Like many here I've just been made redundant, from a job I probably never wanted! I started in March - I'd considered it a last throw of the dice in my industry when I took the job as the company wanted to do things a little differently. Sadly the project never really got going and i think I'm probably done with TV!
I am now 31, and am utterly clueless about what to do with my life. I have little interest in doing what I was doing again. To cap matters, i recently fairly catastrophically fractured my ankle and probably am going to be unable to do my old job for the foreseeable anyway.
Has anyone here ever had paid, professional "career coaching"? My partner has suggested it (...i think as a way to stop me heading back to the Middle East to contract!), but i wonder if its a load of smoke and mirrors BS. Seems very in vogue with millennial types, but then so is therapy and I'm suspicious of that!
I've had it, it was pretty useful actually. I can basically sum it up though as that virtually everyone undersells their skills. What you may think is fairly routine and simple might actually be fairly complex, and more importantly, that undersold skillset is transferable to any other kind of work. That sort of thing
But did you come to any kind of collective conclusion of what your next step should be?
I had it, but paid for by my employer at the time. We came to the conclusion the role was wrong for me and I left.
I’ve had it, and found it useful for marshalling my thoughts BUT it won’t give you a simple answer if you don’t really have a clue yourself. I would say you don’t have much to lose though, and there’s a lot of these people about so it’s a very competitive market. It shouldn’t be anything at all like therapy - if it is I’d suggest you’ve got the wrong person!
Assuming you don’t have immediate money worries why don’t you take the time to get your ankle right, have a think about what you want to do, and then get a bit of advice. If you’re going to make a career change I’d say you’re at a great age to do it so take a bit of time.
@Joe no , but I seem to remember it gave me quite alot of confidence . Applying for other jobs and going to interviews being like, "you want me" rather than " I hope they want me". It was 12 years ago and paid for by my then employee.
I had it, but paid for by my employer at the time. We came to the conclusion the role was wrong for me and I left.
What prompted the career coaching, was it a standard perk or offered as part of career management?
My first employer had an in house occupational psychologist who oversaw training and staff development. He was great, feedback from promotions I didn't get was great and he gave the belief in myself to take the plunge on an external job that was the best career move I ever made.
Had a scaled back version after being made redundant by another employer. Convinced me to take my management skills from that industry and go for a role in the industry I wanted to try. Turns out they didn't want to listen to what I said and the fourth biggest player in the country went bust.
*employer sorry. Grammar was not one of my skills sets (I actually blame my swedish language keyboard and subsequent spellcheck)
GF had it last year.
Complete waste of time, imo. Didn't answer any of her questions and left her more confused than she was beforehand.
Might be the course she was on. Might be her to blame. Might be me reading too much into it.
I’ve done it and recommended the guy I used to someone on here (DM me if you want his name).
How good they are depends on what you want from it as it’s not a career guide, it’s a coach. Don’t expect one to say “your skills and X and Y, you can get a job like this or this and this is how to do it”, it’s more around identifying your skills and coaching how to use them.
I also found it useful to talk to someone independent, I found I could be more honest and so get clearer answers.
As I understand it, a coach doesn’t answer questions. A coach asks questions that tease out your feelings and help you to identify your own questions and answers. No one can tell you what to do, but they might help you figure it out for yourself. I have no experience with career coaches but I do know management coaching. Maybe give it a try.
As I understand it, a coach doesn’t answer questions. A coach asks questions that tease out your feelings and help you to identify your own questions and answers. No one can tell you what to do, but they might help you figure it out for yourself.
This is the right answer - an effective coach should be helping you establish your own answers rather than answering your questions for you.
I had some coaching during lockdown as interview prep to help me get the mindset right around "they want me and need my skills" rather than vice versa. I found it really useful - if challenging at times to break through mental blocks and ingrained limiting beliefs. Got the job though so it clearly worked for me.
If you don't mind me saying, the career thing sounds very important to you - your question is rather job-related but also very life-related. I think that's especially understandable after a redundancy. If you can (financially), try to give yourself a break to think through your options. If you have a shortlist of things you might like to try, people on here are pretty good at bringing in some crushing reality dammit no I mean offering practical experience of said work area. If you get a few ideas having had some breathing room, perhaps coaching could help make that happen?
your question is rather job-related but also very life-related
This is a bit I’m learning. Repeating the above, as a general guide that you can choose the job, company and people you want to work with then re-orient your job search in a way that convinces them they need you, rather than what many of us currently do which is accepted the status quo and try to find something that fits it in a generic job search - or assume there’s nothing better. One outcome is you can choose where you’d be happy to work, which will impact on your outside work life - remember how large a proportion of our time a job/ career takes.
