Do You Recommend Career Coach Training?

Hi CJ.

A burning question that I've had for a while has to do with getting a started in coaching. I asked several of the coaches from the coaching program I went through but felt like I never received a good answer. So, I'll ask you.
 
How did you get started in coaching? What general steps did you take between knowing that you wanted to coach and actually doing so? Did you attend career coach training?
 
When you have time. Thank you!
 
Dennis

Dear Dennis,

I started as a business coach when I was working at Microsoft. But, didn’t know at the time that what I was doing was called coaching. Despite my well-intentioned friends telling me that I was coaching and encouraging me to become a coach, I still didn’t do anything about pursuing coaching as a career. I didn’t attend career coach training right away.

However, I did take to heart their advice about following my passion. My passion at the time was offering parents with newborns tools and solutions for creating work-life balance. As a parent, I had looked desperately resources to create work-life balance but I didn’t find anything useful out there. I wanted to share what I learned based on my own discovery and figuring out things the hard way. I started teaching classes on what I knew and, with my marketing background, it took me a long way. In hindsight, I realize now that I was coaching parents.

The general steps really had to do with following what I liked doing, which I later found out was coaching. So, I was coaching for about one and a half years without the formal title of a coach and without even knowing what coaching was all about.

It wasn’t until I started coaching parents outside of class that I realized I needed to get some formal coach training. Finally, I broke down and decided to take a class on coaching to see if I liked it. After that first class, I knew that I wanted to learn more. But, I still wasn’t convinced I’d become a coach. What I discovered in class is that the instructors who observed my practice coaching sessions were telling me I had a natural ability to coach. This was great news for me as I didn’t have to do much to do well in the class. About three to four months before the course end date I started asking friends to coach with me for practice.

Basically, I started coaching before taking a single class. Career coach training is not where I started but it helped me make my decision. I just did what came naturally and what I felt passionate about and then found it was called coaching. The steps I took to be sure I wanted to be a coach was to take a class and to do more coaching after my formal training. It was through practice that I knew that I wanted to coach. 

Regards,

C.J.

Comments

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That is very kind of you to write this share for us, thanks a lot

[research paper writing]

Thanks for the great info. I’ll be implementing much of this soon!

[Albert Varas]

Hello CJ,

What course is offered to learn more about career coaching? What institutions offer instruction on it?

I work with youth for a non-profit and am trying to set up a network of informal coaches to assist with educating at-risk youth about career and post-secondary options and preparation. I am the lead (and only) staff for this, and as a lifelong learner, understand that the more familiar I become with the process, the better the outcome will be.

Best,
Albert