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A colleague of mine spent about eighteen months telling anyone who'd listen that she wanted to move out of finance and into something "more meaningful" — she never got much more specific than that. Then she hired a career coach for three months, and the thing that actually changed wasn't some grand realisation. It was that someone made her write down, every single week, exactly one action she'd take toward figuring it out. Three months in she had a shortlist of two actual fields, informational interviews booked in both, and a much clearer idea of what "meaningful" meant to her specifically. Not magic. Just structure applied consistently to something she'd been vaguely circling for a year and a half.
That's roughly what career coaching is, stripped of the LinkedIn-post version of it.
A career coach works with you on anything to do with your working life: deciding whether to stay or go, figuring out what you actually want next when "I don't know" has been your honest answer for months, preparing for a specific move (a promotion push, a career change, a return after time off), or just handling a difficult workplace situation with someone who isn't your manager, your friend, or your therapist.
The common thread is that it's forward-looking and action-oriented. You're not there to process how a bad boss made you feel for the last two years — that's a therapy conversation. You're there to figure out what you're doing about it next, and to have someone hold you to it.
These three get used interchangeably and they shouldn't be.
Career counselling tends to be more diagnostic and assessment-based — think aptitude tests, values clarification, the kind of structured process you might get through a university careers service. Good if you're starting from close to zero on direction.
Career coaching assumes you already have some sense of direction, or at least some real options on the table, and focuses on the plan and the accountability to execute it. Less "let's figure out who you are," more "let's figure out what you're doing by Friday."
A mentor has actually done the specific thing you're trying to do, in your specific industry, and is sharing what worked for them personally. Genuinely valuable, but it's advice from one person's experience, not a structured process — and a mentor usually isn't checking in on you the way a coach is paid to.
Plenty of people benefit from more than one of these at once. They're not competing options.
Fairly consistent shape, in my experience of how these actually run: you report back on whatever you committed to since the last session — did you have the conversation with your manager, send the applications, finish the CV rewrite. You talk through what actually got in the way, because something usually did. The coach pushes on the vague parts — "more meaningful" gets turned into something specific enough to act on, not left as a feeling. You leave with one or two concrete next steps, not a general sense of encouragement.
Most people do 4–8 sessions over a couple of months, weekly or fortnightly. Long enough to build real momentum, short enough that it doesn't become a permanent crutch instead of a launchpad.
In practice, it clusters around a few recognisable situations:
Genuinely undecided about staying in your current field or leaving it, and stuck circling the decision without landing on it
Know you want out, but have no clear idea what "out" actually looks like yet
Preparing for something specific — a negotiation, a return to work, an interview process for a role that matters
Repeatedly hitting the same wall at work — always overcommitting, always avoiding the difficult conversation, always plateauing at the same level
If you're dealing with something closer to burnout or a genuine mental health strain from work rather than a direction problem, that's a different kind of support — worth first rather than starting with coaching.
Same honest answer as with any coaching: depends on the coach, and depends on whether you actually do the work between sessions. The value isn't in the hour itself — it's in having a standing appointment that makes you actually do the thing you'd otherwise keep putting off for another month. People who treat it as a check-in on real progress get real value. People who treat it as a substitute for actually job-hunting or actually having the hard conversation generally don't.
Worth checking credentials before you commit, same as with any coaching — "career coach" isn't a protected title in the UK, so training varies wildly between practitioners. Ask directly what accreditation they hold and how long they've been practising.
What's the difference between career coaching and career counselling? Counselling tends to be more assessment-based and diagnostic — useful when you're starting with very little direction. Coaching assumes some direction exists already and focuses on a concrete plan plus accountability to execute it.
How is career coaching different from just talking to a mentor? A mentor shares what worked for them personally in your field. A coach runs a structured process and holds you accountable to action between sessions, regardless of their own career background.
How long does career coaching usually take? Most people see real movement over 4–8 sessions, roughly one to two months at a weekly pace — longer for a full career change, shorter for something specific like interview prep.
Is career coaching only for people who want to quit their job? No — plenty of people use it to get unstuck within their current role, prepare for a promotion, or handle a specific workplace situation, not just to leave.
What's the difference between a career coach and a ? Career coaches focus specifically on work — direction, transitions, workplace situations. Life coaches work more broadly across any area of life, which may or may not include career depending on what you bring to sessions.
If you're ready to actually talk to someone, every career coach on is verified before they're allowed to take a client, and it's — so a single session to see if it's useful doesn't commit you to anything ongoing.
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