I needed a lot more guidance than I thought.
• I worked with a career coach, Rebecca Fraser-Thill of the Pivot Coaching team, for two months.
• Fraser-Thill was supportive and encouraging, but also made sure I set concrete, measurable career goals.
• Over the course of coaching, I learned that I'd been taking a backseat to my own professional development, and became more proactive about it.
Right around the 15-minute mark of my first phone call with Rebecca Fraser-Thill, an "aha!" moment occurred.
I was describing how I'd behave differently once I earned the senior reporter title at Business Insider - I'd feel confident that I was the right person to be tackling the stories I wanted to write and I'd think more carefully about the stories I pitched to my editor.
"It is interesting," Fraser-Thill said, "because it strikes me that both of these are certainly things you could work into your current life. "
Oh.
"I'm not a full believer in 'fake it till you make it,'" she added, "but there's also the piece of sometimes we do have to 'act as if.'"
Fraser-Thill is a career coach and for the past two months, I've been one of her clients. I pitched this story to my editor because it had occurred to me that, while I use career coaches and leadership coaches as sources for stories somewhat often, I don't know what they do on a daily basis.
Admittedly, I didn't think I needed that much guidance. There have been times in my professional past when I've felt confused or overwhelmed, but when I approached Fraser-Thill I felt pretty good about both my job and my career more generally. Signing up for coaching was more about getting a firsthand look at how someone with this job works.
Spoiler alert: I did need guidance, or at least more than I thought I did. Working with Fraser-Thill made me realize that, for years, I'd been leaving my career development to chance.