How to Become a Career Coach in 7 Steps

A career coach is someone who helps people achieve their career goals and get to where they want to be professionally. Not only that—career coaches also offer guidance to people who aren’t sure what they want to do for work, helping them determine what types of roles are a good fit for them.

They may work in many different contexts, including educational institutions, corporate settings, and even prisons. They work with both unemployed job seekers and people looking to navigate challenges within their current role.

The duties and responsibilities of a career coach include helping clients with the following tasks:

• Assessing their professional skills: This involves giving clients career assessments and evaluating their strengths, weaknesses, and suitability for certain jobs or career paths.
• Setting career goals: Career coaches help their clients to set realistic short- and long-term goals, plus action plans and strategies to reach them.
• Applying for jobs: People often want career coaches to help them fill out applications and advise them on how to write appealing resumes and cover letters (including how to tailor these documents to specific job applications).
• Job hunting: Career coaching often includes guidance on how to use job search engines and other job-seeking resources and techniques (such as optimizing a LinkedIn profile).
• Evaluating job descriptions: Coaches help clients evaluate which jobs are a good fit as well as help them determine which postings do not represent actual jobs.
• Preparing for interviews: This means conducting mock interviews for clients and coaching them in strategies like the STAR method (STAR stands for “situation, task, action and result,” and it’s a popular strategy for answering certain types of interview questions).
• Developing new skills: Career coaches identify skill gaps and recommend educational opportunities to help their clients develop professionally.
• Evaluating job offers: This includes reviewing contracts and salaries and helping clients choose between multiple offers if necessary.
• Negotiating employment terms: Career coaches also often help clients negotiate employment terms (e.g., salary and contractual agreements).

A career coach’s work doesn’t necessarily end when their client lands a job. They might also help them as they start in their new role, providing support with onboarding and setting the stage for long-term career growth within the organization.

You don’t need any special qualifications to become a career coach. However, it’s not a job that just anybody can do. You’ll need certain skills, knowledge, and expertise to properly guide your clients and build up the reputation necessary to succeed.

Skills

To be a good career coach, you’ll need the following skills:

• Active listening and communication: As a career coach, you have to understand your clients’ needs, so you must be good at carefully listening to them and asking intelligent questions.
• Empathy and compassion: Clients want to work with someone who will empathize with and support them while they’re on their professional development journey.
• Problem solving: As a career coach, you should be able to identify the problems that are holding your clients back and come up with strategies to solve them.
• Organization: Career coaches have to keep tabs on their clients’ appointments, goals, and career progress as well as provide structured and actionable guidance.
• Attention to detail: Different clients need different types of help. As a career coach, you’ll need to be able to tailor your coaching approach to meet their needs, taking into account everything from their professional skills to their family commitments and health considerations.
• Conflict resolution: The workplace can be stressful for many people. As such, conflict resolution skills are especially important for career coaches, who often help clients deal with workplace conflicts and solve interpersonal issues.

It’s okay if you haven’t perfected all of these skills yet, but you should keep working on them as your career coaching side hustle gathers momentum.

Education

You don’t need a degree or any formal training or qualifications to become a career coach. With that said, it’s very common for career coaches to have degrees. Here are a few popular subjects:

• Psychology
• Business
• Counseling
• Human resources
• Sociology
• Education

We asked Adina Zinn, a professional career coach, how important a degree is for this line of work. She said “I don’t think my undergraduate or graduate degrees are connected to/helpful for being a career coach. But I do think my life experience and the wisdom that I have gained in my long life add a great deal to what I offer as a coach.”

Experience

As a career coach, your clients will be paying you for your knowledge, expertise, or experience with career coaching. And while it may be possible to get away with charging clients money for expertise you don’t have, doing so is widely considered unethical, including by Zinn.

If you plan to specialize in servicing a certain clientele, you’ll need to understand your niche. For example, Zinn says if you’re working as an executive coach, you should have experience working with executives. If you’re coaching medical professionals, you need to understand that niche.

In terms of work experience for any type of career coaching role, Zinn says having a background in recruiting or HR is a huge advantage. “Someone with this background knows what hiring managers are looking for, what a good resume looks like, etc.,” she added.

