n. A guide or advisor who helps to plan and manage a person's career.
2001
For someone who needs some help getting started on a job search but doesn't need the administrative support an outplacement firm offers, a career coach may be the answer.
"I think what a good career coach is going to do is go digging for gold," said Beverly Berner, of the Resource Development Group in St. Louis. "Most people who have lost their jobs have forgotten that they are capable, skilled, accomplished human beings. What we try to do is identify and uncover these things."
"I think what a good career coach is going to do is go digging for gold," said Beverly Berner, of the Resource Development Group in St. Louis. "Most people who have lost their jobs have forgotten that they are capable, skilled, accomplished human beings. What we try to do is identify and uncover these things."
1982 (earliest)
Penny Garner of Taking Charge!, who dubs herself a Washington "career coach" ($50 an hour), adds that job-seekers "have a right to expect a counselor to know how organizations work: how Capitol Hill offices work, how associations work, how a Fortune 500 company works, a law firm, a university."
As the related words for this phrase show, these days there's a coach for every aspect of a person's life. (I couldn't find any evidence, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that there's such a thing as a coaching coach. However, I can tell you that the International Coach Federation exists.)