I Was Skeptical About Career Coaches. It's because I needed a strategist

I had been reluctant to engage the services of a career coach. The truth was, that I was skeptical. I wasn't sure that it's what I actually needed. I wanted someone that worked with me the same way I worked with massive companies: help define the problem into workable chunks, do the work, and use the data generated by that to plot a path forward.

I am so grateful, I found one, he literally referred to himself as a career consultant. His work was so structured and he was so insightful that he helped me realize that I needed to tackle three fantasies in order to find meaningful, satisfying work. These three fantasies were: 1) fantasies about myself, 2) fantasies about what work was out there, and 3) fantasies about the specific roles I applied to. 

Fantasies about myself

I refer to this as a fantasy of the self problem, because a lot of people, when asked to produce a list of criteria for satisfying work, list out qualities they think “should” be on the list rather than reflecting on what they actually desire from satisfying work. In many cases, they don’t know how to describe satisfaction in a way that is unique to them. The biggest problem I help my clients solve: ensuring that they have specific enough criteria for describing work that is meaningful and satisfying for them. I call these this list of criteria their WANT: wishes, aversions, needs and terms (non-negotiables). Often, high-achieving, highly successful individuals are missing a key skill they need to be able to articulate these criteria - the skill of discernment. 

Fantasies about what’s out there

Thwarted job hunters often have the fantasy that the available jobs out there are more limited than they actually are. Often this is because we foreclose on opportunities through focusing on what seems realistic or feasible and then filter to desirability. As your career consultant, I flip the script: I invite you to expand your field of vision by starting from the premise of what is desirable and narrowing down to what is feasible or realistic. This comprehensive approach not only reveals more satisfying options you might have overlooked but also provides peace of mind. When future doubts inevitably arise, you'll have confidence in your choices because you've explored the alternatives. The result? You'll make career decisions from a place of self-knowledge rather than fear of missing out. 

Fantasies about my WANTs

The final step to finding meaningful and satisfying work is to connect the work of uncovering your WANT and career scan. We assess whether your WANTs are available in the specific role you are interested in pivoting to. A career consultant helps on this journey through helping you to manage confirmation bias, or fighting the fantasy that a WANT is present when it isn’t. We do this by helping you design your interview to solicit the information you need, assist you in assessing whether you have enough information to enable you to make a decision about the career. Once you complete this step you are ready to apply to the roles that pass your screens. 

Conclusions 

In truth, my work as a career consultant continues even after we answer all the questions above. I support you through the entire job search campaign (including the interview) until you start your new role in a new company (and then supporting you through your first 100 days); or, to identify a new role at the same company; or, to identify training programs in case you need to retrain; or, to develop a business plan in the event you go into business for yourself. 

If you are having difficulty thinking about whether to engage a career consultant, I hope this will be helpful. The process can be simplified by asking 3 questions: 

• Do I have a clear list of criteria which I use to screen every single career opportunity that comes along (a catalog of my wishes/ aversions/ needs/ terms (non-negotiables)?
• When thinking about my career, have I cast a wide net to consider a wide range of functions and industries? 
• When looking at a specific role, have I validated through interviews whether my WANT are present in the specific role? 

I hope you can see that the single most useful thing you can do in your career search is identify your specific WANT.