Graduate Career Coaching

Career Coaching Programme for Graduates

Graduating from university is such a happy time in your life. It’s a great feeling knowing there are no more assignments to write, or exams to sit. There is an overwhelming sense of freedom and excitement for the future ahead.

However, after the novelty wears off, it can start to feel a bit overwhelming when deciding what to do next. There’s often a pressure to start earning straight away, and to know what you’re going to do career wise, and for the rest of your life.

Programme Outline

The 12-session career coaching programme Alice offers allows you the time and space to really work out what career is going to be right for you; what job will suit your skills and preferences, and offer you a long-term sense of purpose and fulfilment. By the end of the sessions, you will have a clear vision of a career that is absolutely right for you, and an action plan for how to create it.

The programme provides a structured framework for the coaching in the form of interesting and engaging exercises, which will bring out the creativity and resourcefulness in you and direct it toward discovering the right next step for your working life.

The coaching programme is broken down in to three distinct phases:

1. EXPLORE phase (7 sessions, ideally held weekly or fortnightly)

Research shows that those who are most satisfied and motivated by their work are in careers which reflect who they really are; careers which reflect their true nature and their real passions; careers which draw on their innate strengths and employ their favourite skills; careers which allow them to honour their deeply-held values. Because of this, the foundation of the coaching programme entails a long, hard look at who you are as a person, and your life as a whole.

During the EXPLORE phase, you’ll get a clear idea of:

  • your values
  • your life purpose
  • your most powerful self
  • your personal strengths
  • your interests and passions
  • your personal achievements
  • everything you need in your life to be happy and fulfilled.

The next layer on the foundation stone in the EXPLORE phase is about your key work preferences. You’ll work to identify:

  • your favourite job skills
  • your key work motivators
  • your professional strengths
  • your greatest work achievements
  • your preferred working organisation and environment
  • your ideal working day
  • everything you need in your working life to be motivated and satisfied.

By the end of the EXPLORE phase, you will be very clear about what you must have in your new career to be satisfied and motivated, which then acts as the acid test for evaluating any future career ideas or job opportunities.

2. IDEAS phase (2 sessions, typically held 3-6 weeks apart)

This is a very creative part of the coaching programme where together you generate a number of possible new career choices. The idea here is to be expansive, to think outside the box, not to be constrained at this stage by traditional notions of what’s possible.

The most attractive ideas are then explored in more detail, before being narrowed down to your most attractive option, which is then worked through in the final ACTION phase.

During this stage, you also are encouraged to 'test drive' your shortlisted ideas, in order to assess their alignment with your needs and wants from a career. These 'Shift Projects' are encouraged to be low cost, non committal ways of trying out your ideas in real life e.g. volunteering, shadowing, short courses, workshops, etc. These take time, hence the (albeit flexible) spacing of the sessions during this phase.

3. ACTION phase (3 sessions, typically held monthly)

The ACTION stage is the point where you visualise, plan out, and start to implement the top possibility that was decided on and committed to in the IDEAS phase. You will work through a creative and empowering exercise, which enables you to turn your ideal career into a clear, structured Action Plan you can easily follow in order to make it a reality.

You then use the last two sessions of this stage to check in with Alice, review your progress against your Action Plan, and seek whatever support you may need at this stage to help keep you on-track and accountable for making your new career path a reality.

You therefore finish the programme well on your way into your ideal career!

What Else to Expect

Attitude required

Alice only works with those serious about making changes in their career, as sessions require an open mind, a willingness to take risks, accountability, and a sincere commitment to implementing the actions agreed between you and Alice. The more keen and ready you are to move forward in your career, the more you will get out of the programme.

Coaching sessions are not a quick fix but an investment of time, commitment, energy, and acceptance of responsibility towards your future, and how it turns out. Investing in coaching is your first step in taking charge of your future, and carving out a happy, fulfilling, and enjoyable career. The coach can not wave a magic wand (unfortunately), nor can they tell you what career path to take. The responsibility for making decisions ultimately remains with you, which is good, as it's your future, not theirs. The coach is there to facilitate your self-awareness, and help you make sense of your answers to the challenging questions they ask you, so that you can draw concrete conclusions much more easily and objectively than you would if you were trying to figure it all out on your own.

Session format

Coaching sessions last approximately 60-90 mins. Alice’s clients are typically London-based, but telephone and online (Zoom) sessions are also available, which work just as well as face to face sessions.

Next Step? Arrange an Introductory Session

For those keen to get started and find out more about coaching, Alice offers a 45-60 minute online Introductory Session (£45) to discuss your current situation, your goals, and what to expect from coaching. You can then decide whether Alice is the right coach for you and how you would like to proceed.

To briefly discuss any of the above, or to arrange an Introductory Session, contact Alice or telephone/text +44 (0)754 559 2909 for details.

Alice Stapleton

About Alice

Alice coaches those who want to change career but don’t know what they want to do instead. She offers Career Coaching designed to help graduates, early to mid-level career-changers, and parents returning to work gain a clear vision of what career is right for them, and how to achieve it. She is also an accredited Coach Supervisor.