Often people don't like to move out of their comfort zone, for fear of making the wrong decision by changing careers. It may seem easier to stay with a job you already know, with people you've already met and knowing when your next pay day will be. However if your career is making you miserable, it’s probably time to have a think about whether moving out of your comfort zone is a risk worth taking for the sake of your future health and happiness. After all, what's more important than your happiness and ultimately your health?

Life coaches who deal specifically with career change advice are experts in listening to and breaking down your current situation and feelings about your job. You may not realise it, but this can be extremely hard to do by yourself. Even with the help of friends and family, who often find it hard to see past their preconceptions about you, you may struggle to identify the right choices without some professional help from outside your circle of friends, colleagues and family.

The career change advice you receive from your chosen career coach will depend very much on your situation and feelings. Being stuck in a rut at work can make it hard to identify the reasons behind your desire for a career change. Your career coach will help you breakdown your feelings about not just your work, but your life as well, as this may well be influencing your current mood without you realising it. It may turn out that a career change is not what would truly make you happy, but that a change of job, living arrangements, location, position or any number of other things would get your happiness back on track.

If you simply don't know what career would really excite you, it may be worth spending some time exploring your values and beliefs to find out what matters most to you and then research jobs that match those values and beliefs. When you discover the job that does match your values and beliefs, work will become enjoyable rather than something you dread doing. Everyone has the opportunity to choose their own career path and to change it if their current one is not fulfilling them, so only you can decide to stay in a job that makes you miserable, or seek out one that will make your days far more meaningful and pleasurable.

Life and career coaches can usually offer to coach you in a number of different ways which will suit you both. Many will coach over the telephone, and you could also contact each other online and sometimes face to face sessions are available. Which ever way your life coach talks you through things there will be some important things you may cover in your sessions.
Of course, the contents and direction of your sessions will greatly depend on your situation and what you hope to gain from your sessions. Below are some of the things you may cover during your career change advice session.

Exploring your skills and attributes

You may think that you are fully aware of all the skills you have picked up throughout your working life and this may be true, but often there are many skills or attributes you posses which you may not realise would be very interesting to any potential employers. Career coaches have an ability to pick up on these skills and attributes even if you are not aware of having them.

Dreaming about new career choices

When we start to think about our 'ideal world' many of us come up with elaborate dreams of a world where we don't have to work in order to pay the bills. In reality this would probably get boring after a while. There are many people who love their jobs and look forward to going to work each day, finding themselves more enthusiastic about life because they are truly happy in their jobs. This can be the norm for you as well if you start to think about what you really want to be doing. Being suck in a rut at work can make it extremely difficult to think about what you would love to do and explore new possibilities. Make sure you take some time out to dream and get creative about the opportunities open to you.

Finding out whether a career change is the right choice

There can be many things which may depress your mood and start you thinking about a career change. However, it may not always be a change of career that is needed and you will need to try and detach yourself from your current feelings about your career to try and establish what else might be affecting your mood at the moment. If you can make more simple change such as moving to a new job within the same career, and they still don't leave you feeling great then it could be the right time to start thinking more seriously about changing your career path.

Looking into what's holding you back

Choosing to change your career is a massive decision to make and when you have bills and family to take care of it gets even harder. Before taking the plunge it’s sensible to look at all your options and make some more subtle changes to your lifestyle. This can put you in a better frame of mind and give you the energy boost that you need to make bigger career decisions. There are many excuses people have for sticking in a job that makes them miserable, but ultimately you are in sole charge of your life and career and you deserve to be happy with the job that you generally spend a lot of your life doing! Your career coach can help you identify the issues that might be stopping you from pushing yourself to achieve your career goals.

Assistance with CV and cover letter writing

Once you have made the decision to change career, you will need to take a serious look at your CV. Many people won’t have done this for a very long time and after dusting away the cobwebs you will probably not recognise the person you once wrote about. You acquire skills and experience new problems to solve everyday. While you may not perceive things you can do with your hands tied behind your back as skills, an employer will often take a very different view if you think about how your skill relates to their business. Even seemingly unrelated skills can sometimes prove your abilities in areas that your employer is looking for. Try to see your life experiences and attributes from an employers point of view and pick something positive from each one that puts you in a good light. This will make you feel more positive about the skills you have acquired and help showcase your best bits!

Interview coaching and making a good impression

You have probably heard the saying about having very little time to make your first impression and how important that first impression is. This is true specially in an interview situation where you don't have much time to change the interviewers mind about you if your first impression is bad. Interviews can vary massively depending on the industry that you are going into and it is important to get a good idea of the sort of things to expect at any interview for your new career. Time is of the essence in an interview situation and so is making sure that you stand out among the crowd, this is where interview coaching comes in and can be a really big advantage even for seasoned interviewees. Your career coach can use different interview coaching techniques with you and discuss ways in which you can improve your interview skills to help you make the best impression on your future employer.
These are just a few of the things you might cover in your session, but it might be that your career coach chooses completely different things to work on which are more tailored to your situation and aims for the outcome of your life coaching sessions. Whatever you work on, make sure you tell your life coach about what you expect to gain from your sessions and be open about your current situation to get the most from your time together.