How to become a career coach or career counselor
Updated 2024-11-04.. Originally published 2015-06-29 on VocationVillage.com
A reader asked me how to become a career coach or career counselor. People come to this career from a variety of different backgrounds and with diverse skills, but I wrote some thoughts.
I believe some characteristics that predict success in this career are:
- An intense curiosity about people and a desire to help them better their lives;
- Strong communication skills;
- Empathy;
- Patience;
- Willingness to learn about the workplace;
- Comfort with technology, especially as it relates to job search strategies; and
- Marketing skill to convince clients that working with a career coach is a good idea.
Career coaching and career counseling are related but different career paths. You will find lots of statements online about career coaching vs. career counseling, and those statements are often inaccurate. For instance, many articles claim that career counselors deal mainly in the past and career coaches deal mainly in the present. In reality, good career counselors focus on the past, present, and future. Career coaches do tend to focus on the present and future, but not always.
Another common claim is that career counselors mainly help clients with self-assessment and career coaches mainly help clients take action to reach their goals. This is a misleading generalization. Career development professionals choose a focus and style of working that is congruent with their training, personality, and chosen niche.
Here are some ways to explore a career as a career counselor and/or coach. As you gain experiences, you can decide whether this career is right for you.
Take classes
If your interest in career counseling is just one part of a desire to become a licensed professional counselor, you will need to complete a master’s degree in counseling. For this path, you will want to look up the state laws for counseling in your state and follow the requirements.
The American Counseling Association lists the state boards that regulate counseling in all U.S. states.
Some university level master’s programs offer a specialty track in career counseling. Here are some examples:
Colorado State University - M.A. in Counseling and Career Development
Penn State University - M.Ed. Counselor Education with a Career Counseling Emphasis
Some master’s programs in education or counseling don’t offer a specialization in career development, so their graduates must seek specialty training via continuing education. Here are examples of ways to gain career development expertise outside of a master’s program in counseling:
Cal State University Northridge - Certificate in Career Education and Counseling
University of California San Diego Extension - Certificate in Career Advising
University of Central Florida - Certificate in Career Counseling
Before you invest a lot of money in any type of education, interview a few people who graduated from the program. Try to find people who finished 2-5 years ago so that their experience is more relevant to you than people who graduated last week or graduated 20+ years ago.
While some career counselors are also psychologists, you don’t need to be a psychologist to build a successful career as a career counselor. Vocational psychologists are psychologists who have specialty expertise in career development, and this is a path available for people who want in-depth study of workplace psychology, to teach at a university level, to do research in the social sciences, or to consult with organizations. (Some of these opportunities are also open to master’s-level professionals.)
Join a professional organization
Some people choose to join a professional organization, such as the National Career Development Association or the International Coach Federation (ICF). This is optional because lots of successful professionals forego membership in these organizations and instead focus on joining the organizations where their clients are. If you want to coach for the U.S. federal government or for larger companies, ICF certification matters more to the decision-makers choosing coaches.
In the early years of my career, the organization that supported me the most was Webgrrls (which was an amazing organization when Aliza Sherman owned it). By attending events in my industry niche, I stayed current in the career challenges that my clients were tackling, and I met prospective clients. There was a time when most of my clients were members of Webgrrls.
Consider a specialization
Career development professionals can be generalists or specialists. Here are examples of some specialties:
- Career clarity coaching focusing on helping clients to choose a direction;
- Job search coaching, including interview practice;
- Salary negotiation and other types of negotiation;
- Career advancement coaching to move up within organizations;
- Entrepreneur coaching, including identifying business ideas and implementing them;
- Work/life integration, creating a better harmony between various life spheres;
- A specific industry, such as tech, law, or finance; and/or
- Career coaching focusing on a specific demographic, such as lawyers who want to change careers, software developers who want to move into management, or stay-at-home parents who want to return to the workplace.
If you are self-employed, one advantage of specializing is that it is easier to master the skills required for a narrower niche and to market it well before deciding whether to add a second niche.
In organizations, counselors often have a broader set of job responsibilities depending on the needs of the employer.
Volunteer
Volunteering is a smart way to do a reality test about your interest in career development. This is how I started when my job was in the software development industry and I had zero professional experience or education in psychology or career counseling. Job search support groups run by community nonprofit organizations and churches are often looking for facilitators and often someone with experience will train and mentor you in the beginning.
To find these opportunities, search your local community using keywords combining your city with “volunteer job search coach” or “volunteer career coach” or “volunteer career advisor.”
When I did this search in Austin, where I live, I found volunteer career coach opportunities with Dress for Success Austin.
If you have questions about career coaching or career counseling as a career, please reach out.
