From HR to Career Coach – How to Get Started

It’s now widely recognised that having access to a Career Coach during a redundancy process can have a significant impact upon an employee’s job search and career transition prospects. It’s no surprise then that outplacement providers will always be on the lookout for Coaches with the skills and experiences required to provide exceptional support when it’s really needed.

But what does a Career Coach in the outplacement sector look like? Often working on a self-employed basis as an Associate, they will typically have a track record of having worked with a large number of individuals from a wide variety of industries and levels of seniority, will be experienced and confident in their subject matter content and will be able to tailor advice to a diverse range of needs, circumstances and abilities. More often than not, HR Professionals or those working within Employee Relations, Talent, or L&D related roles, are of the requisite profile and have garnered some of the relevant skills needed to succeed as a Career Coach and often tend to have a natural affinity with the goals of an employee looking for their next career step.

In reality however, obtaining the experience necessary to thrive in the role can take time and requires some careful planning. With that in mind we’ve put together a brief guide with a few key things to think about, when it comes to considering outplacement coaching as a potential career move and what steps you might want to take, to work towards a role as a Career Coach.

Build your knowledge

It may seem obvious but developing your knowledge of all things Career Coaching by being pro-active, is essential. Carrying out online research and reading, joining networking groups, talking to other Career Coaches, spending time exploring job boards, navigating LinkedIn and reviewing CVs, are all valuable ways to gain exposure of day-to-day career coaching activities. Whilst there is no official career coaching qualification necessary for the outplacement industry, some coaches still choose to complete a more generic coaching qualification through professional bodies, such as ICF or ILM to gain broader coaching related knowledge. Either way, doing the groundwork is essential.

Explore opportunities to develop your skills

Once you’ve started to work on some of the basic skills, the next step is to gain some hands-on experience. If you are currently working for an organisation, it’s worth exploring the notion of offering colleagues support with topics such as career planning, internal recruitment or onboarding processes. If you are offered career coaching yourself then use this as an opportunity to explore what a Career Coach does and how the support is delivered. In reality, there’s no substitute for practical experience.

Utilise your network

As well as tapping into pre-existing opportunities which may exist within your own workplace, try and make the most of your existing network as well. Whether that be supporting colleagues at work or friends and family, try to generate opportunities to assist those you know, by offering support with career transition and job-related activity. Whilst this kind of work may well be unpaid (at least initially), it should provide plenty of opportunity to gain additional experience in what may be a less pressurised setting and with scope for you to use the coaching time more beneficially for your own skills development. Whilst it’s important not to do too much at once, it’s still worth taking advantage of as many opportunities as you can, to gain exposure in the key areas required to be a successful Career Coach.

Share your insights

Once you feel confident doing so, start to put into practice some of the key behaviours and learnings which you’ve developed. Look at sharing some of your own insights online in relation to Career Coaching and Outplacement related topics. Look also at adding value where you can by contributing to relevant discussion groups and threads and share content of your own to help build your profile. You can also look to utilise blog posts, videos, or social media to establish your own credibility and position yourself as something of a thought leader. The more you can do to drive awareness of your potential value as a Career Coach and appreciation of your commitment to the cause, the more likely you are to get to where you want to be, much more quickly.

Renovo is the UK’s leading specialist provider of Career Transition and Outplacement support. If you’d be keen to have a conversation about the support we provide, or you’re interested in coaching opportunities and believe you have the necessary skills and experiences, then we’d love to hear from you.