I just wanted to share some recent career success with you which I hope will be of inspiration to other trainee/ new coaches.
As you may know, for the last four years I have been running my own coaching practice (www.careercoachuk.com), coaching professionals such as bankers, managers, doctors and lawyers through Career Crisis or Career transitions. I really enjoyed this but was only doing it part-time because my children were still quite young. Last year I decided to go full time and at the same time, a little fed of working by myself for so long, I started looking for Career Coaching roles in an organisation. I felt that I would benefit from learning from others and wanted a new context and a new challenge.
In Feb 2009, I started a full time role as a Career Coach at the London Business School, part of the University of London. I coach the students, many of whom are doing an MBA as a means to making a Career Change and as they often want to transition into investment banking, it brings all my interests together ( I used to recruit senior MBA’s for investment banks in the City before I started coaching).
I am really grateful to The Coaching Academy for introducing me to a wonderful new career and giving me an excellent training in the subject.
I would say to all new coaches that it was really tough for me at the beginning- especially when I was doing everything right and still the phone never seemed to ring! However, my advice would be, keep trying, readjust your business according to what you learn along the way ( I made so many mistakes- from the wrong domain name to not having a niche) and one day, it does pay off!
I still plan to keep my private practice going as I love what I do and keep getting referrals. However, I have limited myself to a couple of sessions at the weekend.
Best Wishes
Aliya
Aliya Ali-Afzal
Managing Director
Career Coach UK
Career Solutions for Professionals
Web: www.careercoachuk.com
Email: aaa@careercoachuk.com
