Our lives and careers are inseparable from each other.

No matter how much we say that we keep our personal and professional lives separate, the truth is that we are not machines.

Whatever happens in one part of our lives invariably affects the other.

A fulfilling career is important for a fulfilling life. 

That’s exactly why we need professional career coaches. They guide us towards a fulfilling career.

What is a career coach?

Career coaches help professionals solve career issues and achieve professional growth.

There are various kinds of professional coaching services and career coaches for different kinds of career situations and problems.

What do different types of career coaches do? Let’s find out…

1. Career Discovery Coaching

Career discovery coaching is for finding your profession. The first step towards a fulfilling career is finding your life’s calling.

But more often than not, we find ourselves in jobs that we end up hating. Career discovery coaching helps us to avoid such situations in life.

Career discovery coaches deep dive into your background, skills, motivators, and aspirations to guide you towards the most suitable job. They will help you discover a job that you are good at and also enjoy doing the work.

Who Would Benefit From Career Discovery Coaches?

Professionals who:

  • Hate their job.
  • Feel stuck at work and need a change.
  • Don’t feel the passion for their career like they used to.
  • Often feel bored or exhausted while working.
  • Are looking for a career transition.
  • Are new, or soon-to-be, graduates looking for career options.

2. Resume Development Coaching

Resume development coaching is a specialty coaching service that uses resume development as a means of delivering coaching sessions.

Resume development coaches are often experienced resume, LinkedIn, and career document writers and developers.

They will coach you through making changes to your job search documents.

As a result, you will learn what’s important in your career as well as how to showcase those important aspects of your career on paper.

As the process comes to an end, you will also have a brand new set of career documents.

Who Would Benefit From Resume Development Coaches?

Professionals that want to:

  • Learn the best ways of presenting themselves on paper.
  • Learn resume and LinkedIn profile writing.
  • Get their career documents updated.
  • Understand the logic behind your resume creation process.
  • Learn to tailor their resume for each job they apply for.

3. Interview Coaching

Interview coaching services are designed to develop your interview skills.

Interview coaches guide professionals through all the practices and strategies for having successful interviews.

They will prepare you for likely interview questions through mock interviews.

You will be able to practice your interview answers to get valuable feedback for further improvement.

An interview coach will also train you on body language, appearance, and how to feel and appear your best during interviews.

Who Would Benefit From Interview Coaches?

Professionals who:

  • Are afraid of interviews.
  • Are not getting a job even after attending many interviews.
  • Want to make sure they’re doing their best during interviews.
  • Want to make sure their interview skills are up to the mark.
  • Want to work on presenting themselves professionally.

4. Job Search Coaching

Job search coaching services will teach you how to conduct a successful and efficient job search.

Searching for a job is a full-time job in itself. There are so many tasks involved with it.

Keeping tabs on numerous job boards for finding a good job, updating and tailoring your resume and cover letter for each application, optimizing your online profiles, preparing for interviews, following up after interviews, networking with professional contacts, and much more.

There’s so much going on that it’s easy to feel exhausted or get stuck.

A job search coach can help you with actionable guidance, expert tips, tools, and strategies for finding a job.

Who Would Benefit From Job Search Coaches?

Job seekers who:

  • Are struggling to find good jobs to apply for.
  • Want to know if they are applying for the right jobs.
  • Want to learn how to tailor career documents for each job application.
  • Want to get a better job and don’t want to waste time figuring it out themselves.
  • Feel frustrated after not getting interviews or jobs for quite some time.

5. Networking Coaching

Networking coaching services teach professional networking and how to utilize the power of networking for career development.

Networking is often considered the best way to find a new job.

Numerous studies say that around 60-80% of all jobs are filled via networking.

Networking coaches are here to make that happen for you too.

You will learn the ins and outs of online and offline networking best practices.

Who Would Benefit From Networking Coaches?

Professionals that want to: 

  • Supercharge their professional growth with the power of networking.
  • Learn how “the hidden job market” works.
  • Learn how to find and approach valuable connections and decision-makers.
  • Learn how to use LinkedIn tools for networking.
  • Feel confident while approaching connections.

6. Salary Negotiation Coaching

Salary negotiation coaching helps you to get the best salary package that you deserve.

If you do not negotiate your first salary, you may lose about $1,000,000 throughout your career!

However, many professionals often do not put much thought into improving their negotiation skills.

A salary negotiation coach will teach you to evaluate salary packages, understand your worth in the market, utilize negotiation skills to your advantage, develop the right mindset, and much more.

