‘The best way to predict the future is to create it’ – Abraham Lincoln
Ever envisioned a career where you can help people grow personally and professionally? If your answer is yes to this, Career Coaching is for you. Career coaches are trained professionals. The role of a career coach is to help students with extensive knowledge of various careers and professional opportunities. They work with various kinds of people having different needs and mindsets covering a wide range of issues. Addressing each requires a different approach, and skillsets to help the client. They play a vital role in a client’s life which makes it even more necessary to get the right training and education.
Current Status In The Market
Did you know that over 93% of students would like to consult a career expert to seek the right guidance so that they can cultivate a successful future?
According to Jobs for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, the roles with the highest rate of growth within high-volume jobs include Artificial Intelligence Specialists, Medical Transcriptionists, Data Scientists, Customer Success Specialists, and Full Stack Engineer. Within lower-volume jobs, the highest growth is in Landfill Biogas Generation System Technicians, Social Media Assistants, Wind Turbine Service Technicians, Green Marketers, and Growth Hackers.
With a plethora of new-age career options, students often get disoriented by the correct path.
Need For Career Coaches
With the rising use of technology and the higher consumption of social media, people are increasingly becoming aware of different career options available to them. Platforms like LinkedIn, Quora, etc are giving them access to professional opportunities and letting them have a better insight into wider prospects. Students are no longer considering conventional options. As per Mindler Research, India is in dire need of 1.4 million career coaches. This clearly indicates that career coaching is a lucrative career and at the same time provides a sense of satisfaction.
What it takes to be a Career Coach
- Excellent communication and observational skills
- Should know the art of dealing with people
- An active listener without being judgmental and understand both sides of the coin
- Must have the ability to build good relations and make people comfortable
- Self-motivated, which can be transferred to the other person as well
- Needs to be ethically strong but compassionate and has an undying passion for people
- Be strong mentally and emotionally and also self-aware
- Ability to work on multiple projects at the same time
- Ability to research on different topics
- Creative bent of mind
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- A good sense of humor
- Having a passion to help students and graduates discover their perfect career
What is the work of a Career Coach
- Career Coaches must have a detailed understanding of clients’ needs, behaviors, lifestyles, and backgrounds
- Help students in making career decisions by leveraging objective and comprehensive psychometric assessments
- Assist students in defining and creating their career development plans and path
- Help students shortlist the right schools or programs for their target careers
- Conduct exhaustive research on careers and other related subjects
- Write useful blogs and articles for users
- Conduct regular outreach efforts including workshop, sessions & presentations to students at schools, events, or conferences
- Assist students in locating sources of financial support to pay for school and other training programs
- Research, evaluate & maintain online resources for a variety of career issues, academic majors, and career fields
How to become a career coach
- Graduation in Psychology (Recommended, not essential)
- Post- Graduation in Psychology/ Counselling Psychology (Recommended, not essential)
- Additional certification in Career Counseling (Highly recommended)
A 3-level certification program in Career Counselling, the ICCC (International Certified Career Coach) Program is a multi-level credentialing module that enables one to kickstart their career in this domain with state-of-the-art career guidance tools and globally used best practices. The program has been designed by prestigious bodies in the domain, including National Career Development Alliance (USA), Career Development Alliance (USA) & Mindler. The three levels include the ICCC Foundation (2-day in-person), ICCC Advanced (3-months online), and ICCC Masters (3 months online).
Conclusion
Career Coaches study the client’s history, administer aptitude tests, intelligence, personality, and interest tests. Hence it is imperative for a Career Coach to be skilled in this domain. Also, if you are planning to accelerate your career as a certified career coach, get yourself registered with the Foundation Program of the ICCC offered by Mindler. One can attend the Foundation level of International Certified Career Coaching to understand the basics of Career Coaching as a profession. Not just this, when you acquire a certification of being a career coach, you add up a lot to your skillset as well. This is a career that will help you gain a better vision of yourself as well as the world around you. Since you become more acquainted with the behavior types and continuously study the upcoming career trends. It further helps you to stay up-to-date.
