Coaching for External Career Moves

External career moves are rarely just about finding vacancies. For mid-career and senior professionals, the real challenge is usually positioning.

You may have strong experience, but the market may not immediately understand what you do, where you fit, or why you are relevant for the roles you want next. Your CV may describe your past accurately without making a persuasive case for your future. Your LinkedIn profile may be technically complete but strategically weak. Your networking may be too passive, too narrow or too uncomfortable to use well.

I help professionals turn career direction into a focused, credible and active job-search strategy.

This coaching is especially useful when you need to clarify your target market, explain your value more confidently, strengthen your CV and LinkedIn profile, prepare for interviews, build a more active network, evaluate opportunities or negotiate an offer.

External career moves do not unfold neatly once every two or three weeks.

• A recruiter calls unexpectedly.
• An interview invitation arrives.
• You need to update your CV quickly.
• You want to approach someone for a coffee chat.
• You are asked about salary expectations.
• You receive an offer and need to decide what to do next.

That is why my external career move coaching is supported by a structured Career Strategy & Job Change System.

Alongside the one-to-one coaching, you receive access to practical guidance, exercises and templates covering the major stages of a job search: career strategy, positioning, CV writing, LinkedIn, networking, interview preparation, offer evaluation and salary negotiation.

You do not need to wait until the next coaching session to make progress. The guidance is there when you need it. Then, when we meet, we use the coaching time for what coaching is best for: judgement, strategy, feedback, practice, accountability and applying the material to your own situation.

External career moves usually involve several linked problems. A weak CV may actually be a positioning problem. Poor interview performance may come from an unclear career story. A quiet job search may be a market-access problem, not a motivation problem.

The coaching helps identify the real constraint and then work through the right parts of the pathway.

1. Clarify the move

What are you trying to move toward, and why? Which roles, levels, sectors, geographies or working arrangements are realistic and desirable?

2. Position your experience

What should the market understand about your capability, impact and relevance? What story makes your next move credible?

3. Build the search assets

How should your CV, LinkedIn profile, cover letters and career narrative support the move you want?

4. Create market access

Who needs to know you are available or exploring? How will you use networking, coffee chats, referrals, headhunters and hiring-manager conversations?

5. Convert interest into offers

How will you prepare for interviews, answer difficult questions, demonstrate fit and show senior-level judgement?

6. Evaluate, negotiate and decide

How will you assess opportunities, compare trade-offs, negotiate terms and make a clean decision?

This coaching may be useful if you are actively exploring the external market or preparing to do so. It may also be useful if you have already started searching but are not getting the quality of response you expected.

The issue may be positioning. Your CV may be accurate but not persuasive. Your LinkedIn profile may describe your past better than your future. You may be struggling to explain why your experience is relevant to the roles you now want.

The issue may be market access. You may be relying too heavily on advertised vacancies, applying without enough traction, or unsure how to network without feeling awkward or transactional.

The issue may be conversion. You may be getting interviews but not offers, finding it hard to explain a redundancy or difficult exit, or struggling to answer questions about motivation, fit, salary, level or career direction.

A job search is not only an administrative process. It is a positioning, communication and market-access process.