Is career coaching worth the money? As a self t...
Is career coaching worth the money? As a self taught swe and 5 yoe, I understand I’m probably missing a lot of knowledge, best practices, wisdom regarding office politics, etc.
Would you recommend career coaching to fill those gaps, or is it something learned as you grow and mature?
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@blade Okay, to be fair (and to get the green check mark)
career coaching is like having a person keep track of your goals and take an outsiders view of your situation in order to give you feedback and reduce second guessing. It also puts in a scheduled check on your performance, like a manager would, but with difference incentives.
One advantage of a coach is they may have a stable of client in the same industry, if they specialize, so if you have questions that others have had, they can share what's worked and what hasn't worked. They can also share what trends they are currently seeing and could be a source of market intelligence....
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harsh-harlequin•9mo ago
I can't speak to whether it would be worth it for you personally or not, but what I can say is that navigating office politics is a soft skill that can almost never be appropriately taught. Its not a one size fits all kind of thing
exotic-emerald•9mo ago
idk but taro seems to be something to look into (jointaro.com)
vicious-gold•9mo ago
Yes. Buy my course🤣
unwilling-turquoise•9mo ago
@blade only one way to find out
Solution
unwilling-turquoise•9mo ago
@blade Okay, to be fair (and to get the green check mark)
career coaching is like having a person keep track of your goals and take an outsiders view of your situation in order to give you feedback and reduce second guessing. It also puts in a scheduled check on your performance, like a manager would, but with difference incentives.
One advantage of a coach is they may have a stable of client in the same industry, if they specialize, so if you have questions that others have had, they can share what's worked and what hasn't worked. They can also share what trends they are currently seeing and could be a source of market intelligence.
They can also help with career progression as they could have experience with the role above or below your current role.
Lastly, they have trained to ask questions in a way that you may not be aware of. So the benefit is likely stacked in the first 5 sessions to give you a framework of how to analyze your own career.
That's why I said, "only one way to find out"
That and it's the battle cry of devops, apparently.
like-gold•9mo ago
Corpse is spot on. Fortunately, as an SWE with 5 YOE, you can get free career coaching by finding a mentor in your current company who’s not your boss. Lots of skills at that level is about learning project management, debugging, going deep vs wide for tech, understanding team goals, etc.
The question changes in a leadership / management position - many leaders NEED outside coaching because the power dynamic inside of the company prevents people from being 100% honest. The only way to get objective feedback is from a coach.
I think it also starts with you asking yourself what you want specific coaching on…
Is it a tech stack?
Project management?
People management / leadership?
You need to start there first.
Also recommend you think about how you learn best. There’s a shit ton of content out there on the skills I outlined above you could self teach on.
Coaching helps a lot when you need specific advice for your specific situation too.