When it comes to coaching jobs, including career coaching, you have two ways of getting into the industry. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Option 1: Get a job with a company or organization

If you’d prefer the job security and guarantee of a steady income that comes with being employed by someone else, you can look for jobs with employers like these:

• Colleges and universities: These institutions sometimes advertise roles for career coaches. They often have dedicated career services offices to help students and alumni with career development.
• Large companies: Big companies also sometimes have in-house career coaching programs or hire external coaches to support their employees.
• Nonprofit organizations: Nonprofits, especially those focused on workforce development and employment services, often hire career coaches to help people from underserved communities or disadvantaged backgrounds.
• HR and workforce solutions providers: These are companies that help other companies with hiring, employee development (e.g., training), and management. They also sometimes hire career coaches.
• Dedicated coaching companies: These companies provide services such as career coaching, life coaching, and executive coaching for people or organizations. Some coaching companies also specialize exclusively in career coaching.

As an employee career coach, you may be expected to follow specific instructions in terms of what you say to your clients and how long your sessions last. This is what Zinn experienced when she got hired for a staff career coach position.

“I quickly realized they had an extremely ‘cookie cutter’ approach to coaching. Every session was scripted and timed,” she recollected. This went against her business model, and in the end, she opted to pull out from working with the company and instead focus her energy on developing her own career coaching business.

Nevertheless, if you’re just learning the ropes of career coaching, this structured approach may help you understand client expectations and gain coaching skills and experience while you find your own coaching style. If you choose to go this route, you can usually find full-time or part-time career coaching positions on job boards like Indeed, Monster, and ZipRecruiter.

Option 2: Start your own business

Many career coaches work independently, either on a freelance basis or by running their own businesses. If you do this, you’ll get a lot more freedom in terms of when and where you work.

This is great if you’re coaching as a side hustle and accommodating other commitments. You also can control who you work with, how much you charge, and other aspects of your professional life.

In theory, you can also earn a higher hourly rate if you’re not working for someone else, since no one will siphon off any of your profits. However, you’ll have to shoulder the additional responsibilities of running your own business, such as scheduling sessions, managing your finances, and handling administrative tasks.

In the initial stages, here’s what setting up a business will typically involve:

• Choosing a business name
• Creating a business plan (not mandatory, but advisable)
• Creating a website
• Opening a business bank account (also not always mandatory, but advisable)
• Registering your business, if required in your jurisdiction
• Getting business insurance
• Marketing and promoting your services

Becoming a self-employed career coach isn’t like other career paths where you can simply apply for job openings. You need to find your own clients, which requires knowledge, expertise, and hard work. Thankfully, the whole process is a lot easier when you have a clear idea of what steps you need to take.

1. Choose a specialization

Many career coaches focus on a specialized niche within their field. Specialization makes you more appealing to clients looking for guidance in a specific area. Coaches who do this also often command higher rates.

Below are a few examples of career coaching niches you can choose:

• Executive and leadership coaching
• Career transition coaching
• Job search coaching
• Job interview coaching
• Entrepreneurship coaching

You can also specialize in a particular industry. Picking one you’ve previously worked in is one good way to do this.

If you can’t decide on a niche yet, you can always start with general career coaching. Ultimately, though, you’ll want to find out where your interests and strengths lie and then specialize accordingly to achieve the most success.

One key benefit to niching down is attracting more business and making more money. “Conventional wisdom is to choose a niche so people can find you,” Zinn confirmed.

Although Zinn never specialized herself, it’s something she’s considering doing now, 4 years into her career—but not for the money. Rather, she believes specializing may help her do work that gives her the “most satisfaction.”

2. Get credentialed

Even though you don’t need any specific qualifications to become a career coach, getting a certification could offer you some benefits. For example it could help you fill any gaps in your knowledge so you can give your clients the best possible advice or help you stand out from the competition and land more work.

Zinn says that certifications may be useful for some people. “It really depends on your background and the area in which you plan to specialize,” she said. “As a former recruiter, I didn’t gain much from my certification program.” Nevertheless, she said she might’ve found one “super helpful” if she didn’t already have a background in the area she planned to coach in, and she thinks certification provide credibility, which is important.

The internet is awash with courses and certifications for coaches. If you decide to sign up for one of these, make sure it’s from an accredited provider.

A good way to find accredited courses and certifications is through the websites of nationally or globally recognized coaching organizations and associations, such as the Professional Association of Résumé Writers & Career Coaches (PARWCC) or the National Career Development Association (NCDA). The International Coaching Federation (ICF) also has a list of hundreds of courses they’ve accredited.

