November 2024 - Amy | Human potential platform
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Month: November 2024

Hey, I Miss You. Yours Truly, Work-Life Balance

Posted on by by Nataliya Melnyk, Marketer at Amy

Achieving a healthy work-life balance has become a top priority today, especially as remote work blurs the boundaries between professional and personal life. Harmony gets lost in long hours, late nights, and weekend work creeping into what should be your personal time. 

What does social research tell us?

Yet, prioritizing a balance of work and life can transform how you feel day-to-day: boost productivity, reduce stress, and enhance your well-being. In this article, we will cover the work-life balance meaning, the benefits of work-life balance, and how to spot and improve a poor one. 

What exactly does work-life balance mean?

Work-life balance generally refers to a harmony between professional and personal life. Everyone’s ideal balance is unique. It’s like an individual formula where the sum isn’t only counted in the number of hours you work but rather in ensuring that time at work and home is spent meaningfully and productively. Too many personal commitments can be as overwhelming as when work consumes your life, making it hard to find a true balance.

You don’t put in less effort or compromise any of your goals. You create boundaries that let you invest fully in both areas. You find your rhythm without the pressure of competing priorities.

For many parents, flexible work options are a benefit, such as a remote format or flexible hours, to have quality family time without sacrificing work productivity. For many corporate workers, a good work-life balance is to leave the office at 5 PM and return at 9 AM the next day. For many young professionals who combine study at university and work, having a part-time occupation is a must. 

Why is a healthy work-life balance important?

Keeping a balance between work and life matters because proper coordination of the two affects overall well-being:

  • Health: better mental health and fewer stress-related illnesses.
  • Relationships: closer connections with loved ones and higher levels of emotional fulfillment.
  • Productivity: better productivity as you need time to recharge to maintain focus and can make room in your schedule for hobbies or other leisure activities.

When in harmony, everything flows better. But what if things start to fall out of work-life balance? The truth is, when work starts to dominate, or you are constantly juggling personal duties, the impact can be damaging. That’s why we will review how to spot a poor work-life balance.

the image of family and a healthy work-life balance

Success story at Amy: from feeling overwhelmed to bringing work and life into balance

Background

Mary came to a career coach feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. She was working late hours and weekends, adjusting to a new city, and struggling to find any enjoyment in her life. She held onto a rigid work routine that added stress, even though it wasn’t serving her well. Mary wanted to change her apartment, as her current one made her feel cramped, but she didn’t have the time. She was also pushing herself hard in sports despite a knee injury.

Our approach

Together with a career coach, Mary embarked on a three-month coaching journey focused on rediscovering what she truly enjoyed and aligning her lifestyle with those preferences. Here is an overview of what was done:

  • Values discovery and prioritization. We explored Mary’s core values to understand what mattered to her. This helped Mary recognize that her well-being and personal happiness were as important as her professional achievements.
  • Identifying inner resources, skills, and external supports. This process boosted Mary’s confidence and made her feel empowered to make decisions that aligned with her values.
  • Stress management techniques. We introduced mindfulness exercises, breathing techniques, and journaling to manage stress effectively. This helped Mary break the cycle of feeling overwhelmed and regain clarity.
  • Goal alignment and adjustments. Mary’s initial goals were reassessed and adjusted to be more realistic and aligned with her current lifestyle and well-being needs. Smaller, actionable steps replaced vague or overly ambitious targets.
  • Lifestyle rebalancing strategies. Mary shifted her exercise routine to focus on healing her knee injury, integrating yoga and low-impact activities instead of high-intensity sports. She worked on redesigning her daily schedule, allocating specific times for relaxation, hobbies, and apartment hunting.
  • Step-by-step vision, mission, and strategy development. We worked together to craft a clear vision of her ideal life, defining her mission in both personal and professional contexts. We created a step-by-step strategy, breaking her vision into achievable milestones with timelines and actionable steps. This gave Mary a structured roadmap to follow, making her goals feel attainable and less overwhelming.

Results achieved

Over time, Mary found a new apartment that felt like home, modified her sports routine to suit her physical needs, and eventually took a sabbatical she had dreamed about for years. By the end of the process, she not only achieved a work-life balance she felt at ease with but also began to attract new career opportunities. Her renewed energy and confidence led her to deliver keynote speeches to audiences of over a thousand people and take on exciting new projects at work.

