Career coaching and consulting
Target group l Occasions l Contents I Attitude I Role of the coach I Benefits l Methods l Procedure l FAQs
Our systemic career coaching and career advice will help you to clearly reflect on your professional situation, develop perspectives and make well-founded decisions. Together, we look at your concerns in the interplay of your value system, personality, skills, professional context and life situation. The result is a clear view of possible paths and realistic development steps.
Career means different things to different people. For some, it stands for Leadership, entrepreneurial responsibility or financial success. Others understand it to mean the development of their own personality, the meaningful use of their skills or a coherent professional life.
Who is career coaching and career counseling suitable for?
Our services are aimed at people who want to actively shape, reflect on or realign their professional development. We support both private individuals and companies who want to support their employees during phases of change.
Typical target groups for our career coaching are
- Specialists and managers with a desire for professional development
- People undergoing professional reorientation or change processes
- People following dismissal, downsizing or professional restructuring
- People returning to working life
- People with an interest in self-employment or starting a business
- International specialists and managers starting their careers in Germany
- Pupils and career starters in vocational orientation
Career coaching is particularly suitable if you want to gain clarity about your professional goals, prepare decisions or develop concrete next steps.
When career coaching and career advice makes sense
Career change processes often arise from different personal or organizational situations. In career coaching, we work together on your issues in the context of your current life and work situation.
Possible occasions could be
Reorientation and professional development
- Desire for a career change or new perspective
- Development within your own company
- Preparation for a career move or role change
- Clarification of professional goals
Change situations
- Returning to work after a career break
- Reorientation after dismissal or downsizing
- Occupational changes due to health restrictions
- Deciding between several career options
Self-employment and career entry
- Preparing for the start of self-employment
- Integration and career planning for international professionals
- Vocational orientation for school pupils and career starters: specific offer
We always consider your concerns individually in the context of your professional situation.
In a non-binding initial consultation, you have the opportunity to get to know your coach, discuss your concerns and clarify any unanswered questions.
What does our career coaching and career advice involve?
Career coaching at Coachingwerk generally comprises two phases: clarifying your professional direction and the concrete implementation of your goals. Depending on the situation, we accompany you through both phases or specifically in the step where you need support.
Phase 1: Setting career goals and determining your current position
Many coaching processes begin with the desire for professional change. We support you in reflecting on your values, strengths, interests and motives and developing a clear professional perspective from this. We also look at how your professional goals fit in with your personal needs and life situation.
Typical topics in this phase are
- Positioning and biographical reflection
- Strengths and competence analysis
- Analysis of potential and talent
- Clarification of personal values and motivations
- Personality analysis
- Development of a professional vision
- Formulation of concrete career goals
- Defining your own life balance
Career coaching is also about achieving a harmonious life balance. People often feel in balance when they experience their professional actions as meaningful, self-determined and authentic.
Phase 2: Implementation and career counseling
Once your professional direction has become clearer, we will support you in implementing your next steps when changing jobs or preparing for self-employment and setting up your own business. Typical topics in this phase are, for example
Advice on changing jobs
- Job search strategy and positioning on the labor market
- Development of convincing application documents
- Preparation for job interviews
- Self-presentation and interviewing
- Support with decision-making processes
- Onboarding support for the first 100 days
Business start-up consulting
- Development of a business model (canvas)
- Development of a business plan
- Competition and location analysis
- SWOT analysis of your own position in the market
- Clarification of legal form, taxes and insurance
- Capital requirements and financing planning
- Information on funding opportunities
Depending on the initial situation, coaching can focus on both phases or specifically on one of these steps.
Our understanding of career development
At Coachingwerk, we do not see careers as a linear progression, but as individual development in the interplay of person, role and environment. Career decisions are always made in the context of the organization, the job market, personal life phases and individual goals.
Our systemic approach therefore focuses not only on individual decisions, but also on interrelationships, interactions and scope for action. The aim is to create clarity and enable decisions that are coherent and sustainable in the long term.
Our role as systemic career coaches and consultants
In career coaching, we accompany you as structured and neutral discussion partners. We create a clear framework for reflection, a change of perspective and decision-making.
Among other things, we support you in this,
- Clearly analyze your professional situation
- make relevant perspectives and options visible
- Use your own values, motives, resources and skills
- prepare well-founded decisions
- develop the next concrete steps
Our job is not to prescribe decisions, but to support you in developing your own solutions that suit your situation.
Expert tip
by Career Coach Dirk Hamm
As co-author of the book “Radical.honest.blossomed. Being powerfully you !” I describe my personal experiences on the path to greater professional authenticity. In it, I also reflect on the role coaching could have played in different phases of my professional development and the effect such a space for reflection can have on important decisions.
