Last week I took a squash lesson for the first time in a long time. As a former squash coach and long-time player, it felt a little silly. Shouldn’t I know all of the techniques and strategies? But I’ve found that even if I can diagnose my problem areas on court, I struggle to implement change. It’s not just about practicing singular aspects, but about seeing the whole game and where I want it to go – fine-tuning and piecing together each element and then capitalizing on their combined strength in a match scenario.
I think career coaching provides a similar perspective, rigor, and accountability in the professional “game.” I’ve started to connect with a number of talented career and leadership coaches over the last few months to help me build a list to refer to my own clients. I was experiencing an uptick in resume clients who were struggling to articulate what they wanted to do next in their careers. Moreover, I noticed that clients who did deep work with coaches before coming to me had confidence, clarity, and a clear vision of what they wanted in their next role. They were comfortable talking about themselves and their professional achievements, leading to easy collaboration and, ultimately, more targeted deliverables. As I always say, knowing your audience - here, your future employer - is critical to creating an effective resume and landing that interview.
So here is a plug for investing in yourself by reaching out to a career coach in the new year. Find someone with expertise in your professional area and a thoughtful and structured coaching process. After working with them, you’ll find that writing your resume - with or without the help of a resume writer like me - will be infinitely easier and will generate a much more powerful tool to help you land that dream job.
Need help revising your resume or updating your LinkedIn profile? Contact me at www.margaretgerety.com/contact.
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