Some of the best money I ever spent was on a career coach who helped me actually get out of law. I’d been wanting to find that miraculous alternative legal career, but I kept getting in my own way. Having someone who could help me sort out what was fact (I’m highly creative) from fiction (no one would want to hire me for that) was invaluable, because I’d certainly lost any objectivity and self-esteem about my good qualities over eight years of practicing law.
So how do you find a career coach or counselor? And is there a difference?
There is a difference. A coach does not delve deeply into your childhood or diagnose mental illness, for starters. Coaches help you see yourself and your goals more clearly, and help you find strategies that will help you, specifically, to get there. Coaches are “doers,” if you will, while career counselors are more “thinkers.” They help you think about your problems, see some recurring patterns that aren’t helping you out and root out why you keep doing them, and figure out what your interests are.
Of course, these lists are not exhaustive or necessarily exclusive of one another. One thing coaches should not do, unless they also have a degree and licensing to support it, is help you address mental illness like depression. Coaches don’t have the tools or training for treating illness.
So how do you even find a coach or counselor? As always, referrals are best. A colleague of mine at work recommended my coach/counselor. She, though, had seen his ad in Legal Times. So obviously, ads are another source of information. Of course, there’s always Googling or other internet searches.
There are tons of coaches who will work with you remotely, but I don’t recommend that if you’re feeling fragile in the slightest. It’s not that such coaches aren’t great at their job, but too much of communication—something staggering like 60%—happens non-verbally. It’s too easy to hide your feelings on the phone, or misinterpret something your counselor says. And, so many lawyers struggle with depression that I would try to find a coach who also has her or his LISCW, aka social work degree. Many certified counselors also do coaching, and can be very good at both. Or, a good coach can and should refer you to a counselor if they suspect depression, bipolar disease, or any other psychiatric malady. Personally, I like one-stop shopping, as it were, but you may not.
Unlike plumbers or decorators, you aren’t going to get a reference list of happy clients from either a career counselor or career coach—protecting a client’s privacy comes first. So if you’re on a listserv where it might be appropriate, consider asking for recommendations (for your friend, of course) or digging through the archives.
Be prepared to try out a few coaches/counselors. Chemistry is important here. More on that next time.
As a career coach and counselor, I appreciate your slant and your positive comments about getting help.
For myself, I always see my new “prospect”, free for an hour. That tells us both whether we can work together or if it is coaching or counseling the person REALLY wants. If we work together for three sessions, I also offer a free follow-up as a way to evaluate myself and whether the person I have worked with is ok. If I suspect other types of problems when we work together, I always suggest extra support and help from a therapist.
Finally, I want to remain “friends” with my coachees, we both need each other to be whole.
So glad I found your blog. I’m enjoying it very much. Regarding your comments about not working remotely with a coach if you’re feeling at all fragile, I felt pretty fragile when I hired my coach to help me leave the law. (I’m in Atlanta; she was in Colorado.) Still it was an awesome match. Coaches (and of course it depends on the training) are trained to do a deeper level of listening than the average person. I’m now a career coach for lawyers myself. I can hear when my client is hiding something or holding back. Am I perfect at it? Nope. But in my training through the Coaches Training Institute I was taught that you can get distracted by what you see; when it’s you and the client on the phone, you focus solely on what’s coming through the air waves. My clients tell me it’s remarkable the level of connection/understanding it’s possible to achieve. Anyway, whether in person or remote, it’s a personal choice and I find your advice to be equally valid. Just thought I’d offer some additional food for thought.