Should You Hire a Career Coach for Job Search or Interview Help?

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You’ve likely used a professional resume writer to create your new resume and now you are wondering if working with a career coach who specializes in job search coaching or interview coaching will also make a difference.

Maybe you are wondering if it’s even necessary!

So in this second installment, I’m going to tell you everything you need to understand about working with career coaches who specialize in interview coaching, salary negotiation coaching, and job search coaching.

Career Coaching, Career Coaches, and You

So many job seekers believe that if they just have a good resume that it will act like a magic bullet and get them interviews (and thus job offers).

Your resume IS critical to standing out.

But you’ve got to get an employer to see it first!

And, once you get in the door, you’ve got to be able to sell yourself, negotiate the offer, and avoid critical mistakes that could cost you the offer.

But I don’t want to overwhelm you so let’s take it one piece at a time.

Job Search

Spend a few moments online and it can be extremely exciting to see just how many jobs you appear to match.

It seems like once you have a great resume it should be easy to get the interviews you want.

It’s important that you don’t let this lull you into a false sense of security.

I want you to think of your new resume as if it were an amazing new sports car that someone just delivered into your driveway.

You’re so excited to receive it and you look it up and down, marveling at its sleek beauty.

You think of the incredible drives you are going to take and what people will say when they see you in it.

Then you are informed that you still need to buy an engine before you can drive it.

Your excitement plummets.

The car is gorgeous but it’s basically worthless until you get that engine.

Well, job search (and interviewing) strategy are the engine required to power your resume.

You could literally be the most qualified candidate on earth for the target position.

You could have the best resume for the target position.

But if you can’t get it to the decision maker, it won’t work for you.

So, you’ve got to POWER your resume with effective strategy.

However, that is a lot harder than it might first sound if you don’t perform job search for a living.

(But good news, it’s a lot less expensive than buying an actual engine for a sports car!)

Consider these facts:

• 80% of all jobs are never advertised.
• Many job postings you see online may never result in an interview.

It can be very discouraging and make it easy for you to doubt yourself.

So why does this happen?

There are a few factors such as:

• Employer is just testing the market with their job post to see what the applicant pool looks like.
• Employer is posting to job boards to fulfill EEO requirements even though they have an internal applicant selected.
• Employer becomes overwhelmed by volume of applicants and goes a different direction.
• Employer experiences changes that makes them stop the process.
• Employer receives a direct inquiry through networking that fits the position and helps them avoid wading through the applicants.
• Employer avoids posting altogether and searches for someone through different channels.

Let’s face it, without strategy and instruction the online job market will take you on a merry ride.

And, this doesn’t even yet take into consideration issues of your online identity and whether it is non-existent, helpful, or harmful.

There are so many moving pieces to a job search that can totally overwhelm and distress you.

We want to get you off (and keep you off) that merry-go-round!

When you work with a qualified career coach who specializes in job search strategy, you don’t ever have to get dizzy or discouraged.

You won’t be going round and round wondering why the phone isn’t ringing.

Your job search coach can help you to:

• Stop wasting time on ineffective job search methods that have little return for your effort.
• Understand your options for effective, targeted job search so you do it right the first time and don’t miss out on those dream opportunities.
• Identify opportunities that never get posted or target the creation of a position for you.
• Recognize the value of networking and how to make it painless.
• Establish or clean up your online identity and social strategy to reach employers through different channels.
• Understand agencies, recruiters, and direct application methods.

Most importantly, your job search coach can help you shave a tremendous amount of time off your job search so you land at the interview and the offer in record time.

So what is a record?

Results may vary but an example I have is a career changer I just finished working with.

Not only was he making a change but he had hurdles in terms of high former salary and desire to put quality of life ahead of work. He also wanted to downsize his responsibility without compromising his lifestyle.

This is one of those BIG challenges that can leave even seasoned pros quavering.

• Lower job title.
• Great pay and benefits.
• Overqualified by far for the target positions.

Despite this, he had six interviews and three offers in less than two months.

Further, time is money in your job search.

If the average job search takes one month for every ten thousand dollars you want to make, you could be in dire straits by the time you land your next position when you go it alone.

