Coaching Case Study: Career Interest vs Financial Stability

Coaching Case Study By Eramus Yiow
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)

About The Case

Mary is a Marketing Professional with more than 10 years of experience, and she is seeking a career change that will give her more satisfaction and “longevity” career either to be a

• Social Worker,
• Customer Service (Call Centre),
• Career Coach

However, she is worry on the financial stability as she may have to start at an entrant level should she make a career change.   Thus, she is seeking for a career coaching to coach her in making a “wise” choice – career interest vs financial stability.

Coaching Foundation

Before we begin the coaching session, I explained to her clearly my role as a Coach whereby coaching is not consulting, therapy and mentoring.  Coaching is to help her in establishing what is important to her through clarifying her agenda and achieve her goal in the end through collaboration.

Also, I established a Coaching Agreement to align our understanding the purpose of our coaching session.

Coaching Process & Tools

• Active Listening & Powerful Questioning

During the coaching session, I have applied the active listening and powerful questioning skills, which has helped me to understand more of Mary’s concern – which career will give her the most satisfaction with longevity while her financial commitment is least affected should she make a career change.

• Self-Awareness

In the session, I asked her to define on her own understanding what does career satisfaction, “career longevity” and career interest meant to her.  Through her own interpretation, she will be more aligned to her own self-awareness what are the attributes toward her career search.

• Visualization

With that in mind, I suggested her to take a deep breath and close her eyes to visualise herself which career choice will she enjoy most based on her personal strength (as she has did the Strength Finder Test) and own interest that will give her a choice to work at her own pace without worrying about of the financial commitment.

Coaching Outcome

• Creating Action

At the end of the session, Mary is more self-aware of which career choice will be suitable for herself that will give her more career satisfaction and “longevity” based on her own career map.

As for her financial worry that may deter her to make a career change, I suggested her to list down what are her current financial commitments.  Through the listing, I asked her to rank which will be her most to least financial commitment (with a focus on her needs than her wants or desire) that she is willing to adjust her lifestyle for example less eating out or visiting high end restaurant or taking public transport than to own a car etc. so that she work toward her career change with less worry on the financial commitment.  If need be, she would need to co-work with her family member in helping her to achieve her career goal.