3. Build a professional network

In any line of work, networking is a valuable way to learn about new job opportunities and find potential partnerships or collaborations. It’s also common to get client referrals from the connections you make within professional networks.

The sharing of knowledge and information is another major benefit of professional networking. You can learn about best practices and stay up-to-date with industry trends by interacting with other coaches who have different experiences and perspectives.

Where to network

Industry-related events like conferences, seminars, and workshops are a great way to start building your professional network. These events are often advertised by professional organizations and associations, including the ICF, PARWCC, and NCDA.

You can also network online through social media platforms (especially professional ones like LinkedIn) and career-related discussion forums. In fact, Zinn says that career coaching forums on LinkedIn are a good place to go since they provide career coaches with opportunities to “weigh in on questions and show their expertise.”

4. Get practical experience

According to Zinn, professional experience is absolutely essential for any career coach. In her opinion, you can’t start charging for work as a career coach until you’ve already gained experience with “practice clients.”

One way to do this is to ask people you know to recommend others who need help in your chosen niche. “Work with these folks until you have ironed all the kinks out and feel confident charging for your work. Some of these people with whom you volunteer may become paying clients,” Zinn added.

5. Market your services

In addition to networking, there are several other useful strategies you should use to spread the word about your new business:

• Social media: Use sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even TikTok to advertise your services and share career-related content that will position you as an expert in your field (and attract clients).
• Local area business listings: List your services on Yelp and create a Google Business Profile to make yourself more visible. You can also do this on Facebook.
• Professional directories: There are professional directories or online platforms specifically for coaches to offer their services. Check out Noomii, Life Coach Hub, and Coach.me.
• Offline advertising: You can use print media as well as digital media to advertise your business by distributing flyers, placing local newspaper ads, or even creating branded stationery or other items featuring your website and phone number.
• Word of mouth: Tell people you know that you’re offering your services as a career coach and ask them to spread the word. This is how Zinn got her first career coaching gig; she sent an email to some of her contacts saying she was open for business, and one of them forwarded her email to someone who wanted coaching.
• Special offers: Special offers and freebies (e.g., discounts or free sessions) are a good way to attract new clients. You can also offer referral programs whereby your clients get freebies if they refer others to you.
• Create your own website: This is both a marketing strategy and a way to establish your credibility. There are many platforms, like Wix, WordPress, or Squarespace, that you can use to create a website relatively cheaply or even for free.

Of all these strategies, Zinn most emphasized the utility of social media. For example, she says that getting reviews from clients on social media has been particularly helpful for marketing her business.

Additionally, when we asked Zinn what strategy she would use to get her career coaching business off the ground if she had to start all over again, she mentioned using social media to post videos. “If I was younger and more comfortable in front of a camera, I would make videos, sharing my knowledge, and post them on social media,” she said.

Lily Jones, a career coach for teachers, found that offering free classes expanded her reach and ended up being the most effective way for her to get new clients. “Connecting with educators through the free classes I offer gives people a sense of my teaching style,” she said.

6. Net your first client

Hopefully, all your marketing efforts will pay off, and you’ll soon be rewarded with your first career coaching gig. Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while; building a client base is hardest at the beginning and gets easier as you go along.

Zinn emphasizes that you have to be persistent and keep trying, even if at first you don’t succeed. “This work is not for the thin-skinned. You can pitch 20 clients and only get one yes. Sometimes it’s hard to remember it’s about fit, not about you personally.”

As an independent career coach, you’ll likely rely a lot on referrals or word-of-mouth recommendations for finding new gigs. But while this can work well for expanding your coaching business, it isn’t always feasible when you’re starting out.

To find clients while you’re still new to the game, Zinn recommends using websites for freelancers, such as Bark.com. “The money isn’t great, but it is a way to get experience,” she said. Once you’ve worked a few initial gigs, you’ll gain a bit of knowledge and confidence, and you may be able to leverage that professional experience to find new work.

7. Keep on learning

Career coaches should always be learning. It’s important to look for ongoing training and development opportunities. This will help to build your reputation along with your skills, meaning you’ll ultimately earn more.

It’s also good to stay current with changes in the job market, workplace trends, and career development strategies so that you can provide clients with the most up-to-date and relevant guidance.