What is an unhealthy work-life balance?

The first and foremost sign is that you cannot disconnect from work. Despite being tired, your mind is preoccupied with tasks and deadlines. As a result, you have trouble relaxing and tend to overwork or procrastinate. But procrastination only piles up the work. Not to mention more harmful consequences such as burnout caused by chronic stress, which is a state of exhaustion, both mental and physical. 

What are other signs of poor work-life balance?

  • You lack motivation, and your performance decreases. What once felt like the right career decision no longer brings you fulfillment. Sunday evening is a cycle of ruminating thoughts about the beginning of a new working week.
  • You are generally irritated, anxious, and frustrated, and your relationships with family, friends, or colleagues suffer. You cancel shared plans and isolate.  
  • You don’t have time for yourself because you work without a break. You respond to emails on weekends and vacations and give up your hobbies.   
  • You cannot meet deadlines without overtime hours and cannot take days off, like sick leaves.

Besides, here is a self-coaching exercise to spot an unhealthy life and work balance to start taking steps for improvement. For all the questions, mark from 1 to 10, where 1 is not at all, and 10 is very often.

  • Are you satisfied with the time you dedicate to personal activities versus work commitments?
  • How often do you have activities that feel draining rather than fulfilling?
  • How often do you feel overwhelmed by work or personal responsibilities?
  • How often do you feel stressed?
  • Does your work-life balance impact your health?
  • Can you disconnect from work during your leisure time? 
  • Do you wish to set any boundaries at work or home?

If you have more than 35 points overall for all questions, consider talking to a career expert or initiate your change:

  • What would a perfect work-life balance look like for you? What changes, if any, would you like to make? Can you adjust your schedule when necessary?
  • What small steps can you take now to move closer to your healthy work-life balance?

How to improve work-life balance?

On top of self-reflection, consider the following practices:

  1. Set clear boundaries and priorities. Draw a line in a schedule between your professional and personal life. You can either stick to traditional work hours, even if you work remotely or in a hybrid format, or tailor a schedule to your lifestyle. To have a more predictable workday, limit after-hours communication by defining expectations around response times. Let your colleagues know when you are offline, like putting your work hours on your Google Calendar.
    What about priorities? Setting the right priorities means managing critical or most difficult tasks first. To define essential activities, time and calendar blocks may serve as the bridge to progress. For example, the timeboxing technique covers time blocks to different areas of life, ensuring that work doesn’t spill over into personal time.
  1. Take a break and take care of yourself. Give yourself restorative moments without sacrificing commitments. These can be short, frequent breaks like a lunchtime walk to increase your energy level or weekends spent with friends to nurture your mental wellness. A positive routine is to plan activities to eagerly await once you are off work. Practice self-care through time for personal interests, exercises, restful sleep, and healthy eating. These habits make it easier to manage work demands. 
  1. Create a dedicated workspace. As a remote professional, set a mental boundary between career and personal pursuits with a specific physical space, like a home office, work corner, or a coworking room. Physically stepping away from this space can help you mentally disconnect from your job.
  1. Delegate responsibilities. If possible, at work and home, share tasks with others to ease your workload and reduce stress. It doesn’t mean shifting your assignments onto someone else without reason. It means distributing resources wisely when you are overwhelmed, exhausted, or under pressure. If you cannot delegate tasks due to mental barriers rather than a lack of resources, talking to a career coach develops a mindset shift that makes delegation feel more achievable.

Improving a work-life balance is about prioritizing, setting boundaries, delegating when possible, and caring for yourself. By regularly analyzing what is working and what is not, you make consistent changes to align your time with what truly matters. Mindful strategies and actionable steps towards them foster a more balanced lifestyle. The process helps you avoid burnout and increase job satisfaction, as well as be thrilled and fulfilled with your personal goals.

How can career coaching support your work-life balance?

Career coaching gives you techniques and tools to achieve your professional goals. Professional goals are best tracked on a career plan. In the context of work-life balance, a long-term career plan for career development gives the structure to maintain balance in all areas of life. Together with you, a career coach sets a realistic timeline for proactive steps, skills to gain, potential career shifts, or opportunities that support personal values. 

