Comments on: Are Career Coaches a Waste of Money?

By: JoshuaWaldman

JoshuaWaldman — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:08:54 +0000

@krvince True, the selection of a vendor is just good shopping. The point I was trying to make was simply that many job seekers don’t look at the opportunity cost as part of the equation to hire a professional. Certainly not all career coaches are a like, but finding the right one for you can be the difference between an 8 month job search or a 3 month job search.

By: krvince

krvince — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:30:33 +0000

I don’t see any problem with the attendee questioning whether every coach was an equally worthy investment. That is a very different position than not understanding the absolute value of such an investment in the first place. I would hope that an insightful coach worth the investment would at least understand the question rather than missing the point and giving a packaged marketing-oriented answer. The fact is some coaches simply repackage old advice that is no longer effective, whereas others may actually help cut through the BS and make the search more laser focused and efficient. As a for instance, is a presence in the blogosphere really a fast path to work even if it demonstrates currency in technology and “communication”? The varied opinions, usually completely untested or unproven, will amaze you. And that’s just one topic.

A good place to start would be to defuse the adversarial buyer-seller relationship in career coaching. I look forward to further discussion on the topics raised by your “model”.

By: stephen q shannon

stephen q shannon — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:24:00 +0000

Josh, Heading out in 48 hours for an off site. Back at my desk Feb 22. Let’s discuss. Connect. Clarify. Collaborate. Cheerlead. Commit. The five Cs credit to my mentor Susan Whitcomb. Let’s do that as a exec coach colleague likes my “on demand” way of training. My other virtual mentor is Seth Godin. Are you by chance one of his Triiibes devotees? You have my direct contact. Consider a brief visit for mutual gain. I promise to reply promptly. In the interim continued success. sQs

By: Joshua Waldman

Joshua Waldman — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:47:00 +0000

Stephen,

It’s an interesting model that I have weekly conversations about. I’ve even considered it on my video training course, such that there is a nominal upfront fee, and the rest of it is paid after the course is complete or a job is secured. I love the concept, but I’m not sure how to enforce it. I’m always open to brainstorming.

By: stephen q shannon

stephen q shannon — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:46:00 +0000

Josh, you are the man. Love what and how you do what you do. I too am not a coach. Under Malcolm Gladwell’s defnition I am an outlier as I am sure you are = more than 10,000 hours experience.

Love/hate your on target questions:
* What is the average number of months your clients take to get a job?
* How many job interviews do you think you can help me get per week?
* What is your success rate?
Unnumbered Qs 1 and 2 are constantly asked. No. 3 I can answer easily…100% success rate IF, IF, IF the client is a collaborator meaning she will do the work and stay connected. Sooo in answer to Qs 1 and 2 because there are no parameters as to the profession or how long she has been looking, see answer to No. 3. Total commitment to the work will as you say at the very least cut the time in half and increase the number of meaty, meaningful, quality interviews. All of this said, this is why indeed I don’t sell resumes and cover letters. My potential clients and I work on those marketing documents until THEY are satisfied, then we talk about the future and me getting paid, not before. Could be a week. Could be longer. Fair? Yay or nay?

By: Jörgen Sundberg

Jörgen Sundberg — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:04:00 +0000

How funny, I wrote an article with a very similar title (the content is a bit different though!) Check it out: http://www.theundercoverrecruiter.com/content/career-coach-worth-money