Reprinted with permission © 2008 TreeTop Technologies

If you’ve ever thought it seemed a little funny when people say they’ve used a career coach or when a company contracted an outplacement firm to help downsized employees find their next positions, you may want to reassess your views of both processes.

“Using a coach or outplacement consultant to build your career is like the difference between doing your workouts alone vs. using a really good personal trainer,” notes Marion Freiberg, a life and career coach with her own consulting firm, Breakthrough, as well as a career consultant for Keystone Associates, a career management and outplacement firm.

A problem that people often face is not knowing how or when to advance in their job trajectory or consider a slightly (or even completely) different career path, she notes, and both job coaches and outplacement consultants can help. Those who could benefit from hiring a career coach are people who are being let go from their jobs and people with secure jobs who are taking on new responsibilities or who are just not as satisfied with their jobs as they would like to be.

Hooking up with a good career coach or outplacement consultant means hooking up with someone who knows your industry or job territory well—or who knows the market to which you would like to shift, Freiberg explains. They also know the new behaviors and skills you would benefit from strengthening. Working with any coach means you will be encouraged to step out of your comfort zone.

“Using these kinds of professionals, you come away with stronger outcomes, either in finding a better job or one that is more meaningful to you,” Freiberg says. She adds that an equally important outcome is more self-awareness, as career coaches and outplacement consultants can help people learn more about themselves. “As you go through the process, you typically become more self-aware of what it is you want to do and what you can do and what is enjoyable to you. So, if you’ve lost your focus a bit—which happens to a lot of people—you come back refocused about what work energizes you and what positions might give you what you need, so that you can enjoy yourself more and also give your best to a company.”

And companies often are grateful to get the kind of people who have invested in the “personal training” that career coaches and outplacement consultants provide, Freiberg says. “They get people who have fewer blind spots about themselves, more awareness of what they do well, more focus, better people skills, and often more humility as well as more confidence.”

Career coaches and outplacement firms can sometimes serve as an intermediary or bridge between professionals and the staffing or recruitment firms that want to match them to jobs. By going through the coaching or outplacement process, people are often better equipped to tell a staffing firm what they need in terms of a job. Also, career coaches and outplacement consultants often can help match people to specific recruiters who will be the best fit for them.

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Footnotes: From "View from the TreeTop" Volume 2 Issue 6 June 2008