Plus, when stress rises from financial fear, this can affect your job search and interview positioning.

Your livelihood is not something you want to play roulette with!

Sometimes it helps to see this in perspective.

When I work with new college graduates, I’ve always pointed out to them that they just finished investing 5 years of their life (undergrad) and $80K to get their degree. Now, isn’t it worth spending $1500-3000 to effectively market yourself and land a job in your field? The statistics for new grads who go it alone is very low, with an average of 20% ever working in their field of study.

Grads who receive professional, strategic assistance from a career coach have an 80-100% success rate.

I know which path I would pick!

None of us wants to waste our time and talent not to get the job we want.

A talented coach will help you to dramatically accelerate your search, remove the stress, and help you get interviews for the jobs you want.

Looking for job search strategy and coaching?

Use our Find a Career Pro Directory >>

Here at CDI we certify career coaches with our Certified Professional in Online Job Search & Reputation Management (CP-OJSRM) credential.

Members are worldwide and possess a broad array of qualifications and specialties from CDI as well as from other industry organizations.

You can learn more about selecting a professional here.

Interviewing & Salary Negotiation

So, the combination of your great resume and the job search strategy your career coach provided landed you the interview.

The words I fear to hear from job seekers is, “I’m a pretty good talker so I’ll just give it a shot and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll work with you then.”

Even if you sell professionally for a living, you likely don’t know how to sell yourself in the best light for a job.

There is so much that can go wrong, such as:

• Your answers are too generic and even though you say a lot, it’s like you hit a fly ball that started with promise and then went out of bounds.
• Your questions are selfish and don’t demonstrate interest in the position.
• You fail to stand out from the other candidates.
• You aren’t dressed for the company culture.
• You don’t know how to negotiate and lose an offer early (or take an offer too low).
• You don’t know how to follow up to salvage an interview gone wrong.

Interviewing is an uneven playing field!

You rarely get to see your competitors perform so you have no idea what you are up against.

But at the end of the day, there can be only one winner.

You can’t afford for it not to be you.

A talented interview coach puts you into a position of power to flow through your interviews with success.

You get to negotiate offers and decide whether to turn them down.

You know you have the skill to win this unbalanced game!

Better yet, your interview and salary negotiation coach can help you make more money!

I don’t care what level you are at, everything is negotiable.

What if your coach could teach you just one question to ask that can result in an increase of $15-30K?

They can!

To me that alone is worth learning to master the interview.

But not only will a coach help you to make more with their effective strategy, but they can save you from accepting an offer that is too low and for which you will likely never recover.

Let me give you an example:

You get offered a great job and you think the salary sounds pretty good. You sold yourself well in the interview and the offer is in the median range, so you take it without negotiating.

You’re really happy until you find out that you’re the lowest paid person in that role in the company.

Ok, ok, you buckle down to prove yourself over the next year to get a good raise. Your boss excitedly tells you that you received the highest department raise at 23 cents an hour. You then realize with shock that the only way you can really increase your salary to the level of everyone else is to leave the company and go somewhere else.

We don’t want this to happen to you!

But yet interview coaches see professionals making this mistake of accepting good offers every day without negotiating them.

Oh, there are so many pitfalls I could outline for you about interviews and salary negotiations gone wrong. But luckily if you work with a professional, you can avoid these issues and do it right the first time.

When you work with an interview coach you can avoid the pitfalls and get to the lucrative offer you want and deserve! 

Looking for an interview coach?

Use our Find a Career Pro Directory >>

Here at CDI we certify career coaches with our Certified Employment Interview Consultant (CEIC) credential.

Members are worldwide and possess a broad array of qualifications and specialties from CDI as well as from other industry organizations.

You can learn more about selecting a professional here.

Get Started Today

So, here’s to landing the job of your dreams at a salary that will make you smile!

It all starts with a career professional:

• A professional resume writer will help you create the best marketing resume you can have.
• A job search coach (career coach) will prepare you to navigate the hidden job market for a winning job search.
• An interview and salary negotiation coach (career coach) will ensure you nail the interview and land your next position at the highest possible salary.