Career coaching techniques are also tied to setting boundaries and prioritizing time effectively while sticking to the career plan. The article Work-Life Balance: 5 Time Management Techniques to Handle Work and Personal Responsibilities Effectively describes the approach in detail. 

Begin making progress

Building a career without compromising work-life balance is possible with career coaching. Amy provides instruments and expert guidance to find harmony between your career ambitions and personal life. You will improve your job satisfaction and, as a result, overall well-being. Start with Amy career coaching free exercises to make your way to a desired career format. 

Work-Life Balance: 5 Time Management Techniques to Handle Work and Personal Responsibilities Effectively

Posted on by by Nataliya Melnyk, Marketer at Amy

Effective time management is the steering wheel that keeps your work-life balance on course. If you lack proper time management, juggling work and personal responsibilities seems like a never-ending loop. You are either speeding through burnout territory or idling in procrastination land. The bright side is that you can bring your schedule back under control to be more productive, less stressed, on track with your goals, and happy about yourself and other people around you. It’s time to talk about time!

Technique 1: Prioritize, then delegate

Nino Udovychko-career coach at Amy

“Identify what’s essential and let go of tasks that don’t serve your core goals. Delegate wherever possible to maintain balance.”

Nina Udovychko, a career expert at Amy with the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

Prioritizing what deserves your effort overall and at the moment matters most. A healthy work-life balance requires giving the right amount of time and attention to both work and personal commitments—along with activities that help recharge you. In a daily routine or when it comes to life-changing occasions, identifying priorities is the fuel to understand what is important and what is secondary. 

Exercise: Prioritization matrix

With the Prioritization Matrix exercise at Amy, you list down tasks that need to be done, split them into four groups (urgent and important, not urgent but important, urgent but not important, not urgent and not important), and fill in each of them.

prioritization matrix exercise

After completing the exercise, you will have insights to improve focus, reduce overwhelm, and enhance productivity. A career coach can guide you if you are confused or stuck on core points to which you want to devote more time.

More and more work, why so? 

Boundaries are the guardrails of your priorities. Without drawing boundaries, priorities are tough to follow. Since you may be highly motivated or worry not to let your colleagues down, you may have trouble saying no to extra activities. Setting healthy boundaries doesn’t hurt relationships, but constantly working after hours usually does. When you overwork yourself, your personal life suffers, and when your personal life is chaotic, your work takes a hit.

Nino Udovychko-career coach at Amy

“Overworking often feels like being in a high-speed race with no end in sight. The first step of breaking it is learning to gradually slow down—sudden stops can be counterproductive. I often recommend starting with small, intentional breaks throughout the day, even just five minutes every hour, to step away, breathe, or do a bit of light exercise. Physical movement helps shake off accumulated stress and reset focus.

Once the initial pace has slowed, it’s important to step back and take a big-picture view of one’s life and career. Overworking frequently results from a lack of long-term planning, leaving people feeling reactive rather than proactive. To address this, I work with clients to develop a year-long strategy that aligns with their values and core goals. When they have a clear roadmap, they’re less likely to fall into a pattern of constant overworking. This process not only helps manage workloads effectively but also allows them to move forward with purpose, avoiding burnout along the way.”

Nina Udovychko, a career expert at Amy with the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

A career coach can help you develop strategies for managing expectations and create a separation between work and personal life.

Technique 2: Use your calendar

Nino Udovychko-career coach at Amy

“Schedule everything, from work tasks to personal commitments. This not only provides structure but also helps ensure that you’re making time for what matters most.“

Nina Udovychko, a career expert at Amy with the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

Instead of just listing to-dos, schedule them on your calendar: intervals for work engagement, exercises, or family time. Treat your personal activities with the same respect as your work appointments. This way, you are less likely to push them aside because something “urgent” and job-related came up.

Exercise: Calendar audit

Calendar Audit exercise at Amy covers your reflections on events for the past 2 weeks in areas of mental health, physical health, career, family, and personal growth. You fill in each field and answer what you want to change in your planning. What you can do today to make it happen.

Calendar Audit exercise at Amy

As a result, you gain control over your schedule, increase efficiency, and minimize stress by identifying and eliminating time-wasters. 

