Career Coaches near you

There is no regulatory body for career coaches in Canada and no qualification anyone is required to hold. That means the words on a website are chosen by the person selling the service, and no authority has checked them. It also means there is no licence to lose, so references and a clear written scope matter more here than in a regulated field.

Two limits do bind an unregulated coach. Protected health titles may not be used: in Ontario the College of Registered Psychotherapists is explicit that it can take legal action against someone using a restricted title or performing the controlled act of psychotherapy, and the terms tied to psychology are similarly restricted to registrants of that college. And treating a mental health condition is not coaching work regardless of what it is called. A job loss frequently brings genuine distress with it; a responsible career coach will name that, keep coaching on the search, and point you toward a regulated professional or your employee assistance programme for the rest.

Understand who pays whom. A recruiter is paid by the employer to fill a role, so their obligation runs to the employer and their interest is in the vacancies they currently hold. A career coach is paid by you and works on your search across everything, including roles no recruiter is handling. Both can be useful; confusing them leads to disappointment when a recruiter does not return calls about a search they were never engaged for.

A résumé writer produces a document. A career coach may do that too, but the document is the smallest part of a search, and buying one when the real problem is an unclear target rarely helps. Before paying for anything, look at what is available free: the Government of Canada's Job Bank offers career quizzes to help identify interests and abilities, occupational profiles showing what a job involves, the education and skills it needs and the outlook for it, a job transition tool for exploring changes, and job search advice, all at no cost. Provincial and territorial employment services also run free workshops and one-to-one help. Paid coaching makes most sense once you have exhausted those and still need individual attention.

On LokalMatch you describe the help you are looking for, where you are and roughly when you need it, and career coaches working in your area contact you directly. LokalMatch does not screen coaches, does not verify credentials and does not rank or recommend anyone, so the checking is yours to do: confirm any credential on the awarding body's own register, ask for two references from clients who hired them for a comparable situation, and speak to at least two coaches before committing.

Ask each of them the same questions, and listen for how they answer rather than what they promise. Who do you usually work with. What does someone in my situation typically get from this. What would make you tell me coaching is not the right purchase right now. A coach willing to say that last one out loud is the one worth hiring.