It’s often the case a company defaults - even accidentally - to a sociopathic view of you; you’ve become a number, an output, a reliable statistic that churns the relevant data point for them - this is not a relationship which is oriented to your happiness or well being - nor is it the case in all organisations.
It's interesting as during my early 20's my job was a way life. I lived in the Middle East/Central Asia as a photo-journalist, and it was a way of life. I then came home, and over the last few years have done more and more of a 'job' and i miss the adventure, camaraderie and discovery. I've also become deeply deeply cynical about the news/programming cycle.
Find it very hard to just "have a job".
Hmmm...
A long time ago my company paid for us all to have "career coaching" due to a takeover/redundancies.
They paid for Coutts and to sum it all up "you all have transferable skills".
Although that was probably very true it wasn't very helpful.
Most of us (scientists and engineers) looked at "wiggly lines" and "graphs" and things in oil and gas and the career coach suggested we could look at other jobs that look at wiggly lines "like hospitals".
After some "coaching" most of us were no closer and when she went round the room asking "so what do you think you can do" I was still at a loss and somewhat facetiously said "oh I'd like to become a career coach" .. THIS however apparently takes years and years of "special training"
As a bit of a follow-up... very few of us if any managed a career doping something else.
On the flip side I know a few ex colleagues (not in that coaching) who broke free just because there was something they really wanted to do...
As I understand it, a coach doesn’t answer questions. A coach asks questions that tease out your feelings and help you to identify your own questions and answers. No one can tell you what to do, but they might help you figure it out for yourself
This is bang on, and it took me a while to get my head round it.
Most of us (scientists and engineers) looked at “wiggly lines” and “graphs” and things in oil and gas and the career coach suggested we could look at other jobs that look at wiggly lines “like hospitals”.
Well Mrs P, I've just examined your ECG and we think there is a sizable oil deposit which we'd like to mine....
I've had it twice - both times, very useful. First time, it was transformational and put me on a path that's served me well for nearly 30 years.
Second time was more recent, less formal, but still very useful. Happy to make recommendation if you PM me.
Although if you go into it thinking it's all BS, perhaps that's what you'll find.
she went round the room asking
To me any coaching of value will be 1 to 1, so a session answering some stock questions as part of a room is not great coaching. Maybe a coach taking the cash available from the company rather than what's best for the coachee.
I'm not qualified or accredited in any way, but I do a lot of coaching as part of my work.
If you can find a recommended coach I'd say it's worth a look, as for being cynical about the news cycle, join the club!
It’s interesting as during my early 20’s my job was a way life. I lived in the Middle East/Central Asia as a photo-journalist, and it was a way of life. I then came home, and over the last few years have done more and more of a ‘job’ and i miss the adventure, camaraderie and discovery. I’ve also become deeply deeply cynical about the news/programming cycle.
Let me send you good news from the other side.
I spent many years in the newsroom doing hard news, world news and being very senior. I loved it and hated it. I defined myself by it, and wanted to do anything but. The obvious path out that many colleagues took was PR - I'd rather eat rancid dog sh*t. I knew that wasn't for me, but that was about my only firm line.
It took some years and studying, but I now use my core transferable skills daily - I work in the wider creative industries/agency land. So the people are the same, but less cynical than media folks. The camaraderie is there. The intellectual challenge is there. And the money is a LOT better. Is it vacuous marketing? At times, yeah. But whose job doesn't have elements of bullsh*t?
Do I miss news? Not any more. Do I regret having been that hard news guy? Not one bit. Would I recommend it as a career to anyone? Depends... Would I recommend the wider creative industries/agency land? Yeah, pretty much. Was it easy to make the switch? Hell no. Was it worth it? Hell yeah!
I had it paid for by work after/during a redundancy. It was useful for me, but as with all coaching you get out of it what you are prepared to put in. Coaching as others have said isn't about someone else giving you the answers, it is about them asking questions to help you find answers (or often more questions).They also offered CV services and a series of skills questionanaires which were less useful tbh, but still welcome at that time.
I have also coached people in work situations in the past and it is amazing what a well placed question can open up - most people are locked into a way of thinking (about themselves, their careers etc) so a couple of hours with someone who says 'what if' and 'why that' is useful.
@webwonkmtber great to hear indeed! I think my real problem is that I want nothing to do with anything to do with moving images every again! I just feel like there is such an over abundance of "content", images, pictures and so much noise in the world - i don't want to add to it, i don't have anything much to say!
