How Professional Coaching Can Change Your Career Path
I was maximally miserable in my career as a nursing home administrator. This career had been my goal for five years and had involved a bachelor's degree, a nine-month internship, and a grueling state board exam. I had secured the nursing home administrator position at a new 100-bed intermediate care facility and the pleasing salary that went along with it. I had attained my dream, reached my goal, earned my success, and I was miserable.
I was also stuck. I had invested so much in this career that I saw no option but to stay and endure it. One day as I lamented my lot in life to a friend, she said, "Quit!"
I argued, "Oh, I could never quit. I've worked too hard to get here."
She repeated, "Quit! Just quit!"
It was a shocking thought to me. Quit? Could I really ever quit? I had never even entertained the idea.
"Quit" is not a positive word so I will instead use the word "change." Yes, you can change careers! Here is how professional coaching can help you change your career path.
1. Professional coaching can help you evaluate "Career A" (where you are now).
In order to find fulfillment in a new career, you must evaluate what makes your present career unfulfilling. As the old saying goes, "You don't want to jump from the fire into the frying pan." What specifically do you dislike about your job? What parts of your job do you find boring? What parts of your work frustrate you? And are there areas of your career that you enjoy?
2. Professional coaching can help you explore "Career B" (where you want to be).
With professional coaching, you can look beyond the career world that is familiar to you, to a massive world of potential careers. This exciting period involves researching the possibilities and stretching yourself to consider them.
3. Professional coaching can help you identify your personality, skills, and attributes for use in "Career B."
You have a unique "package" to offer in your new career. Professional coaching can assist you as you identify the contents of this "package" and how they will fit into your changing career path.
4. Professional coaching can help you develop a plan to get from "Career A" to "Career B."
Kathy Caprino on forbes said, "You can’t go from Point A to Point Z in a month. This process—of identifying who you really are and determining the directions that will align best with your values, visions, and needs—takes time, energy, patience, trust, and commitment. You’ve got to be ready to turn yourself inside and out and stretch and expand yourself, if you want great success in your work. It’s not going to fall in your lap—you have to reach out and grab it, and do the inner and outer work of change."
To further consider how professional coaching can change your career path, take our online personality test. The ten-minute investment of your time may be the first step toward better understanding yourself and starting a new and exciting career.
