Career change coaching and direction counselling
In the UK, we have a competitive and flexible labour market. This means that people can use transferrable skills to help them change career direction.
Unfortunately this means the number of options we have to change to, is undefinable. There is no one single source that can list all jobs any one person could do.
Therefore the Career Development Institute trains us with counselling and psychological techniques to help the client create their own criteria for what they want in their next career. This helps to narrow it down a lot!
Why it feels so difficult to change career
When you get to that point of wanting to change career direction, your motivation for your current role has usually disappeared long ago. Perhaps you have been googling different options and all it does is make you more confused.
You wish someone could just give you a concise list of exactly the jobs that align with your existing skillset. However the problem with this is...the UK accepts transferrable skills and experience...so you have too many options.
I'm a UK specialist, CDI qualified career coach based in Cambridge, with headhunting experience. I bring all of these skills and experiences together to help you.
This is why it takes a strategic approach to create a plan before executing the plan! One of my mentors once said 'job hunting when you don't know what you want to do is like going to an airport without knowing which flight you want,' and I've got to say, I agree.
A first important step is to not dismiss your previous experience. It is what you have been doing with your life and that's not going away, nor do you want it to go away. You will need to talk about it in future applications and job interviews, but it can feel difficult to do that if you don't know how to make it sound relevant for the new employer.
My approach
I use a simple, FREE, reflection resource that you get to complete prior to the appointment. This helps you to define your top priorities for the qualities you would like your next job to have.
Now, I'm not a robot, so I don't simply let you tick them and go on your way, we discuss them, I ask follow up questions, we analyse them together.
In this conversation we create meaning for you and give you more clarity on how specific you can actually be about desired job requirements.
I take notes for you and send you them as a summary at the end of the appointment along with some suggested next steps and things to look into. Where relevant I provide additional websites and resources that I think are helpful for you to look through.
This is an approach individual to each client, there is no secret difference for an undergraduate student or a senior director. Counselling questions are open questions. I am qualified to use my specialist judgement as to which questions are important to cover for that individual person.