Clarified direction and next steps

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life next! A friend of mine suggested coaching. I just felt that I was a jack of all trades, I’ve experience in so many different areas and no one real ‘expertise’ (OR SO I THOUGHT!).

I wasn’t sure where to look next for a job but I knew I wanted to leave my previous job (for various reasons).

I liked that the hour was well planned out by Nicola, I felt like we got through a lot. I also liked how approachable she was with emails etc, and I know that she would reply if I had any further questions.

I’m now seriously considering starting up a venture on my own – it might not be overnight but I will start thinking about it properly. I had a lot of fear around that. Also, it has made me realise that I don’t necessarily have to automatically go for jobs that involve people management just because I consider myself a leader.

I’ve decided now that a real non-negotiable for me is using my voice (presenting/public speaking) for social change, I need to have that in any job I take.

Nicola won’t tell you what you should do with your life, rather she will ask you questions that guide you and spark ideas.

I would also encourage people to take their time with the process, like I did. I got the pre-session exercise immediately and had lots of time to think about it, and I think that helped immensely.”

“I needed to get through the untamed jungle of possibilities and decide on a path to follow so I invested in career coaching with Nicola.

The guidance and structure was really helpful. I liked having a format and process to follow because it gave me hope that it would help clear up the murkiness. I appreciated the notes from each session and the experience has been positive.

Nicola’s reliability, calm and confidence made the process feel doable.

I’ve identified a good place for me to start (coach certification) and to be able to justify the decision in concrete language using my blueprint, a one-page visual summary of what I’m looking for from my career going forward. This is immensely helpful when the doubts creep in, or other shiny opportunities pop up.

I finally have a direction!”

“I needed to get clarity about next steps, and have the structure and accountability that coaching could provide so that I could shift my career in a new direction.

Nicola’s understanding, experience, and the way she could pull out key themes, pieces of information in ways I hadn’t necessarily thought of were immensely helpful. There were so many “yes, that is it” or “Oh I hadn’t realized that, but you’re right” moments.

This session has validated that ‘connection’ is key to me: it’s a skill, motivation, and value that I’d like to dig into more. I gained useful knowledge about the career change process, how it takes time, and that values, and testing your ideas are a key part in the process.

What’s more, I realised that you don’t have to wait until you’re ready to engage in the career change process - engaging is what will ensure I’ll be ready when the right opportunity comes along.

A genuine thank you Nicola for your kindness and understanding – I really enjoyed our session and you have given me a lot to think about!”

“I decided to invest in an Ideal Career Coaching Session to get help with the direction I wanted to go in next with my career. Nicola asked great questions that were thought-provoking, which gave me a clearer view about what I value in a career. I have more confidence as a result to make some small changes in the short-term. I’m also more hopeful about my future career. Thanks for everything Nicola, it was great working with you and I look forward to hopefully working together in the future.”

“I decided to invest in coaching to help gain some clarity on my career. What I liked best were the helpful reflections, prompts, and questions that really focused my thinking. I now have some good questions - and a better structure - to think about what I want out of my career. Honestly, I can’t think of anything that would have improved the experience.”

“I felt like I wasn’t happy with my job but I couldn’t figure out why exactly that was the case. There were way too many thoughts going on in my head for me to identify the problem at hand.

The questions that Nicola asked me have helped me think through what I was struggling with.

As a result of our work together, I’ve explored the different avenues that I could take in my career and I have learned something from each of those explorations - this was great. I’ve also identified my strengths and values which helped me clarify what some of my goals are, even outside of my career.

I really can’t remember being this excited about my future career since leaving college. I think this is amazing!”

“I was in a rut, had left my job and the pandemic had left me feeling unsure about where I wanted to go next.

As a result of working with Nicola, I have clarified what motivates me: that purpose, having a team and crucially having fun are really important to where I work. I am exploring a very different avenue of work to what I was thinking about 6 months ago and understand better how some of the work and careers I was considering weren’t a great fit for me and thus didn’t feel right.

The best thing about coaching was having an insightful, caring, motivated and expert person to talk to. It was really motivating and the sense of accountability of having a call booked and having a deadline really worked for me.”

“I wanted to make a career change but wasn’t sure what direction to take. I liked how Nicola’s coaching was structured towards taking actions to move in a new direction, rather than just generating ideas. I also really appreciated the encouragement that Nicola gave me, even when I wasn’t feeling it for the sessions. I now have a clear understanding of my area of interest/passion and have a set of actions to progress me towards getting to meet people in that area and from there finding out the type of work I could do. (I have a 2-year timeframe to make a change.)”

“Working with Nicola helped me to take stock and prioritise the things that are important to me in my career, the motivations that drive me to achieve my goals. This helped me to move forward on projects that had stagnated or were at a standstill. Nicola’s clarity and targeted advice helped me complete some very large goals over the year since I worked with her.

Nicola helped me align my core values with what I would like to achieve in my career, this was particularly important to me at a mid-career point where I needed to decide on the path I would like to take into the future.”

“I connected with Nicola through a colleague on LinkedIn. She is extremely personable and from our initial meeting helped me to start to craft a plan based on what I wanted to achieve.

I really looked forward to our sessions as Nicola has a tremendous ability to help people figure out what it is that really motivates them and to build on their strengths and activate their passion, as well as seeing their true value.

I would highly recommend Nicola to any of my friends and colleagues.”

“I invested in coaching to gain perspective on where I’m at in terms of my career and get a steer towards a more productive direction. As a result of Nicola’s coaching, I have a better can-do approach to things and improved confidence in my own skills. I’ve also changed my approach to reaching my goals and appreciate the value of a carefully thought-out action plan.

I’d encourage any academic who’s weighed down by the system to try coaching!

There’s room for everyone to excel and achieve their goals and that’s what coaching with Nicola can offer.”

“Nicola gave me a very honest appraisal of how coaching might be beneficial for my situation: figuring out what my next career move should be. She immediately put me at ease and was extremely friendly and accommodating throughout all of our interactions.

As a result of working with Nicola, I feel better equipped to make decisions about my next steps. The questions she asked directed me to consider factors and issues that I likely would not have thought of myself. This really helped clarify my thought processes and will benefit my career-related decision making processes going forward.

(Working with Nicola also helped me re-define my approach to completing a frustrating task: finalising an article to submit for publication. Her coaching gave me the impetus to act then and there and the article was submitted within a week!)

Thanks for all your help Nicola, you are a fantastic coach!”