Technique 3: Time blocking for deep work

Nino Udovychko-career coach at Amy

“Set dedicated blocks of time for focused work without distractions, followed by blocks for personal or family time. This rhythm keeps you productive and present in all areas of life.“

Nina Udovychko, a career expert at Amy with the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

Deep work targets tasks that require your full attention, like strategizing, writing, and problem-solving. You create a space where you get into the flow, not to be sidetracked by interruptions. How do you accomplish uninterrupted focus? Project management tools, time trackers, and apps for limiting distraction can help control involvement. But initially, identify the best focus times when you are naturally more productive and at your mental peak.

Exercise: Energy audit

Energy Audit exercise at Amy comes in handy to optimize your energy boost, manage energy for better health, and allocate energy to priority tasks. You evaluate your day and what activities add a drive in your highest energy level periods. You do the same for the lowest energy level periods—what decreases your motivation and drains energy. The finish line of the exercise wraps small steps to matching energy patterns with your daily schedule.

Energy Audit exercise at Amy

Example of a resulting schedule:

  1. 9:00 – 10:00 AM: Morning routine
  2. 10:00 – 11:00 AM: Deep work
  3. 11:00 – 11:30 AM: Break
  4. 11:30 – 12:00 PM: Emails
  5. 12:00 – 1:00 PM: Lunch
  6. 1:00 – 4:00 PM: Deep work
  7. 4:00 – 6:00 PM: Quick assignments
  8. 6:00 – 8:00 PM: Personal time

Technique 4: Unfocus to refocus

Nino Udovychko-career coach at Amy

“Step away every hour or two to recharge—take a walk, play with your pet, or hit the gym. Small breaks can dramatically boost your productivity and focus.”

Nina Udovychko, a career expert at Amy with the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

When you keep pushing your concentration, your brain gets tired, and you may feel stuck or burned out. Stepping away from your desk improves clarity. Think of it like rebooting a laptop to speed it up when running slow. A good shift would be something unrelated to work, like listening to music or doing chores. 

Consequently, you could handle the demands of work, identify sources of stress, if any, and cope with the pressure. 

Technique 5: Quarterly check-in

Nino Udovychko-career coach at Amy

“Take time every three months to assess where you are and where you want to be. Break it down into life spheres—career, relationships, health, personal growth—and see what needs adjusting.”

Nina Udovychko, a career expert at Amy with the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

You may be so caught up in the day-to-day that you forget to pause:

  • What is going well?
  • Where do I feel off-balance?
  • What is a step to make life better in this area?
  • Are there any habits I need to start or stop? What can I adjust?

A quarterly check-in lets you hit the reset button, track the ongoing progress, and realign your focus. By breaking it down into specific areas of life, you get a clearer picture of what needs tweaking. 

Example of quarterly check-in:

  • Career: “Did I set clearer boundaries? Do I regularly block time for focused work?”
  • Relationships: “I’ve been spending little time with my child because of extra work. I plan to delegate some responsibilities to free up my schedule.”
  • Health: “I’ve been eating junk food lately because of stress. I will aim to prepare healthy meals at least twice a week.”
  • Personal growth: “Can I dedicate an hour a week to learning about copywriting?”

Try career coaching 

A career counselor helps you build strong organizational skills while working in the office or remotely, have more control over your schedules, and beat the procrastination trap. You meet professional deadlines while making space for your personal priorities and commitments.

When work demands too much and leaves little time for you, you seek a career that supports your lifestyle. Sometimes, a job may feel unbearable, and if prioritization and other techniques don’t fix the cause, consider a change. Use your free time to focus on a job search: set clear career goals, update your resume, and apply to preferable roles. Taking actionable steps not only helps you endure your current job but also moves you closer to something better. 

With the help of career coaching, you can improve your work-life balance in a current role or a new job to stop sacrificing your personal happiness for your career. Try Amy human potential platform for self-coaching exercises or expert guidance.

Career Types and Formats: From Nine-to-Five Jobs to Freelance Services

Posted on by by Nataliya Melnyk, Marketer at Amy

Careers vary in types, formats, and the lifestyle they support. A long-term role within one company, a job that spans different industries, or even a mix of two totally unrelated skills. Still, this is not the full list.

In a world with so many career paths, it is easy to get caught up in traditional routes and miss opportunities that could fit you better beyond the usual options. The career choices are limitless, and the article will guide you on paths, whether you are entering the job market or considering a career change.

