A Career Coach For Young Adults

As young adults we enter the work force with passion, motivation and inspiration. We want to make our mark on the world and prove ourselves. A career coach for young adults can be a powerful ally in overcoming setbacks and ultimately achieving a purposeful career.

The tragedy is that too many of us get confined into career paths that offer comfort and security over meaning and purpose. We often only lack a few key attributes that would propel our visions to stories of success.

For most young adults, the forces pushing your career motivations are an offshoot of the educational system. This is a system designed for the 10-20% who succeeds under this system. Those who were motivated to study hard, get good grades in school and move on to get a meaningful degree.

As a career strategist I believe it’s important to represent the wishes of the client or individual and not the educational or institutional systems.

The primary ingredient for what allows us to feel successful is not in our knowledge, education or skill. It’s in our ability to create a meaningful vision and overcome the perceived limitations of our life circumstances and patterns.

The beauty of being a young adult is that you get to carve out your own version of success in the world for the first time. You get to set a course for an intentional life that fits your vision of happiness. It’s a time of great hope and optimism.

The harsh reality is that we all encounter career setbacks or adversity and can have our dreams seemingly crumble in front of us. This adversity can seem like catastrophic failure, and it can completely derail our hopes and dreams.

Part of the journey to becoming an adult is in overcoming these setbacks. Instead, many of us take our setbacks as a sign we should take a more safe and secure career path. Often choosing career paths that align more with our parent’s vision or what our friends and acquaintances are following than our own vision.

Here’s the secret many of us don’t get to learn.

These setbacks and failures we encounter as young adults are the most powerful lessons we will encounter. They can make us resilient, tenacious and unshakeable. Working with a career coach for young adults can help turn this seeming failure into one of your greatest gifts.

The Top 5 important lessons you can learn by working with a career coach for young adults

1.      You’re not a victim when things don’t work out as you hoped. It’s your responsibility to find and implement a solution.

2.      You can expect or demand others to support your career choices. It’s up to you to prove your career choices and decisions can be a viable success.

3.      Your failures will be your greatest gifts (if you choose to use them this way). Overcoming and figuring a solution to these setbacks is the threshold you pass through where most people get stumped.

4.      You must hold yourself to a higher standard. Avoid using your young age or youth as reasoning when things don’t go according to plan.

5.      You can’t keep getting tripped up by the same challenges and act surprised.

Why you should work with a career coach as a young adult

Avoid getting thrown off course.

As a young adult, you can be particularly vulnerable to other people’s opinions. In your young adult years, it’s the first time you’ve had to make “life decisions” on our own. You’ve never had to do that before and may doubt that you can overcome the challenges you face. A career coach for young adults is a helpful ally on your journey.

Gain insight into potential destructive life patterns.

When we enter adulthood, we tend to carry some of the attitudes engrained from our adolescent years. For example, I remember as a young adult feeling like my parents, society or some authority figure was supposed to carry the responsibilities of my failures. This is acceptable as a teenager, but a mindset that will hold you back if you’re committed to your success as an adult.

Discovering what you want.

Again, a career coach for young adults is your helpful ally. This is someone who can help speak for and coax out your desires when you feel confused. Often the career path’s we should choose we dismiss. We might perceive them as lacking viability, being unrealistic or even irresponsible. An outside voice can help reframe your desires in an empowering way.

Setting a course for an intentional life.

We often have so many voices in our life telling us what we should do or what we should want out of our life and career. Building a vision for an intentional life is about allowing your desires to speak for themselves. How will your job or career uniquely contribute to what you want to do with your time?