Coaching Case Study: My Experience As A Client

Coaching Case Study By Johann Hall
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)

My coach (Laura Li) and I spent a session focusing on my previous interview experiences and how to improve on it in the future. I was feeling down and demotivated because I had not been successful in my most recent job interview.

I blamed the fact that I was too old and also that I had a 12 month gap in my CV. I thought that this gap meant that I was no longer current and updated in the industry and therefore, companies were not willing to hire me.

Responsibilities:

1. She asked me to reflect on what went wrong during my previous interviews. I realized that my mistakes were that I did not prepare sufficiently for the interviews.
2. She told me that, since the company were willing to grant me an interview, it meant that they were interested in my capabilities and experiences and wanted to know more. The fact that I was older and that I had a year gap in my CV should not matter. The company was still willing to interview me.
3. She also asked me to reflect on my last job and how I was successful in those interviews. I was reminded that I must have behaved differently in those interviews in order to get hired.

Learnings:

1. My coach guided me to reframe the previous interviews and not to look at them as failures. Rather, she encouraged me to look at it as learnings. I was very grateful for this learning and looked at the interview process differently
2. Also, my coach insisted that I write down my learnings. Previously, I did not write anything down and relied only on my memory. This was not as effective as writing things down and once I started writing, I realized that it was a very useful tool. I could refer to these notes for my next interview and learn from them.

After 6 sessions with my coach, I am now more confident during interviews and I definitely feel more prepared for my next interview. I am looking forward to making use of my learnings during my next interview and also to share this with my next coaching client.