Clegg walks through how to pick a job search coach: where to find them, how to spot fakes, and what red flags to avoid. Look for recruiting experience and personality fit. Watch out for resume-writer traps and therapy-focused coaching. Many programs cost thousands or more, so check free resources first.
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Way too many people regret choosing the wrong career coach or job search coach. Reviews aren't always reliable, so I'll share how to spot some red flags. Resume writers can be one of the biggest money traps in the industry and so I'll show you how to avoid wasting money there. And there's one powerful question you can ask to find out if a coach really knows their stuff. But getting a career coach or job search coach can change your life and be one of the highest, highest compounding return on investments you'll ever make. You just need to choose wisely and I've seen this up close. I've worked with hundreds of clients who told me about their past experiences and I've also interviewed and hired career coaches for my team and that gave me a front row seat to see what makes someone effective versus what doesn't. In this video, I'll show you how to separate the legit coaches from the not so effective ones, the questions to ask and how to avoid wasting thousands.
The first place to find a career coach or job search coach is to ask your friends if they like them. You might like them too. That can be pretty reliable. Now just because your friend's coach is competent, it also depends if that coach's personality works specifically for you. We like to be coached in different ways. So do you like that tough love, no nonsense approach? Do you like someone who's more inspirational? Do you want someone who feels very approachable? Think about that when evaluating coaches, because personality does matter. Next, look at the reviews. It's normal if the reviews don't include full names since many people value privacy during the job search. But be aware, written testimonials can sometimes be fabricated. I can spot these fake testimonials because I actually recognize people from stock footage. But if you think it could be a fake testimonial, you can just do a reverse image search to see where that picture shows up elsewhere online. Therefore, the best testimonials are video ones and Also recommendations on LinkedIn are good because you can click and see if the real profiles now keep in mind that the job search is one of the most stressful periods of many people's lives and sometimes even good programs won't feel like the right fit for someone who is so overwhelmed, so they will channel their frustration into negative reviews online. That doesn't mean all of these popular coaches are still scams. I know many of the popular coaches in this space and they really got into this to help people and are very well meaning. So what do you do about this Simply ask the coach or the company representative about the bad review. They should have a constructive and honest reaction to the comments. If they are automatically defensive, they're probably hiding something. But any coach who is confident in what they're providing knows that bad reviews are a part of the industry and can discuss discuss that with you. Another smart question to ask a coach is can you tell me about a client who wasn't the right fit and why? Again, every coach has those clients that weren't the right fit. And as a coach, it shouldn't be about being the perfect coach for everyone, but looking for that mutual fit.
Again, every coach who's had enough experience has met clients that weren't the right mutual fit and they should be upfront and honest about that experience. Now, it is difficult to choose a coach to go with unless you get some some sort of work sample. The best preview of a coach's skills is often their content. Think about that like their audition. So especially video because I see a lot of people just copying and pasting people's blogs and LinkedIn posts. But at least if you see a video where someone is on someone's podcast or talking through something, it is a lot more likely that they know what they're talking about. If a coach doesn't have any content, then there should be some way for you to sample their experience, get some sort of insight into how they think think how they would coach. Some criteria you should look for is high volume hiring experience. I'm super hands on in my coaching program and then I've also interviewed coaches to bring in additional perspectives in my program. And I have to be honest, the people who have worked in recruiting in HR doing high volume recruiting consistently outperformed those coaches who didn't have that experience. Because there's a lot of coaches out there who've had a few good job searches and then based their coaching off of that. And they can give really good advice for those situations that are similar to theirs, but it can be easy to stump them when you bring them a unique situation. It's like asking someone who has been sick a few times versus a nurse what is wrong with you and how to treat it. The person who is sick who had something quite similar to you will likely give you some solid help, but as soon as it gets beyond their personal experience, they're out. Whereas the nurse, AKA the recruiter has seen thousands of patients and likely hundreds of people with variations of your illness. So do not get me wrong, just because someone is a recruiter does not mean that they are suddenly a great job search coach and can verbalize the specifics of what you need to do to change. I've seen this too from interviewing lots of job search coaches. Even if they have a recruiting background, they still can pick out that someone maybe didn't do well, say in a job interview, but they can't distinctly articulate what went wrong and how to change it again. This is why seeing content and understanding a coach's methodology can be so important. A common complaint I hear is that some career coaching and especially job search programs feel more like therapy or general life coaching rather than practical job focused guidance. Where it felt good to talk about the job search to someone, but the coaching was more focused on self discovery and didn't give them real results when they really wanted to be told what to do. Like hey, write this in your LinkedIn headline to catch the attention of more recruiters. Most established coaches will have a coaching program instead of one off individual coaching coaching sessions because programs tend to be more robust and get better results. Also, there are so many horror stories about resume writers. Be cautious about resume writers. Resume writers usually will use AI to help craft your resume. So why don't you just use AI yourself and use a formula like the glory formula from Reverse the Search and then have a coach review that resume and give you feedback? We have to acknowledge that paying for a job search or career coach when you're in a tough financial spot can feel out of reach. Digital courses often cost a few hundred dollars and coaching programs typically start in the thousands, with executive level programs sometimes going well into the five figures. Most job seekers get this. I mean, they know the value of being paid fairly themselves, so they understand that coaches should also be fairly compensated. Still, it's an emotional purchase that's completely normal. If coaching isn't in the budget right now, know that there are tons of free resources available. I share videos and content on this channel and across social media every day and you can request topics that you want me to cover. I've also put together free classes and guides on my website for anyone who wants to dig deeper. You've got this wifi high five.