You will also learn how you can use the same skills and knowledge while negotiating a raise or promotion.

Who Would Benefit From Salary Negotiation Coaches?

Professionals who:

  • Feel uncomfortable having the “money talk”.
  • Want to hone their negotiation skills before job interviews.
  • Want to make sure they get the best salary package.
  • Want to start a promotion conversation with their boss.
  • Want to evaluate current market trends before applying for jobs.

7. Career Development Coaching

Career development coaching is for professionals who are feeling stuck at a certain point in their career.

They may have senior positions with lucrative salary packages, but they want to explore even higher positions.

After all, there’s no end to career growth. At least, that should be the mindset.

Career development coaches also help you to achieve career growth or enable you to do your best wherever you are in your career.

Who Would Benefit From Career Development Coaches?

Professionals that want to:

  • Increase their productivity.
  • Apply for better and higher-level roles.
  • Earn a raise or promotion.
  • Be the best in their profession.
  • Continuously work on their career and be on top of their game.

8. Leadership Coaching

Leadership coaching is for professionals leading a team or project.

You may have been recently promoted or have been assigned a new team. Or, you simply want to learn how to lead more effectively.

Leadership coaches can help you understand how to master leadership skills so that your team and project can see success under your oversight and guidance.

Even if you are not in a leadership role, leadership coaching can help you prepare for the future.

Who Would Benefit From Leadership Coaches?

Current and aspiring leaders that:

  • Have recently been promoted to leadership roles.
  • Feel a lack of confidence while leading.
  • Find it difficult to assign tasks and direct team members.
  • Struggle to lead or manage a team or project.
  • Want to speed up the process of getting promoted by showing leadership skills.

9. Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is for executives looking to improve their productivity, advance their skillset, and bullet-proof their work-life balance.

Executive coaching is usually aligned with the specific role of the executive and their organizational goals.

This type of coaching can be beneficial for new executives to get a head start on the job. The coaching can also be equally helpful for seasoned executives looking to advance their careers.

Executive coaching is similar to leadership coaching but takes a whole-person approach rather than solely focusing on leadership qualities.

Who Would Benefit From Executive Coaches?

New, current, and aspiring executives who want to:

  • Move up the corporate ladder.
  • Increase productivity and improve skills.
  • Improve work-life balance.
  • Get a head start in their executive career.
  • Make a greater impact on organizational success.

10. Succession Coaching

A transition within an organization can be stressful for all parties involved.

It can be challenging for the new leader, confusing for the team members, and unnerving for the whole company.

That’s where succession coaching comes in.

Succession coaches help all parties steer through the new changes with as little friction as possible.

They can develop the transition plan and carry out the implementation if needed.

Succession coaching can be organization-wide or just for particular employees.

A succession coach guides the incoming and outgoing leadership and the team members throughout the process.

Who Would Benefit From Succession Coaches?

  • Leaders joining a new team.
  • Leaders stepping into a new position.
  • Team members starting to work under a different administration.
  • Organization going through a transition.
  • A company going through a talent restructuring.

11. Team Coaching

Team coaching enables teams to sync better and work together for an organizational goal or objective.

Team coaches often engage with the whole team to resolve conflicts and improve cooperation skills.

They also can offer one-on-one coaching to individual team members if required.

Team coaching often brings positive results in improving the productivity of teams.

Who Would Benefit From Team Coaches?

  • Teams struggling in achieving objectives.
  • Team members finding it difficult to work together.
  • New teams starting to work on challenging projects.
  • Teams that want to increase productivity.
  • Companies that want to form new teams and ensure optimal performance.

12. Success Coaching

Success coaching is for people facing barriers on their way to personal and professional growth.

Success coaches adopt numerous personal development tools and techniques to motivate and inspire people to remove the blocks impeding their success.

Companies can hire success coaches for entire teams.

Success coaches often integrate counseling and psychoanalysis to find individual motivators and use them for a sustained success mindset.

Who Would Benefit From Success Coaches?

Professionals who:

  • Are not content with their professional lives.
  • Want to achieve more professional growth.
  • Struggle with a lack of motivation.
  • Struggle with work-life balance.

Key Takeaways

Now that you know what professional career coaches do, it’s time to find a coach for your specific career needs.

To find a career coach, you can Google the type of coach you’re looking for. You should have many suitable options to choose from.

You can also search for career coaching services through The Muse and LinkedIn Marketplace.

Check out the best career coaching services in America for some more great options!