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Working With a Career Coach

A clear brief for what coaching should change, a well-checked coach and contract, sessions prepared and followed through, and an honest view of whether the time and money paid off.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Working With a Career Coach, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

202

Starter tasks

🧭 Career Growth

Working With a Career Coach

Choosing a career coach and using coaching sessions to clarify direction, prepare for transitions and stay accountable.

  1. Coaching brief for what you want to change
  2. Choosing between a coach, mentor, therapist or course
  3. Coaching budget and who pays for it
  4. Map of career coaching specialisms
  5. Checking a coach's credentials and ethics
  6. Shortlist of three career coaches
  7. Chemistry calls with shortlisted coaches
  8. Choosing your coach and recording why
  9. Coaching agreement and contract check
  10. Three-way contracting when your employer pays
  11. Pre-session preparation routine
  12. Session notes and commitments log
  13. Friday check on coaching commitments
  14. Monthly progress note to your coach
  15. Weekly reflection journal between sessions
  16. Mid-programme coaching review
  17. Coaching sessions and spend tracker
  18. Quarterly coaching goal refresh
  19. Giving your coach honest feedback
  20. Bringing a real question to every session
  21. Answering coaching questions without performing
  22. Psychometric and strengths assessments with a coach
  23. 360 feedback debrief with your coach
  24. Self-coaching between sessions with GROW
  25. Spotting limiting stories and assumptions
  26. Small career experiments set in coaching
  27. Video, phone, in-person or walking sessions
  28. Switching coach when it is not working
  29. Deciding whether to extend or end coaching
  30. Employer coaching versus a private coach
  31. Group coaching and coaching circles
  32. Coaching apps and digital platforms
  33. First coaching session preparation
  34. Coaching intensive or full-day session
  35. Coaching sprint before a high-stakes conversation
  36. Final coaching session and handover plan
  37. Six-month follow-up after coaching ends
  38. Closing three-way review with your sponsor
  39. Outplacement coaching after redundancy
  40. Transition coaching for a change of direction
  41. Executive coaching in a new senior role
  42. Leadership coaching for a new manager
  43. Coaching around caring or parenting time
  44. Coaching on a tight budget as a student or graduate
  45. Coaching across countries and time zones
  46. When coaching points towards a therapist
  47. Measuring what coaching has changed
  48. Long-term relationship with a trusted coach
  49. Peer coaching with a trusted colleague
  50. Training as a coach yourself

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Coaching brief for what you want to change

Even the best coach is only as useful as the question you bring, and people who start with a vague wish to feel clearer about their career often spend three paid sessions working out what they came for. Writing a one-page brief with the situation, the decision or change you want and how you would know it had worked gives every coach you speak to something concrete and makes the first session productive.

First tasks

  • Write five plain sentences on where your career stands today
  • List the outcomes you would pay to have in six months
  • Rewrite each outcome so someone else could check it
  • Mark the outcome that matters most for the first sessions
  • Reread your coaching brief and update it @recurring(quarterly)

Choosing between a coach, mentor, therapist or course

Career coaching is often bought when the real need is industry advice from a mentor, a skill from a course, support for anxiety or burnout from a therapist, or simply a frank talk with your manager. Sorting your brief against those options before spending money keeps coaching for what it does best: helping you think, decide and follow through on your own answers.

First tasks

  • Write one line on what each kind of help actually does
  • Sort each outcome in your brief into the best-fit bucket
  • Move any manager questions to your next one-to-one agenda
  • Record whether coaching is the right next step and why

Coaching budget and who pays for it

Private career coaching commonly runs to several hundred or a few thousand in local currency for a programme, and many people never ask whether their employer, professional body or outplacement package would fund it. Setting a ceiling and checking every funding route first stops you overspending, or underspending on a coach who is wrong for you.

First tasks

  • Decide the most you are willing to spend on coaching this year
  • Search the staff intranet or handbook for coaching or learning budgets
  • Check what your professional body, alumni office or union offers
  • Email your manager a short case for the employer funding coaching
  • Record the final personal spend you have committed to

Make it yours.

Install Working With a Career Coach, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.