Path to Career Coaching

I wanted to expand a bit more on my last post about my career plans.

I am currently working toward a Master of Education with a concentration in higher education.  My goal for this is to become qualified to be a career coach.  One of my greatest joys in life in helping others, so after a year and a half working as a book designer, I realized I needed a career that was more interactive.  While my first love is still writing and editing, I wanted to find a career that combined my joy of helping others with my love of editing and writing, while also adding in a bit of teaching, consulting, and one-on-one conversations.  I started looking around and met with a career counselor at my alma mater to take the Strong Interest Inventory.  My top job matches were HR positions, but third on the list was 'career counselor.'  I started doing informational interviews with counselors at my school and realized that this seemed like a perfect career fit.  I applied and was accepted to a career services office to gain experience first-hand.  This has helped solidify my desire to work as a career coach, but I still find myself wavering sometimes, missing my first career in publishing.

But I digress.  Since I am working toward being a career coach, I started thinking about different options available to me.  Some questions I've had to ask myself include: who do I want to work with? what obstacles do they face? what services will I provide to help them overcome their obstacles?  These questions are important because they will help me maintain focus as I work my way through my graduate program.  I want to be able to hone in on what types of jobs I want to apply for and what types of people I want to work with (whether a specific program or a more broad, university-wide student body).

Back to my earlier digression about missing publishing, I have also started thinking of ways to combine these two careers.  Maybe I can write career books after I have some experience in the field?  Or maybe there is a magazine I can work for where I write career and relationship articles?  At this stage in my life, all the doors seem wide open, which is a pretty scary point to be at.  I know the world is my oyster right now, but having so many options open can be a little intimidating at times, especially as a generalist that finds joy in many different things (I had two earlier career options of dietitian and financial planner).  I feel like I need to nail everything down and have it all figured out, but I definitely do not (which as a planner, is an extremely difficult point to be at). 

Hopefully all of these hours spent trying to figure out a career path will benefit me and my clients when I finally become a career coach.  Since I was filled with so much uncertainty at times (and still am sometimes), I feel I will be able to help students come to terms with their own uncertainty and help them realize that just because they don't have it all figured out doesn't mean that they will fail.