“But I don’t have any skills!”
How young people can find and develop their strengths through career coaching
If you’re a young person venturing into the world of work after formal education draws to a close, you may be finding the transition tricky.
You’re not alone.
It’s a time that’s both exciting and nail-biting, and many of the teens and young adults who come to me for early career coaching feel confused about which direction to take at this important point in their lives.
Many also worry that, at such a young age, they lack the skills that will help them secure a great job, gain valuable work experience, or enter further training in order to develop a fulfilling career.
In reality, young people often have more transferable skills and strengths than they imagine, they simply need support with identifying them, applying them to relevant roles, and understanding where they fit within today and tomorrow’s workplace landscape.
Not only can early career coaching help you take stock of your skills and the opportunities they might unlock in the moment, we will also work together to identify the additional skills that will help you access amazing opportunities in the future, forging a career pathway of your own design.
Some skills are easy to identify - natural strengths you’ve always enjoyed, or competencies that have been developed through education, training, and work experience.
Through coaching, however, you may also discover hidden skills that have been acquired through your personal and social lives, but that haven’t yet been demonstrated in a work capacity. Often, these are just as valid as more formally acquired capabilities.
However you piece together your skillset, just knowing what your strengths are can, in itself, help guide you into a career choice that’s right for you.
To kickstart the skill discovery process, my early career coaching programme often begins by leading my young clients through a set of visualisations to help them get a clearer idea of their own values and qualities. From here, we can identify related skills like leadership, empathy, organisation, and good listening that form the foundation for a skill set you can proudly share with employers.
There’s certainly no shame in struggling to identify your core skills. As adults, we’re great at listing our weaknesses, but when tasked with talking about our strengths, we often find it difficult to engage.
Perhaps this comes from being warned, as children, that it’s arrogant to ‘blow your own trumpet’. In reality, to forge a successful career, it’s vital to know what unique abilities you bring to the table, and to appreciate your own value in order to demonstrate it to employers, clients, or collaborators.
Knowing your unique set of skills also means you can approach job searching and career development in a much smarter way, rather than burning yourself out applying for as many jobs as possible without demonstrating adequately how you match the profile required (something that, in today’s climate, will probably result in numerous frustrating rejections).
Finding, and using your best skills means that you’re more likely to feel that you’re ‘in your flow’ where doors open effortlessly, and decisions are made with confidence. And becoming familiar with your core skills can mean coming to a deeper understanding of your passions, as we’re likely to be good at the things we love doing.
Coaching conversations also allow you to build a familiar narrative around your strengths, so you get used to talking about them in meaningful ways.
Of course, focussing on skills alone when thinking about early career development is a very one-dimensional approach. My Career Coaching Programme covers all aspects of building a successful work life, from finding a unique place in the world of work to help with making important decisions like whether to take a gap year or embark on further studies.
As a young person making that transition from education to paid employment, it’s important to build up from the foundations, gaining a greater understanding of yourself in order to create a career vision that’s unique to you.
Once your vision fully represents your values and passions, setting your goals and making decisions which drive you towards your goals becomes a smoother, more natural process.
If you’re a teenager or young adult wrestling with any aspect of your early career, or if you need a little guidance and support with focus and direction, my early careers coaching can help.
A good way to begin is by accessing a free Chemistry Call with me. We will cover what Career Coaching is and what you can expect when working with me, along with discussing your current situation, and finding out what you’re looking to get out of our work together.
The AYM Career Coaching Programme includes a structured look at how to apply the self-discovery with the more practical tasks like writing your CV and tailoring your skills attributes and experiences with future job applications.