Types: careers by professions and industries

By reviewing the core career types, you can uncover your true calling, avoid getting stuck in meaningless jobs, and ignite the spark of your interests.

  • Public sector careers with clear structures. These jobs stand for stable, secure environments like hospitals, schools, or governments with a path for progression that needs formal education and often years of experience to advance to senior levels. Traditional careers are fueled by commitment and human-focused impact, such as healthcare and social assistance that improve people’s lives, health, and well-being. 
  • Creative careers with the freedom to express yourself. These jobs, like writing or design, typically promote flexibility, original ventures, and fresh perspectives. 
  • Technology careers with fast-growing innovation, like data science and software development. Tech professionals are in demand in every industry because of digital advancement. These jobs offer secure, high salaries, remote schedules, and engaging tasks to tackle.
  • Academic and research careers with opportunities to contribute to specialized fields and be devoted to long-lasting learning. If you are driven by questions, exposed to discoveries, and pursue knowing more, you could take a closer look at research and academic roles.
  • Hands-on work, such as plumbing and mechanics, which is the best fit for specialists who prefer solving practical problems and working with their hands. Here, job availability depends on location. 
  • Mission-driven non-profit jobs that give a sense of purpose and align professional work with personal values. In addition to fulfillment, you get a supportive, people-oriented culture. 
  • Entrepreneur-based careers with independence and autonomy. Generally, business owners, freelancers, or consultants are self-motivated individuals with risk tolerance, focusing on managing their services to navigate market demands.
The example of career coaching process

Organization size: companies, firms, startups

Organization size determines responsibilities and the level of bureaucracy. A role in a corporation is shaped in other ways than a role in a small company. In most scenarios, large companies assign defined tasks around designated roles where you don’t need to cope with something outside your scope of work like legal or financial directions. For example, a marketing specialist in a corporation orients solely on content strategy, leaving a video production piece to a scriptwriter. Multiple layers of management take more time for decision-making, though. Still, they offer opportunities for promotions, performance reviews, and development programs linked to career growth over the long term.

Small companies prioritize a dynamic approach to adapt to changes quickly. Employees in small companies may deal with activities crossing into several departments. For example, a marketing specialist might handle content strategy, email campaigns, and social media. Startups are fast-paced environments with opportunities to scale up at lightning speed and take ownership, but sometimes, you may need to sacrifice supporting resources and time.

Formats: careers by direction

Some careers require niche skills tailored through experience in a particular area. Other careers—a broader range of skills applied in multiple contexts throughout industries. Mastering operational and leadership roles simultaneously is also a possible career scenario. What about career growth in these cases? Let’s figure out what vertical and horizontal careers are and if blending projects, as well as unrelated directions, can be within your reach. 

Vertical career growth

The vertical direction of career development means moving up a career ladder and a single field of expertise. You get promoted within one organization. Picture a consultant junior specialist in retail taking the role of project manager in retail in 4 years. 

Best fit for: A professional who sticks to a stable, clear path to advance their career, get a higher salary, and make linear progress. For those who aspire to leadership roles.

Horizontal career growth

The horizontal career growth does not always lead to a promotion or pay raise. A position grows in level, responsibility, or role over time, progressing from junior to middle, then senior. You move across fields. You deepen your skills and experience. Imagine a writer expanding their expertise from technical writing to copywriting. 

Best fit for: A professional who strives to broaden knowledge and flourish in various domains. For those valuing flexibility and cross-functional roles.

Unrelated career directions

Mixing different jobs builds a unique professional profile. You gain insights from many areas and cover your aspirations to the full extent. While embracing unrelated directions seems to be a rewarding experience, it takes effort to balance. 

If you have many interests and can’t imagine choosing between them, mixing careers might be the best way to be equally passionate about two or more. Take the example of an engineer at a mid-size company working as a project manager for a non-profit organization with initiatives that help create positive change.

Best fit for: A professional who craves variety and feels limited by a single focus. A person who is open to constant shifts and challenges. And, of course, who is proficient in time management. 

Lifestyle: careers by schedule and environment 

To piece together the final part of the puzzle, we will examine careers based on hours:

  • A full-time job, nine-to-five, has been a conventional career path for the last decades. You commit around 40 hours a week for long-term career development and consistent income. 
  • A part-time occupation or flexible hours can, on the contrary, support your secondary commitments or interests. Like freelance projects or gigs where hours can be customized. 
  • Speaking about the projects-based career path, you may be hired for short-term assignments with specific objectives, allowing for breaks or time off between involvements.

