Career Coaching: What It Really Does and How to Find the Right Coach

You're at a turning point. Maybe you've felt for a while that your job no longer fits – but you don't know where you actually want to go. Or maybe you do know, but the next step just doesn't feel right yet. That's exactly where career coaching comes in: not with ready-made answers, but with the right questions.

What Is Career Coaching?

Career coaching is a structured support process that helps you gain professional clarity, identify your strengths, and develop concrete steps for your next career phase.

It's not about being told what to do. A good career coach creates the space in which you figure out for yourself what truly fits – your values, your strengths, your life.

Career coaching is clearly different from career counselling:

What Does a Career Coach Do?

A career coach supports you in gaining clarity about your professional situation, recognising obstacles, and moving into action. In practice, that means:

• Stocktaking: Where are you right now – and why does it no longer feel right?
• Strengths analysis: What are you genuinely good at, what gives you energy – and what of that is in demand?
• Goal development: What do you actually want? Not what you think you should want, but what truly fits you.
• Strategy development: How do you get there – with which steps, timing, and resources?
• Implementation support: How do you stay on track, even when it gets hard?

A career coach doesn't give advice and doesn't write your applications. They help you see your own path – and walk it.

What Methods Are Used in Career Coaching?

Career coaching draws on a range of methods, depending on the coach's approach and your individual situation. The most common ones are:

Strengths-Based Approaches

Tools like the CliftonStrengths assessment or the VIA Character Strengths survey help you identify your natural talents. The core idea: people who work from their strengths are not only more successful – they're also more satisfied.

Values and Meaning Work

What truly matters to you? What values should shape your professional life? These questions sound simple, but the answers change everything. Values-based coaching helps you make decisions that feel right in the long run.

Inner Clarity & Limiting Beliefs

Many career obstacles don't live in the CV – they live in the mind. Thoughts like "I'm not good enough for that role" or "Who am I to want this?" hold people back more than any rejection letter. Good career coaching works on this level too.

Systemic Methods

Your job doesn't exist in a vacuum. Family, environment, social expectations – all of it plays a role. Systemic coaching looks at the bigger picture and helps you understand your situation fully.

Practical Career Tools

Alongside the inner work, there are concrete methods: SMART goal setting, force field analysis, decision matrices, or role plays for difficult conversations (e.g. with your manager or in job interviews).

How Much Does Career Coaching Cost?

The cost of career coaching varies widely – depending on the coach's experience, the format, and the scope of the programme.

As a rough guide:

Cheaper isn't automatically worse – but anything significantly below €80 per hour deserves a closer look. Good coaching requires training, experience, and ongoing supervision.

Important: Always ask what's included in the price. Are there materials, check-in calls, email support? Is a free introductory call available?

Is Career Coaching Subsidised by the Employment Agency?

In Germany, yes – in certain cases. The Agentur für Arbeit and the Jobcenter can fund career coaching through the Aktivierungs- und Vermittlungsgutschein (AVGS). This voucher allows job seekers to access certified coaching services at little or no cost. Whether you're eligible is something to clarify directly with your local office.

When Does Coaching Not Make Sense?

Coaching doesn't make sense when you're in an acute mental health crisis, when you need therapy, or when you're not genuinely ready to change anything.

Coaching is not a substitute for psychotherapy. If you're dealing with depression, burnout, or anxiety disorders, therapeutic support is the right first step.

Coaching also tends to fall flat when:

• you're only looking for confirmation of a decision you've already made
• you're not willing to be honest with yourself
• you expect quick fixes without any readiness for reflection
• external pressure is so overwhelming that there's no room for a process

Coaching works best when you're fundamentally capable of taking action – but need clarity, direction, or a nudge to take the next step.

Can ChatGPT Act as a Career Coach?

ChatGPT can support career coaching – but it cannot replace a real coach.

AI tools are strong at structuring information, refining texts, or generating ideas. For initial orientation, sorting through thoughts, or preparing for conversations, they can be useful.

What AI cannot do:

• Build genuine empathy and relationship
• Pick up on non-verbal signals
• Respond individually to your biography, patterns, and emotions
• Hold you through difficult moments

Deep change happens in contact – between two people. No AI can replace that.

How Do I Find the Right Career Coach?

You find the right career coach by paying attention to three things: training, method, and gut feeling.

Quality Criteria to Look For

• Certified training: Look for recognised associations like ICF, EMCC, or DBVC. These set standards for training and ethics.
• Transparent methods: A credible coach explains how they work – and why.
• Free introductory call: Reputable coaches almost always offer a no-obligation first conversation.
• No guarantees of success: Anyone who promises you'll land your dream job in four weeks is not being honest.
• Clear contract terms: What happens if you need to cancel? What's included in the price?

How Do I Find a Reputable Coach?

Beyond certifications: read testimonials, look at how the coach communicates – on their website, on social media, in the introductory call. Does the tone feel right for you? Do you feel seen, not judged?

Trust your gut. You'll be vulnerable in coaching. That only works with someone you genuinely trust.

My Approach: Know Your Strengths, Find Clarity, Take the Next Step – One That Feels Right

I work with people who are at a professional turning point – wondering what the right next step actually is. Not just any step. One that genuinely feels good.

My approach is based on a clear conviction: Every person has strengths and needs that make them unique – and that's exactly where the key to the right career lies. It's not about adapting yourself to a job. It's about finding a job that fits you.

Part of that means looking at what introverted people often experience as a weakness – and what is actually one of their greatest strengths: depth of thinking, the ability to concentrate, analytical clarity, the capacity to listen and reflect. These qualities are not obstacles on the career path. They are the driving force.

My approach works on three levels:

Mind: What do you truly want – beyond expectations, pressure, and what you think you "should" do? What strengths do you bring, and how can you use them deliberately?

Heart: What do you need for work not to feel like a performance? Which needs – for quiet, meaning, autonomy, or depth – should your career fulfil?

Career: How do you shape your next step so that it aligns with your strengths, meets your needs – and therefore feels right?

Instead of standard recipes, I offer a process that starts exactly where you are right now. Strengths-based, holistic, at eye level – always with the goal that you end up not just knowing where you want to go, but feeling it: Yes, this is mine.

Ready for Your Next Career Step?

You know something needs to change – but you're not sure how or where to go? In career coaching with Corinna Behling, you'll find clarity, discover your strengths, and develop your next career step – one that truly feels right.

Learn more & book your free intro call

Key Takeaways

• Career coaching helps you gain professional clarity, identify your strengths, and develop concrete next steps.
• It differs from counselling: you develop your own answers – the coach guides the process.
• Methods range from strengths analysis and values work to systemic approaches.