she had been stuck in an admin job whereas her real passion was in HR.

Having done admin duties for over 7 years, she felt as though there was no way out.

We were however able to design and come up with a strategy which would require commitment, sacrifice and resilience to achieve the desired results.

1 year later, this lady now works as a HR Officer in one of the manufacturing industries in Kenya.

2. Personal branding to leverage on new job opportunities and challenges

One of the emerging trends in 2019 is expected to be employer branding in which employers will focus more on attracting only the right candidates through their brand.

This is why you also need to brand yourself in a way that you can attract the right employers. Branding yourself should be inclusive of all professional elements that set you aside from the rest of the competition.

For example, one of the ways to brand yourself is to have a strong professional CV. Your skills and experience should match what you want potential employers to see.

A career coach helps you to do this while at the same time helping you to release and leverage on new opportunities for you to thrive as a professional.

3. Creating a road map to career satisfaction

At the end of the day, you want to work in a career that fulfills and satisfies you fully. Considering that you spend over 80% of your time working, you want to be content and happy doing so.

But what happens when you are in a career that does not maximize your full potential, skills or expertise?

What do you do when your salary does not complement your years of experience and you are on the verge of quitting?

By getting a career coach you will be able to make sure you don’t repeat the same career mistakes. You will get a clear-cut road map of how you can finally achieve career success in 2019.

This is will be a series of practical sessions designed to help you finally get to a place of optimum satisfaction in your career.

To walk far, walk with others…

To attain the vision you have for your career, walk with someone who will always keep you accountable; someone who will let you know what you are doing right, wrong and show you the direction to take.

To learn more about career coaching and get yourself a career coach, click here.