I am accompanied by a thought: “The path slips under the feet of the walker.” (Martin Walser). Development rarely comes about through complete planning in advance, but rather through reflection, first steps and new experiences, from which the path ahead becomes increasingly clear.
What you take away from our career coaching and advice
Our career coaching supports you in ensuring that you:
- See your professional goals clearly
- Know your strengths and potential
- Develop and pursue suitable career options
- Take your next career step
- present yourself convincingly
- Shaping professional changes safely
The focus is on a clear understanding of your strengths, motives and opportunities as the basis for coherent professional decisions and sustainable development.
Methods and interventions
At Coachingwerk, we work with proven systemic coaching methods that we tailor to your specific situation. These include, among others
- Biographical interviews and location analyses
- Systemic questioning techniques
- Competence and resource analyses
- Vision and goal work
- Change of perspective and context analysis
- Structured decision models
- Working with the IKIGAI model to clarify professional meaning and potential
- creative, visual or body-oriented methods
- Work with personality models such as the persolog® personality model, the DNLA Social Competence model, the LINC Personality Profiler (LPP) and many other models.
The choice of methods always depends on your concerns and your personal way of working.
Procedure and general conditions of career coaching
Career coaching is an individually designed development process. The scope and duration depend on your concerns and goals. Typically, a coaching process comprises
- 3 to 10 sessions
- Session duration from 60 to 120 minutes
- Support over several weeks to months
The coaching takes place in a 1:1 setting – either in Cologne and the surrounding area or online via video call.
Preparation
We start with a free and non-binding initial consultation. In this meeting, you will get to know your coach, describe your concerns and clarify any open questions.
If you decide to work with us, we start with a structured clarification of the assignment. We define the objectives, framework conditions and possible steps in the coaching process.
Implementation
The coaching sessions are clearly structured. Together we reflect on your situation, develop perspectives and formulate concrete next steps. Typical process steps are
- Positioning and goal clarification
- Analysis of your skills, interests and values
- Development of realistic career options
- Preparation of important decisions
- Planning concrete implementation steps
Between the sessions, reflection tasks and small experiments support the transfer to your everyday working life.
Conclusion, evaluation and follow-up
At the end of the coaching process, we secure key findings, review the achievement of objectives and reflect on the next steps in your professional development.
This creates a stable foundation on which you can continue to shape your professional future independently and consciously.
Contact us: Your next step
If you would like to reflect on your professional situation, develop new perspectives or prepare concrete career decisions, we cordially invite you to a non-binding initial meeting.
During the meeting, you will get to know your coach personally, describe your concerns and clarify together what a coaching process might look like. If you wish, we can arrange several initial meetings with different coaches from the Coachingwerk so that you can find the person who is best suited to your needs.
We conduct our career coaching sessions in Cologne and the surrounding area as well as online throughout Germany
FAQ – Frequently asked questions about career coaching and career advice
What distinguishes career coaching and career counseling from business coaching?
Career coaching focuses on professional orientation, development and change beyond the current role or organization. The focus is on professional goals, personal strengths and possible career paths. Business coaching focuses more strongly on the current role, management tasks and challenges within an organization.
Who is career coaching suitable for?
Career coaching is aimed at people who want to reflect on their professional situation, develop new perspectives or prepare for important decisions – such as specialists and managers, people in reorientation, after career breaks or with the desire to become self-employed. We also have a special career guidance service for school pupils and young people.
What issues can career counseling and coaching help with?
For example, for professional reorientation, career planning, decision-making, re-entry, application processes or the clarification of personal strengths and development opportunities.
What role does life balance play?
In career coaching, we look at professional development in the context of the overall life situation. A harmonious life balance is crucial – when professional goals, personal values and individual needs are in harmony with each other.
How long does a coaching session last?
The scope is agreed individually. As a rule, coaching comprises 3 to 10 sessions over several weeks to months. A session usually lasts 60 to 120 minutes.
Where does it take place?
Coaching sessions take place on the premises of the Coachingwerk at Hansaring 61 in Cologne, in Frechen, Kerpen or by arrangement at another location. Alternatively, we also offer all coaching sessions online via video call.
Who is the client of a career coaching program?
You yourself are often the client of the coaching. Depending on the context, coaching can also be commissioned by companies, managers or the HR department.
Is confidentiality guaranteed?
Yes, career coaching at Coachingwerk always takes place in a protected and confidential environment. We treat the content of the coaching sessions as strictly confidential.