Career Counseling vs. career coaching - Promeon Coaching

June 19, 2023by Paula Petric0

There are times in our professional lives when we have dilemmas, or we encounter difficulties or simply we do not feel as fulfilled or energetic. In such moments you may wonder who would be more appropriate to talk to, a friend, a family member or other person who could advise you. But what if you talked to a specialist in the field? And who would this specialist be? 

A career counselor or career coach is someone who can guide you to navigate effectively through the multitude of professional challenges. Whether you are at the beginning of the road and do not know how to get to the desired job or are already for some time on the labor market, but you no longer find yourself in what you do, a specialist can guide you. And not by giving you advice, but by listening to you and asking you powerful questions that bring revealing answers. 

Let’s clarify a little bit what career counseling is, how it’s different from coaching and how you can find out if it’s for you. 

I recently had a conversation with someone who was passionately telling me about her plan to open a children’s playground to organize workshops and other creative activities. But she felt a reluctance to start. She didn’t know where this reluctance was coming from because she felt she really wanted to do it and even had a plan. The question arose “can you help me with some advice or maybe I should call a business consultant”. And my response was, “Let’s find out what your real need is.” Thus, several meetings followed, in which we analyzed together, among others: 

  • What is her motivation for this business? (coaching)
  • Does she have the necessary skills? (counselling)
  • Does she have the needed resources? (counselling)
  • What does success look like and what obstacles can she encounter along the way? (coaching and counselling)
  • How can she overcome obstacles? (counselling)
  • What is her life context and how does this business plan fit into her current life? (coaching and counselling)
  • Who will she become once she succeeds in this business? (coaching)

Coming back to my client’s question, I could not help her with advice, but I helped her find some answers that stimulated her and gave her courage, whereas the discussion with a business consultant was mentioned as a point in her action plan. 

So, coaching and career counselling seem similar and can be intertwined, but there are some key differences between them. 

Coaching

Career coaching is a conversation between a coach and a client in which the client is the one who chooses the topics of discussion at the beginning of each session, and the coach listens to him, mirrors him, asks questions to reach the depth of the topic and contributes with relevant observations. Metaphorically speaking, the client is the driver and the coach is the passenger on the right. In the coaching relationship, no advice is given, and the process is very flexible. 

Counseling

Career counseling is a relationship in which the counselor contributes his/her expertise on the labor market and guides the client towards discovering his/her vocation, abilities, overcoming obstacles and creating a realistic and immediately implementable action plan. In this relationship, the counselor may offer suggestions, but the decision to choose one course of action or another is solely the client’s decision. The process is structured but adaptable, and the counselor uses tools such as psychometric tests, skills and aptitude tests, decision-making exercises, forms for defining an action plan, etc. 

Are you still wondering if a career counseling discussion would be useful to you? Answer these simple questions: 

  1. Do I feel fulfilled professionally? 
  2. Do I know what is important to me to be professionally fulfilled?
  3. Do I know what my strengths are?
  4. Do I have a career goal? 
  5. Do I know what I need to do to achieve my career goal?
  6. Do I have a short, medium and long term career plan? 

 

If you answered YES to 3 or more of these questions, congratulations! You are on the right track and you have enough clarity to be professionally satisfied. If you have fewer than 3 Yes answers to the questions above, it will most likely help you talking to a career counselor. 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Open chat
Hello! Paula here.
Can I help you?