A career transition coach, to put it simply, is a professional partner who supports you through real change.
There are several titles out there, such as career coach, career change coach and leadership coach, and I would like to clarify who does what and whether you need one.
There is often a point in your career when questions arise.
“How do I progress from here?”
“I don’t want to keep doing this, but where do I start?”
“How do I want to show up as a leader?”
These questions seem similar, but there is actually some nuance.
What Is a Career Transition or Career Change Coach?
Perhaps you’ve built a successful career, you’re respected by your colleagues and you’re earning well. Things look pretty good. But you feel increasingly disconnected from your work. You start wondering about another role, a completely different career, consulting or even self-employment.
And suddenly the questions keep piling up.
What am I actually good at outside the context of my current job? What would I enjoy doing? How much of my experience is transferable? Can I afford to make a change? What if I make the wrong decision and don’t enjoy my new path?
This is often where a career transition coach can be helpful.
A career transition coach helps you understand what you want from the next stage of your working life and turn that understanding into a realistic way forward.
A career transition coach works with people who have the desire to move from one stage of their career into another.
That transition can take many forms. You might be leaving a profession you’ve worked in for 20 years, returning to work after a career break, moving into a different role or industry, dealing with what comes after redundancy or considering leaving employment to work for yourself.
The important words here are transition and change.
A good career transition or career change coach gives you the space and structure to explore topics like income, professional identity and lifestyle before deciding what comes next.
My own work starts by looking at what’s driving the desire for change and what is holding someone back from making the transition. From there, we go into a deep exploration of their strengths, skills, values and motivations so that they gain a really good understanding of what they bring to the next chapter. Only then do we start generating and evaluating possible directions.
In short, a career transition coach helps you understand what you want from the next stage of your working life and turn that understanding into a realistic way forward.
How Is a Career Transition Coach Different From a Career Coach?
There are many titles being used for similar things, and it is always worth clarifying what the coach specialises in.
Often, traditional career coaches support you with finding a new role by helping you with your CV, writing motivation letters and preparing for interviews. Others will help you with getting promoted or building confidence at work.
A career transition coach tends to work more specifically at moments of significant change.
You may know that your current career no longer fits, but have very little idea what should replace it. Or perhaps you have several possibilities and can’t decide which one deserves your attention.
At this stage, jumping straight into CVs, job searches or business plans can be premature. This tends to solve a short-term problem, but not the core of the dissatisfaction.
To make change future-proof, it is advisable to understand who you are and what you want outside the parameters of your current job.
One of my clients described this as gaining a better understanding of who they were as a person, separate from their profession, and understanding the values driving their career change.
That separation can be incredibly important as it takes into consideration many general lifestyle factors in addition to work-related questions.
What Does a Career Transition Coach Actually Do?
Career transition coaching should help you move from endless thinking towards greater clarity and action.
Exactly what happens will depend on where you are in your transition, as every coaching journey develops differently. But I tend to work through several stages, starting from the inside out.
We might begin by looking at your current situation. What’s working? What’s not working? What fears or assumptions are stopping you from moving forward?
Then we dig deeper into your personality.
Your values. Your strengths. Your transferable skills. The environments in which you thrive. The things that give you energy and the things you no longer want.
I firmly believe that this self-awareness work is a non-negotiable starting point because it’s very difficult to choose a good next step if you don’t understand what’s important to you.
From there, the focus shifts towards possibilities.
This is where coaching can help you look beyond the most obvious options. Someone who has spent years in HR, law, finance or project management will naturally see their skills through the lens of that profession. When you start separating the skill from the job title, considerably more possibilities can appear.
Those ideas then need to be narrowed down into feasible and realistic options, and they need to be future-proofed.
In my programmes, this can include evaluating possibilities against your strengths and values, considering financial implications, exploring different transition scenarios and designing small experiments to validate an idea before making a significant leap.
The aim is to leave with something much more tangible than a vague idea that you should change careers. You need clarity, direction and practical next steps – that’s what we will work towards.
Who Needs a Career Transition Coach?
You probably don’t need a career transition coach simply because you’ve had a bad week at work.
But if you have been unhappy at work for a while, coaching may be worth considering.
Before my own change, I noticed a physical pain in my throat which couldn’t be diagnosed by the doctors and which didn’t go away. That’s really when you should pull the emergency brake and seek help.
You might benefit from working with a career transition coach if you:
- have built a successful career but no longer feel fulfilled by your work
- know something needs to change but don’t know where to start
- are considering several options and keep going around in circles
- want to understand what your existing skills could translate into
- have experienced a change in circumstances and are now considering consulting, freelancing or self-employment
- feel that fear, uncertainty or overthinking are preventing you from taking action
- want to make a thoughtful transition rather than an unplanned exit
People start from very different places and not everyone needs full career transition coaching. That’s why I designed the What’s Next? Clarity Session around understanding what is driving the dissatisfaction, exploring realistic possibilities and deciding which option deserves attention first. It’s a light version of the full programme for those who are unsure if coaching is the right next step for them.
What to Look for When Choosing a Coach
Finding the right career transition coach is quite personal. You’re likely to go through an emotional journey and talk about sensitive matters such as money, confidence, identity, fears and ambitions, so you need someone you feel comfortable being open with.
Start by looking at who they typically work with. A coach who specialises in graduates choosing their first career will bring different experience from someone who works with experienced corporate professionals considering self-employment.
Look at their training and coaching credentials. Unfortunately, the coaching profession isn’t regulated, but a good indication will be whether they are certified through a professional coaching institute and whether they are a member of the International Coaching Federation or a European equivalent.
Also, get a taste of their work. Many coaches offer free sample sessions and will give you a chance to get to know them and find out how they work.
For me, career change coaching needs both structure and flexibility. One client described our work as being able to pivot towards what they needed on the day while still keeping sight of their longer-term goals. It’s easy to get carried away with day-to-day challenges, but having a framework in place helps you stay on track.
Coming back to the questions from the top, this is where the nuances are:
“How do I progress from here?” – Start with a career coach.
“I don’t want to keep doing this, but where do I start?” – This is where a career transition or career change coach will be the best contact.
“How do I want to show up as a leader?” – A leadership coach.
I’m Aurelia, a certified career change coach helping corporate professionals build a realistic path into self-employment so that they can leave their employment and create work that actually matters to them.
If you’re wondering what your own next chapter could look like, you can book a free Career Clarity Call. No selling, just an honest conversation about where you are and what you might need to move forward.