Working environment is another essential as weighing options between on-site, remote, or hybrid equals defining your style of living. 

  • On-site work is perfect if you thrive on routine and enjoy in-person engagement: you are more productive in a dedicated workspace, and you want a clear boundary between work and home. Certain careers strictly expect physical presence as part of hands-on work or direct interaction with machinery and customers.
  • If supported by a company, hybrid models present the sum of two: online and offline collaboration. With fewer days spent in the office, you save time on commuting but add a bit of personal connection as opposed to remote.
  • Remote jobs are common in tech and provide flexibility if you are comfortable working from home without needing a physical office. You handle tasks from a living room, a cafe, a coworking space, or even a different city without sacrificing job stability. 
The example of career coaching session

How to find the right career path with career coaching

Career self-coaching practices or, to be more precise, free available career instruments can help you understand which path is for you. No matter whether you are searching for a new job or changing career direction. You can become your own career coach. 

Self-coaching usually goes in the form of exercises to practice: you choose an exercise, take it while reflecting on your experience, and get the results. It’s like putting yourself in the driver’s seat and taking ownership of your path. The Amy career coaching platform has a library of exercises, like Personal SWOT Analysis and Skill Development Plan, each with the timing, ability to review answers, and progress tracking. 

In the case of finding the right career path, the career coaching practices will be to: 

  1. Self-reflect. Think over, realize, and evaluate your interests, needs, and experience. Analyze your current job format or your future one:
    • Do I value stability and structure, or do I prefer flexibility and independence?
    • Am I comfortable with the risks of working independently? 
    • Am I into continuous learning or mastering a skill and putting it into practice?
    • Do I prefer to shape my own journey or assume responsibilities in a traditional work environment?
  2. Take a closer look at preferable career paths. Follow companies’ websites and social media to learn about their culture and potential opportunities, or meet people in the industry to expand your network and simply communicate. This way, you will stay updated on organizational structures, vacancies, and other news. 
  3. Set actionable goals. Draft your career plan with goals and information from self-assessment. You include a goal, a timeline, and how you will measure success. 

Ask for help if you feel confused and uncertain

So many professionals struggle to find clarity and direction. This causes frustration and missed opportunities. A career counselor can support you in exploring paths you hadn’t considered, expand your view of what is possible, and create a tailored roadmap to bring those goals within reach. The benefits are personalized guidance in identifying strengths, setting realistic career goals, choosing a suitable career type and format, and creating steps to advance while addressing any blocks. Rediscover your worth as a professional with a personal career coach. 

What’s next?

Career coaching services can absolutely ease navigating the turns of your career path—current and future ones—and assist you with job searching and career transition to pave the way for new career opportunities. Try the Amy career coaching platform for more.

Your First Career Coaching Session: How to Prepare and What to Expect?

Posted on by by Mariia Shevchenko, CEO at Amy

Thinking about career coaching but are not sure where to start and what to expect? A new job seems like a leap into uncertainty, career transition poses financial risks, and meaningless tasks drag down your brilliance? Even if you aim just for a little guidance on your way, career coaching sessions can be very helpful.

Here’s a look at what the first career coaching session typically involves, steps to prepare, and what makes a top-notch coach stand out from the rest.

First things first, what is the career coach’s role in your career development?

Career coaches help you achieve your career goals, and if you don’t know what your career goals are, they help you define them. A career consultant reframes experience at your current work to create a better work environment or smoothly navigates a career change. 

Career coaches are proficient in enhancing resumes, job search processes, and job interview strategies. With an expert, you will craft your career plan, define your skills, and map a timeline for upskilling. 

The image of a career coach at Amy

“Working with a career coach is a collaborative, strategic experience where clients gain clarity, self-confidence, and actionable plans. The benefits include personalized guidance in identifying strengths, setting realistic and inspiring career goals, and creating steps to advance while also addressing any blocks. Clients often walk away with a fresh mindset, which is a critical part of moving forward successfully.”

Jane Klymenko, a career expert at Amy with 10+ years of coaching experience and the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

Success story at Amy: from feeling undervalued to feeling fulfilled

Background

Kate approached a career coach with an issue: she struggled to secure a leadership role within her organization, feeling consistently overlooked despite her technical expertise.

