Has anyone used a career coach and what was your experience? Right now I am at a point in my career where I might want the help of someone who can really help with guidance to get me to where I would ultimately like to be. If anyone has experience with anyone who specializes in the financial industry, I would like to hear it.
Whip out your d1ck and prepare for it to grow 10x. Now whip out your credit card and pay my man Numi (no homo) for his bespoke guidance. He will take you under his wing and carry you to roles such as M’n’Ain on the Buyside, ER, Hedge Funds, PE, get you into a Top 2 MBA program, and even show you how to score with a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
This Bud’s for you Numi. Keep on preaching straight troof!
Thanks the plug CFAvsMBA…much appreciated, sir!
can someone fill me in on the backstory about numi
1BigStudMuffin - haha…thank you sir!
igor555 - here you go: http://www.linkedin.com/in/numicareerconsulting
He’s a Top 2 MBA NYC financier with a BSD. What more is there to know?
Good career coaches can help in a few ways:
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If there is something very wrong about how you present yourself, they can help you work to polish that and present yourself better.
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If you are barking up the wrong tree, they can suggest other trees that are better suited to your talents.
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They can point you toward resources that you hadn’t thought of, or teach you how to use the resources you know about more effectively.
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If you are depressed about your job search, they can often (not always) give you the kind of pep talk to keep you going in hard times.
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In my experience, carreer coaches are best used in spurts. You get rapidly diminishing returns, so if you haven’t made some major progress by the first few interactions, or don’t feel you are much clearer on your goals or actions, coming back week after week is not likely to help any more.
The other thing to consider career coaches of course don’t have an incentive to tell you they’ve done what they can and you should stop paying them; some are more scrupulous about this than others.
^ Completely agree with bchad. I have used career coaches myself, and any career coach worth his or her salt will check off the four points bchad mentioned. Also, you’re really paying for are three things: (1) the experience and wisdom of the coach, (2) their ability to communicate that clearly that to you in an actionable manner, and (3) a track record of getting people interviews and job offers.
I would not hire in a coach that couldn’t satisfactorily address all three points mentioned above, but would and have invested heavily in a coach that could. While the end goal is obviously to get a six-figure paying job in your desired field, the right coach will also teach you the tools needed to sustain on your own. In that sense, I also agree with bchad in that you can retain a coach opportunistically; the right coach will be more concerned about your own development at your own pace, rather than trying to pitch you on a bunch of stuff that you don’t need all at once.
Personally, the right coaching helped me put my career on a unique trajectory, taught me how to negotiate and leave nothing on the table, and helped me how to overcome obstacles that would have otherwise been insurmountable since I didn’t have the experience of my own to know what the ideal solutions were.
Numi, what’s your track record with the members on this site?
Thanks bchad and numi. Great information.
My ‘conversion date’ as defined by getting people to final rounds or offees is measurably higher from members here as opposed to non members. Most of my clients actually just come from casual readers of this site, WSO, or general word of mouth. However, the ones that do self-identity as AF members generally get very far or to the end of a hiring process, as they tend to be pretty intrinsically motivated (i.e. they have joined an Internet forum to learn how to further their careers).
About 30 of my clients have posted testimonials on my LinkedIn page (http://www.linkedin.com/in/numicareerconsulting), so that can give people a taste as to how I’ve performed as a coach. I’m always grateful for the feedback and am happy to have helped so many people get jobs, but as far as I’m concerned they did most of the hard work and they should get all the glory. I’ve been told that I’m a pretty demanding coach in the sense that I give my clients a lot of guidance which I expect them to follow through on, and when they land their dream job and get their payday, then everyone goes home happy.
I used to interact with lots of career coaches (was involved in organizing events when they presented their ideas).
From my experience there are some really good ones out there, but there are also lots of types that would take your money and give you little or nothig in return. I mean there are some coaches that put together bunch of banalities and would present them as their “methodology”, stuff that most people with common sense already know.
I think the better ones out there can add value and help you progress, but be sure you perform your due diligence and not waste your time/resources with mediocre ones.