Life coaching compared to career guidance

With the emergence of life coaching, there appears to be considerable confusion over the difference between this and career guidance.

Life coaching is defined by the Irish Life Coach institute as
“ the art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of others. It is about improving effectiveness and achieving results. It focuses on measurable steps of success. Perhaps, most importantly of all, it facilitates personal transformation for people within the work environment & beyond”

Career guidance is defined by the OECD as
“Career guidance refers to services and activities intended to assist individuals of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers”

So even within accepted definitions, an overlap can be seen. To complicate matters there are also executive and business coaches. These tend to focus on business growth, management and leadership skills and are usually engaged for a period of months. Because this is a relatively new field, there are quite a number of different professional institutes in the coaching arena.

A key difference with career guidance counsellors though, is they are normally qualified to perform a wide range of psychometric assessments, either personality, interests, motivation etc. These assessments can be very useful if you are uncertain about future career choices or where your strengths lie. Often there is an initial session with assessments, then a feedback session with a written report, which enables the client to take action. Life Coaches do not usually specialise in performing a range of assessments and will often meet with the client on many occasions.
In Ireland the major professional institute is the Institute of Career Guidance Counsellors in Ireland. The majority of their members work in secondary schools and 3rd level colleges and are focused on young students.

So how to choose who can best help you if you’re considering some support? Well there’s not a lot of information available, but research in the related counselling area, suggests the biggest factor for success is the relationship between the client and the coach/ guidance counsellor
So the key issue to focus on is whether you feel you can “get on” with the coach/guidance counsellor. Do you like their personal style? Do you feel you can talk openly to them?
Try to assess this in a telephone conversation, but it is difficult so an initial meeting might be required. Normally you pay for this, but some life coaches may offer an initial free session. This rarely happens with executive/business or guidance counsellors.
Fees also vary widely from €75 an hour, to €1,000 per month commitment.

For some questions to ask when choosing a psychometric tester click here. For more general questions on choosing a counselling/coaching service click here.

Finally don’t expect the coach/guidance counsellor to do the work for you. They can give you expert feedback, insights and objective opinions but they won’t get you, your dream job. Only you can do that!

If you are interested in career guidance, I’ll be posting details of an open draw for a totally free, personal “no strings attached” career health check consultation, so don’t forget to check out next weeks blog.

Other areas of interest
Career assessments do they work?
What is psychometric assessment?


Key words
career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland
free psychometric Assessment