The significance of career counselling in today's competitive job market

The fastest way to get from where you are to where you want to be is to work with an expert or someone who has walked that journey successfully multiple times before. This is especially true for working professionals when it comes to their careers. When we grow in our professional lives, our progress is a result of being able to tackle areas that may be new to us, and may also represent increased scope and complexity. Fundamentally, it is our ability to solve things that are outside of our current experience. Therefore, we are dealing with the unknown. And this is where working with an expert makes a world of difference because they help us understand what traps may lie ahead and how to steer clear of them to have a smoother and more efficient journey to the next level up.

So what does a career coach do? Talking to Bizz Buzz, Sawan Kapoor, a career coach, says: "A career coach will work on two main areas when it comes to engaging with a client. The first area will be one's personal development, and the second area is using the right career strategies, tips, tricks, hacks and tools to accelerate the achievement of the client's career goals."

Kapoor says that he fundamentally believes that the road to career development is paved with personal development. And each individual client requires a custom approach to understand how they can accelerate their career to improve their remuneration, their professional fulfilment and their work-life balance. It cannot be a one size fits all type of engagement.

A career coach will help establish a diagnosis based on deep interaction with the client. They help the client gain clarity with regard to all aspects of their career so far and as they move towards the future. They help the working professional understand if the situation or the concern they are facing is one that is truly an unfair one, or one which is an opportunity to look inwards, learn and grow.

What type of problems can a career coach help with?

In today's competitive job market, working professionals face a myriad of pain points. Some may face multiple problems at the same time. Career coaches understand the dynamics associated with why these problems take birth in an individual's career and how to rectify one's career to bring it back on track.

From feeling under-appreciated or under recognised, i.e. where one is not getting the credit for the value one adds to the workplace, to being overworked leading to work related stress or pressure. From being underpaid, to being under employed where one does not have the opportunity to use their skills, strengths and experience in pursuit of their responsibilities.

They help people find the right opportunities, one where their total personal and professional development is aligned with the nature of the problems and opportunities that a potential organisation is looking to solve. And they teach them how to market themselves in a differentiated manner so that they can separate themselves from the pool of applicants.

In addition they also help one understand how to position oneself so they do not fall prey to the power games that can often take place in the office environment. When there is a match between the company's value system and the candidate's value system, one gets a much more supportive environment to work in, otherwise one could land up on a dead end road.

Another important area a career coach helps with is when a candidate wants to switch careers, i.e. switch their industry or their function whether it be an internal move within an organisation or more commonly an external one to a new organisation. Switching requires a profound understanding to get right. Many working professionals desire to switch careers because of feeling bored or uninspired with their occupation. Others want to switch for economic gains, or a superior career roadmap in terms of the satisfaction they derive from their work or the work-life balance they may have.

In all cases the reasons why an employee wants to switch careers needs thorough introspection. Many working professionals when dissatisfied with their work tend to develop a thinking that the grass will be greener on the other side once they make the switch. They fail to consider the realities of what a career in a new field may actually turn out to be like. In essence they are running away from one problem in an unrealistic way and wanting to enter an industry or a function where they do not have the prerequisite experience, therefore entering an even bigger problem that they aren't prepared or equipped to handle. Such individuals often get stuck in what is known as the permission paradox, you cannot get the job without the experience and you cannot get the experience without the job. "It's the classic catch 22 of careers", says Kapoor. "And many also realise that they have to start much lower in the new industry or function than where they were in their careers prior to making the switch", he further adds.

Other factors that a career coach can help solve are black spots a candidate may have in their career history. Not knowing how to deal with questions related to having been fired while undergoing an interview, or explain why they have hopped jobs so often. Senior candidates often feel that their age becomes a limiting factor in the job search and application process. "There are answers to all these problems but since a working professional is new to these challenges they often land up wasting huge amounts of their time in experimenting with what will or what won't work, that is why working with an expert can accelerate all the elements associated with one's career" states Kapoor.

Why do you need a career coach?

Unfortunately, how to build a meaningful and successful career is not something that is taught in the formal system of education. This typically is learnt through one's experience in the actual workplace environment. So it remains unstructured and that is why so few people achieve great careers.

Mastering how to secure the right opportunities is not optional for most of us because it drives the economic engine of our life. A successful career has some patterns associated with it, and these include finding the right fit, i.e. taking decisions with the long term in mind while working with people you like and respect.

To build an exceptional career, one has to understand how value is generated in the workplace and how to translate that knowledge into personal worth for oneself. Fundamentally, one cannot claw one's way to the top of an organisation, one has to be carried there. It is who you become that people want to work for you because you care for their success more than your own.

Individuals who build great careers can help you understand which boundaries to keep and which to cross so you can build that environment of support that is required to propel you to deliver breakthrough ideas and deliver unexpected impact.

You are going to spend more of your waking hours at work, so this is not a decision to be taken lightly. Without meaningful work it is nearly impossible to be happy, and a career coach helps you take the mystery out of this process so you can have a smoother and faster journey to senior leadership roles and beyond.