subject: Career Coach A Guide For Exploring Your Career Options [print this page] Career coach in simple terms can be defined as a person who helps a student or a job seeker in attaining his or her career and employment goals. The concerned person may or may not be a certified career counselor as in many places there is no need for certifications or accreditation formalities to offer career coaching services. The main goal of a career coach is to find and explore career options, selecting career choices, focusing and targeting a job search and helping the candidate or the job seeker in his/her job search.
The need for career coach is required for all the age groups during the different stages of their life span. For example, a fresh graduate needs career counseling to tell him or her about the various career choices available. In case of employee(s) who are in the midst of their job career and would like to change their job, a career counselor can help or guide them in choosing the best available job options or a possible change in their career as per their qualifications and experience.
In the United States of America, the Career coach is also known as Career Counselor and there are associations and organizations that certify career professionals and one of them is the National Career Development Association NCDA- which is a founding division of the American Counseling Association or ACA. NCDA is a recognized leader in developing standards for career development profession, for the evaluation of the career information materials and for the provision of career counseling programs and services.
The NCDA in its data base has a list of career counselors who have earned the Master of Career Counselor or MCC and Master of Career Development Professional or MCDP designations. Job seekers or candidates seeking to explore career options can contact NCDA for the services offered by career counselors.
The following benefits can be derived from a career counselor and these are:
Improving employability skills, motivation and confidence.
A career counselor helps in providing a tailored, personal package of independent career advice and experience of work.
He or she can offer different strategies for achieving career success in case of a candidate who is a just out from college, to the employees who are in their current job positions and to the job seeker who wants to have the job as per his qualifications.
A coach can also help if the candidate has long-term career goals that need multiple steps such as continuing education or having a vocational on the job training.
A coach can also guide a person who is new to job market on the basics of job searching methods such as how to search for employment ads, how to create an effective resume and cover letter and how to attend interviews etc.
The said mentioned are some of the benefits of hiring a career counselor.
