5 Indicators It’s Time to Seek Out a Career Coach

When it comes to most aspects of our lives, we tend to think we can do it all on our own, the American emphasis on individuality and self-determination. This is also true in our careers and we can find ourselves reluctant to seek out help, even when we would benefit from it.

Perhaps it’s time to get some job advice and support from a career coach. Unsure if this is right for you?

Consider these situations when you might want to seek out the help of a career coach.

Difficulty finding a job. You’ve been applying to jobs for weeks with no success and you’re getting frustrated with the results and lack of interest from potential employers. A career coach can help you adjust your job-seeking strategy, so it best fits your skills and interests.

No advancement in career. If you’re feeling stuck in your career, it can be useful to have someone who is removed from your workplace evaluate and assess your career and help you identify some factors related to your career plateau.

Job dissatisfaction. Perhaps you have a long-standing (or new) sense of disinterest in your work or a feeling that you are in the wrong job or career. Talking to a career coach can help you identify the reasons for your dissatisfaction and develop a game-plan to better enjoy your work situation.

Negative evaluation. If you’ve ever received a negative job evaluation or annual review or even some less-than-positive remarks about your job performance from your boss, then you know how painful that can be and how useful it might be to walk through it with a professional coach or counselor.

You want better. A career coach can be an asset even when everything is going well in your career. A coach can provide the inspiration and knowledge you need to take your career to the next level.

Don’t be unwilling to seek out the help of others when it comes to improving your job and career situation.

5 Practices to Support Our Mental Health at Work

During stressful times on the job or if you’re an entrepreneur and feeling the heat it is critically important to take care of your mental health. Neglecting our mental state leads to fatigue, emotional outbursts, bad decision-making, and more.

But don’t wait until something is wrong before you think about your mental health. By then the damage to your job or career can be done, and in some situations, irreparable.

Implement the following practices to maintain your mental health and to enable you to effectively manage the stresses that will inevitably come.

Develop connections. It is vital to our mental health to engage with others. We are social beings and gain support and energy from our friendships and relationships with colleagues. Schedule regular time to meet with friends, develop new relationships with co-workers, attend networking events, and seek out meet-ups with others who have similar interests. 

Manage expectations. It’s easy to compare our work performance with others and get down on ourselves for failing to measure up but it is important for our mental health to be realistic and focus on our own strengths and weaknesses.

Take vacation time. In addition to ensuring that we get adequate sleep each night, we need to take advantage of our vacation time to allow ourselves to reset and focus anew on the big picture. Stepping away and getting a change of scenery can do wonders for the soul and help a frustrating or cloudy situation become clearer.

Work with a coach or therapist. Sometimes it is necessary to work with a coach to maintain our mental health. A coach or therapist can provide a different perspective and can help us be more effective in our work. Talk to friends or colleagues to get a referral or recommendation.

Find other sources of joy, fun, and satisfaction. Our lives should not just be about the office. We need hobbies and other interests to better enjoy life and to help us maintain our appreciation for the work we do. Often, by engaging with our curiosity for the world outside the office we can gain new insights that we can apply to our working lives and bring new enthusiasm and purpose to our career.

Paying attention to our mental health and applying practices that support us will reduce the stresses in our job, help us manage the inevitable surprises that accompany change, and help us bring consistent energy and intention to our working lives.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Ways to Use Twitter to Land a Job

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• 5 Ways to use Twitter to Land a Job: "Make a point of following recruiters who specialize in your industry and job type, as well as target companies where you would like to work."


• How to Cope with a Bad Job: "Consider ways to tolerate your situation better: improvements you can make within whatever limitations are imposed on you to make your everyday experience of work more enjoyable, no matter how small."


• How Blogging Can Change Your Professional Life: "When like-minded people read my posts, they organically network with me—through comments, retweets, my contact form. And I've connected and built relationships with so many incredible people over the years who originally found me through my blog."


• What to do if Your Boss is a Bully: "Remember that there may be other people experiencing this problem who are too afraid to speak out. By taking a stand you are not behaving unprofessionally: you are simply taking steps to tackle an issue that is no doubt affecting others too."


• Find the Right Career Coach for You: "Almost every coach will have a 'paper trail' allowing you to see for yourself the kinds of issues they’re writing and thinking about, how they approach the situation, and their personal style."

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week

We're presenting a new feature here at the Daily Leap: a video of the week. The video we share will present news or advice related to career development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.


In this video career coach Margaret Buj provides tips on how to effectively follow-up following a job interview. These tips will help keep you in line for that job.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share these every weekend so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!


1. Why You Need to Have Fun to Be Successful
"Once I started my business, I believed more than ever that there is a great job out there for all of us. That being said, it’s not always easy to find."


2. 5 Things to Do While You're Unemployed 
"Considering your career is a marathon, not a sprint, a class can bolster your technical skills and keep them sharp. It shows you’re serious about your industry and that you invest in yourself."


3. Graduates: Kick-Start Your Career in 3 Easy Steps
"If you're a new grad and need a job or want to upgrade from your position at the local coffee shop, here are three ways to kick-start your career."

4. 6 Ways a Career Coach Can Help Boost Your Career
"You want to think of a Career Coach just like a gymnastics or baseball coach.  They are there to help you develop your skills, give you feedback to “up your game” and help you to be the success you know you can be."


5. 30 Tips for a More Successful Job Interview 
"Pay attention to all of the senses that involve you, the candidate, as you prepare for your interview presentation: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch."

Can’t Conquer Your Career Goals? Consider Hiring a Coach

Ever hear of Sean Foley? If you’re not a golf fanatic, you probably haven’t. But if you do closely follow the sport you would know him as Tiger Woods’ swing coach. You read that correctly: one of the best players in the world has a guy telling him how to swing. And Sean wasn’t Tiger’s first swing coach: Hank Haney was his coach for over six years. If someone as prolific as Tiger Woods can see the benefit of hiring a coach to help him, what is holding you back from hiring one to help you with your career? Here are situations where hiring a personal coach (or lifecoach) can benefit your career.

You don’t know what career to go into The common belief is that you can expect to change careers over six times in your lifetime (I, personally, think I am somewhere around three or four right now). Some of these transitions are easily navigable; others can be fraught with difficulties that can spill over into other aspects of one’s life. A coach can listen to the problems you are encountering with your current career and suggest courses of action that coincide with you level of risk, personal comfort, and ambition. It could be that you can enhance your current career in some way, or that you abandon it entirely for a new one. You will not be told what to do by your coach, but guided in a holistic way to best help yourself.

You don’t know how to progress in your career A lifecoach can also be of assistance if you are not progressing in your career the way that you feel you should. Through inner exploration and tailored exercises you can discover areas in your career life where you are being held back-by you or by your employer-and work to overcome those obstacles to rediscover what initially ignited your passion.

Your personal life is affecting your career No one exists in a vacuum and it is commonplace for one’s personal life to affect one’s career. While a lifecoach is not a therapist, he or she can help you identify the anxiety you are feeling and help you create goals or strategies that will point you in the direction of success.

The Beatles sang that you get by with a little help from your friends. If you find yourself spinning your wheels, stuck in career circumstances that you are not happy with, a coach can be the person to help give you a push out of the mud and down the road to a brighter tomorrow.