Career Coaching and Career Coaches seem to polarise people. There are sceptics a-plenty: those who see it as over-priced, under-regulated and a-theoretical. And then there are the evangelists, for whom career coaching is an almost alchemic process, magically transforming lives. The truth, as we know, is somewhere in between. Can it help? Without doubt, yes. But is it consistently the best it can be? Well I would say no. And that is where I think this blog can come in.
My background is as a careers adviser, and I now work as a lecturer and researcher in career guidance as well as running an MA course in career coaching. One of my great frustrations is that these two worlds seem to have so little contact, and even so little respect for each other. The world of career guidance, or vocational psychology as it is known in the US, where much of the research comes from, produces vast quantities of empirical evidence every year. I reckon there are probably over 800 papers published each year by academics across the world, looking at specific elements of career choice, career development, answering questions such as "what makes us happy at work?" "what's processes lead to the best career decisions?" and "how can we best support our clients in their career quests?".
I have to read these papers (well some of them...) for my job, and I'm really keen to provide another channel of communication between the academic world and the vocational psychology and career coaching worlds.
I'd love to know what you think. Do you feel that the career coaching profession could benefit from a bit more academic rigour? What kinds of subject areas do you think we need to know more about?
What about the link between coaching and careers advice? Do you think coaches would benefit from closer links, or are the two better off independent?
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