Case studies: Career and business adviser: Jan Hildebrand

Jan has an MBA and diploma in Life Coaching. Her undergraduate degree was in graphic communication. She currently works as a career consultant and business coach.

Currently, I work as a career consultant with three different outplacement/career management companies, as a career/business coach with a business school and work as a business adviser with an enterprise agency in west London.

After discussing with the client what they would like to focus the meeting on, we generally talk about what they have been doing and options for what they would like to do next. We discuss their strengths, interests and work preferences, in order to gain clarity and a direction for moving forward.

The CV is reviewed to see how well it demonstrates what they can do, their skills and experience, and how it relates to the type of job they want next. I give them tools to help identify their achievements - what they did and the results or outcome. I also give them several examples of what I feel are good CVs that they can follow for style.

Next, it is helping them to create a plan to market themselves effectively, utilising all routes to the job markets. This includes what they can do, the value they bring to a role that makes them different from others and the roles they'd like to do next. We make a list of target organisations they would like to work for and can research or contact. After the CV has been revised, further feedback is given.

Finally, there is interview preparation, which helps them to present themselves more successfully. We go over the questions they could be asked and how to handle difficult questions. I offer a mock interview for a role they are applying for and we also discuss negotiation strategies for salary and benefits.

I previously worked as a volunteer business adviser; I then wanted to get paid work in the area as a career and business adviser. I contacted someone I knew who was working with a large outplacement/career management company. I was in the right place, at the right time because they were looking to take on more consultants. My edge was that I could also work with clients wanting to become self-employed or start businesses. I was able to secure a contract for three days a week, thereby gaining the experience needed. They gave me excellent training and I was able to study all the materials they developed for clients in career transition. I also had fantastic, experienced career consultant colleagues who were generous in sharing their advice, experience and the tools they used.

The executive MBA was useful in getting work as career coach for MBA students and alumni - although not a requirement. The coaching qualification was also helpful for getting a range of questions to ask clients to draw-out information and get them talking, but again it wasn’t a requirement.

My advice for anyone getting into this job would be to think about where you would best fit and approach your target organisations for information and advice to see if your experience and qualifications could fit this role - or what experience or further learning they would recommend you to get. Except for my first two jobs after graduating as a designer, I always found my future jobs or freelance work through networking.