How To Find The Right Coach Or Mentor To Suit Your Career Aspirations
So you’ve got your sights on some exciting career moves and you’re looking for the right support to help you achieve your career aspirations… You may be asking yourself how can you tell whether the career coach or mentor is right for you?
By following a few simple steps, you can ensure you’re working with the best possible expert for your requirements. When you consider a mixture of personality, background and knowing what you’d like to achieve, career coaching or mentoring can be an extremely fulfilling experience.
Whatever your career aspirations, finding the right support is crucial if you’re wanting success. We’ve compiled our top tips for finding the right expert, so that you can get your career development journey off to the best start. Without further ado, let’s take a dive into the world of career coaching and mentoring!
What is a career mentor or coach?
In basic terms, a career mentor or coach is someone with substantial experience that works closely with you in order to help you achieve your career goals. They will employ step-by-step strategies to help improve performance, drawing upon their extensive experience to guide you.
A career coach or mentor should have a holistic approach in order to aid you - oftentimes, they will take a step back to look at the bigger picture. A holistic career coach or mentor will fuse together multiple aspects of your scenario, including your strengths and weaknesses, in order to best aid your personal development journey.
Whether you’re wanting to secure a promotion, have an upcoming job interview, or want to impress your new boss, a career expert is well versed to guide you, having aided many in your situation beforehand. Ultimately, the purpose of a career expert is to provide insight and actionable steps to get you from A to B.
So how exactly will you know if you’re working with the right coach or mentor?
3 tips for finding a holistic career coach or mentor to support your needs
Have an understanding of your goals
First things first, before even reaching out to an expert, you need to ask yourself what your goals are. Having a solid understanding of your objectives will make the onboarding process a lot smoother.
Even if you feel stuck in your career and are unsure exactly what you want, try to create an idea in your mind of some type of goal for the future. This will allow the expert to provide a suitable solution based on your unique needs.
Remember – every session is completely bespoke, so having a good understanding of what you’d like to achieve in the end helps guide the career expert in the right direction from the get-go.
Consider the expert’s background
One of the most important elements to finding the right support is considering which areas you’d like to work on and matching this with an expert’s background.
With so many backgrounds and specialisms to choose from, it can be an excellent opportunity to work with someone you’d never normally have access to. Your skill set may differ vastly from theirs, so there can be a huge opportunity for growth.
When it comes to an expert’s background, consider whether you want the expertise from someone in your field, or whether an industry leader from a completely different sector could offer you lots of benefits.
As long as their background compliments your needs, you’ll be on to a winner.
Find a personality match
After reviewing an expert’s background and suitability, the next tip is to consider their personality. You can often get a feel for their personality by the content on the profile, but the best way to understand an expert’s personality is to meet with them virtually.
To do this, narrow down your options into a list of suitable experts. Once narrowed down, click on a profile and click ‘request a Virtual Coffee.’ You’ll then be given the chance to provide some basic info, which the expert will read before accepting or declining your invitation.
Once accepted, you’ll need to arrange a time and a date for your Virtual Coffee. You’ll then get a half-hour window to meet with the expert to discuss your goals, background and requirements. This is also an excellent time to gauge whether your personalities are aligned, which is arguably the most important element of the process. The last thing you want is to commence your sessions and realise that there is a personality clash!
Are you ready to start your journey?
If you’ve decided you’re ready to start pursuing your career dreams, all it takes is a few clicks. Whatever your desired career path, working with an expert can make the process a lot smoother.
Find a mentor or coach by using our Expert Matcher tool, or alternatively, you can get personally matched by our team by contacting us here.
About Wiseup
Founded with the firm belief that career coaching & mentoring should be accessible to everyone, Wiseup’s community of 100+ experts have over 4000 combined years of experience, meaning you can get support from some of the UK’s top personnel.
Before you get started, utilise our many blog articles on all things career here.