Our approach

Kate, along with a career coach, focused on three primary steps: 

  1. Assessing her current skill set and the perception of her role within the company
  2. Identifying and amplifying her leadership potential through targeted personal branding
  3. Enhancing her network within and outside the organization to support her ambitions

Challenges faced

Kate had difficulty breaking through the “technical-only” perception her colleagues held, felt unsure about networking, and struggled with imposter syndrome.

Results achieved

We overcame her struggles by:

  1. Reframing her approach to networking as relationship-building
  2. Encouraging her to take on mini-leadership roles in projects
  3. Coaching her in developing the leadership style to make a strong impression in professional environments

Eventually, Kate secured her leadership role, and her confidence in personal and professional interactions grew significantly.

The image of a career coaching session

What makes a good career coach?

What qualities to look for in a great career coach? How to spot a career coach who is truly a great fit for you? The answer is to define what is your goal plus the following common strengths and competencies:

  • Has expertise in your career objectives. There can be a background in recruitment or management or even your industry. Can be experience in the work-life balance area. 
  • Has a portfolio of success cases and a trusted reputation in the market.
  • An active listener and a strong communicator. Clear communication builds comfy relationships and promotes an open environment in which you can share career preferences and challenges—be your true self.
  • Focused on setting measurable goals and taking actionable steps. A professional career coach guides you to grow and progress with specific, tailored strategies rather than generic, one-size-fits-all advice.

What are the preps for the career coaching session?

Here’s how you can start and get the most out of your career coaching session:

The image of a career coach at Amy

“The most important prerequisite for the first session is an openness to self-reflection and a willingness to commit to the process. While some clients prepare by reflecting on their career history or even journaling about their goals and challenges, it’s not a strict requirement. If they’re inclined, they could try some self-awareness exercises, like the “Wheel of Life” or “Values Assessment,” to bring a clearer sense of their current situation and desired direction.”

Jane Klymenko, a career expert at Amy with 10+ years of coaching experience and the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

  1. Reflection. Spend some time thinking about your past, present, and future aspects of work. What do you want from your career now and for the long term? What holds you back from achieving your aspirations? What motivates you in your work? What are your core values? Take careful note of your challenges. For example, you may experience imposter syndrome, burnout, or frustration with monotonous, never-ending activities. If you cannot find answers to your questions or miss something, it’s okay. A career coach will guide you in the right direction during the session. 
  2. Materials. To help your career coach get to know you better, think about bringing along your resume, cover letter, any certifications you have, your performance reviews, or feedback notes. Having these materials ready gives a career coach a clearer picture of your work history, skills, and accomplishments. Which means they can offer more tailored advice that fits your needs.
  3. Questions. Prepare questions for your coach and be ready to clarify any possible confusion on the call. This ensures you cover essentials during your session.
  4. Feedback. Be open to constructive feedback, reflections, and changes. Your willingness to grow and flexible mindset will make improvements.

What to expect from a career coaching session?

The image of a career coach at Amy

“For me, career coaching is about empowering clients to see new possibilities and pathways in their professional lives, clarifying goals, and helping them take steps to achieve them. The biggest advantage is that it provides a structured approach to both personal and career growth, which can otherwise feel overwhelming. By having an objective perspective, clients can make intentional choices that align with their values and skills.”

Jane Klymenko, a career expert at Amy with 10+ years of coaching experience and the main area of expertise in Work-Life Balance

In the first career coaching session, you can expect to: 

  • Define objectives and assess your interests, needs, skills, values, background, or any other points
  • Discuss your current position
  • Outline any immediate concerns or challenges
The image of a career coaching process

The conversation sets the groundwork for the ongoing work to establish direction, identify focus areas, and outline initial action steps. You will get a sense of clarity, organize your thoughts, and solidify a starting point. So, the first session with a career coach is about laying the foundation. Regular check-ins or follow-up sessions are about tracking progress, addressing new challenges, and adjusting your plan.

Talk to a coach

Take your career to the next level with a personal career coach. Career coaching services will absolutely ease navigating the turns of your career path. With the right guidance, career coaching can unlock your potential and new opportunities, empowering you to achieve professional heights.