Career coaching FAQs

How does career change coaching work?

The Firework™ career change coaching programme was developed by two of the UK’s leading coaches and takes a “whole life” approach to finding career direction. It has three phases: Explore, Dream and Discover. In the initial Explore phase you find out key information about who you really are and what you really want from both your life and your work. You therefore get very clear about what you must have to be satisfied and motivated.

In the second Dream phase, you generate possible career options which can then be tested against the key information gathered in Explore and then identify the career which is the best match for you. In the final Discover phase you create an action plan which will take you from where you are now to where you want to be.

If, you already know which field you want to be in and have a strong possibility in mind but want to check that it's right for you, completing the Explore part of the programme will enable you to do this.  Please see coaching packages to find out more about the nuts and bolts of how I work with clients on the programme.

How does career development coaching work?

If you want to improve your working life in some way, from managing a difficult boss, to ganining a promotion, you can have a series of one to one sessions either over the phone or face to face. These enable you to find your own solutions to making the changes you want.

We begin by identifying what you want to get from your coaching. By being clear about your goals, we can measure your progress with them.

And then we get on with helping you to meet them. Progress takes place outside the coaching session, as you follow through on actions you've agreed to in the sessions.

Who has career coaching?

My clients have included people in their 20s who are in the first phase of their career and wondering if they have made the right choice and people in their 30s and 40s who are successful and established in a particular field but perhaps feel bored and/or lacking in purpose. I also career coach managers who want promotion or who are struggling with work and career related issues of any kind, as well as people who want to switch between the public, private or voluntary sectors or become self-employed. Generally, the answer is anyone who either feels that their existing career is somehow not right for them, or who wants to develop further in the field they are in and/or deal with a work related problem.

How long does the career change programme take and how frequent are the sessions?

The full programme generally takes around 12 sessions (1 x 2 hour induction + 11 hour-long sessions). If someone is working, the frequency of sessions tends to be two or three per month. This maintains momentum while allowing the information clients are discovering about themselves to be absorbed. The whole career change programme can also be completed more quickly if clients can make the time for it. So, the duration varies according to clients' circumstances. I discuss what will work best for someone in their initial induction session.

What if I want to change my career and other areas of my life too?

The Firework™ programme is flexible so it’s absolutely fine to combine it with coaching on other issues. And because Firework™ takes a “whole life” approach to career direction, my clients have found that it has given them insights which lead to improvements in other areas of their lives.