Industry events, conferences, and workshops can all aide your professional development. In addition, professional associations can get you access to resources and materials that’ll help you keep up with the latest trends in career coaching.

Career coaching is a great side hustle, assuming it matches your skills and interests. Here are some advantages of the role:

• Job satisfaction: Career coaches get to help others succeed, so this can be very fulfilling work.
• Good money: Career coaches often earn high rates, especially once they have a few years of experience.
• Flexibility: Career coaching can be done on a freelance basis, meaning you can set your own hours and work around your other commitments. Many coaches also work online, which means they’re free to work from anywhere.
• High demand: Due to the postpandemic rebound in the job market, there’s a strong demand for career coaching services right now. If this is a side hustle you’re interested in, this is a great time to get into it.
• Gaining professional skills and knowledge: As a career coach, you develop professional skills and knowledge that can serve you in your own career. Helping other people navigate workplace challenges will give you a leg up when you have to do it yourself in the future.

When we asked Zinn what she loved most about career coaching, she had plenty to say. “I love being paid well for my knowledge and experience. I love the complete and utter flexibility in scheduling. I love many of my clients and the incredible satisfaction I get when someone sends me a note telling me how I’ve changed their life for the better. It’s a calling for me, not a job.”

However, she also noted a few drawbacks to working as a professional career coach, including the seasonal nature of her workload. For example, she says the end of the year is “slow as molasses” since people are consumed by the holidays. “After Jan 15, I will most likely be slammed. You have to be able to go with the flow, financially and emotionally,” she added.

How much money do career coaches make?

According to Noomii, which is a directory of coaches (including business coaches, career coaches, and executive coaches), career coaches typically charge around $75–$250 per hour. However, Zinn told us that these rates are too low, and a more accurate estimate of how much you can earn is $150–$400 per hour.

If you’re just starting out, you’ll likely be at the lower end of these scales. The more experience you get, the more your clients will be willing to pay.

Note that many coaches charge for “packages” rather than by the hour. What packages consist of varies, but below is an example of what one might include:

• A certain number of hours of one-on-one coaching
• Email and phone support
• A resume and LinkedIn profile review
• Other career-related services

What affects how much you earn as a career coach?

The exact amount you’ll earn as a career coach will depend on several factors:

• Your experience, reputation, and credibility: Career coaches can usually charge more if they have more experience in the field and have established a good reputation.
• Your training and certifications: This links back to your credibility. Training, certifications, and accreditations showcase your expertise and justify higher fees. They can also have other positive knock-on effects that boost your income.
• The clients you serve: Some clients have larger budgets than others, which is an important factor determining what rates you can charge as a career coach. For example, senior-level executives and people who work in high-income industries like finance or law can often afford more expensive career coaching.
• The services you provide: Some coaching services will be more lucrative than others. Customized packages and group coaching sessions (where multiple clients pay a set fee) will generally yield higher rates than webinars and resume review services.
• Your specialization: If you work specifically with senior-level executives or specialize in a particular high-demand industry like tech, finance, or law, you might command higher rates.
• Your geographical location (if you’re not working online): Some areas generally have higher rates for coaching services due to differences in the cost of living and market demand.

What are the alternatives to becoming a career coach?

If career coaching doesn’t seem like quite the right fit for you, here are a few alternatives you can try:

• Career counselor: This role is similar to career coaching. However, career counselors tend to focus on short-term goals rather than the bigger picture. They provide clients with industry information and advice to help them find jobs, but they don’t usually delve as deeply into the client’s strengths, weaknesses, and interests to plan out their whole career.
• Life coach: Where career coaches specialize in helping people with professional goals, life coaches work across the board, helping clients achieve personal growth and satisfaction in many different life domains.
• Business coach: Career coaches work with individuals, whereas business coaches help companies improve their operations. They’re usually expert entrepreneurs or executives, and their clients include startups, other entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders.
• Financial coach: This type of coach helps clients to take control of their finances, set and achieve goals, make informed decisions about money, and ultimately improve their overall financial well-being.
• Health or wellness coach: These coaches work to improve their clients’ lifestyles, nutrition, exercise habits, and overall well-being in order to promote better health and quality of life.

Whether you become a career coach or explore another coaching side hustle, the hardest part will probably be landing your first few clients. Once you’ve done that, you’ll find that the going gets easier. As long as you work hard and market yourself effectively, you’re sure to succeed.