Career service providers can be confusing.

People who provide professional career services can use many different titles and hold many different credentials. One person's website may claim they're a "career coach," while someone else's claims they're a "career counsellor," "career strategist," or "professional branding expert." From the outside, it's really hard to know who does what -- so I'm using my experience in the field to break down the differences and help you make sense of your options.

The most important thing to clarify upfront is that the career services field in Canada -- and in many other countries -- is not regulated. This means that there is no singular, specific credential required to practice like you would see in fields such as teaching, law, or medicine. As a result, career services providers come from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds, and call themselves many different titles. 

 

What is coaching, and what is a career coach?

Coaches help people achieve their potential. Some coaches focus on life as a whole, while others focus on more specific areas such as health, relationships, leadership, or career. Many career coaches focus even more specifically on helping people enter or exit a specific industry or role, like getting into tech or out of law. Coaching tends to be very goal-oriented: how can you accomplish whatever you want? The assumption is often that you know what you want, and the coach's role is to provide structure, encouragement, and accountability. 

The largest organization that certifies coaches around the world is the International Coaching Federation. Becoming an ICF-certified coach requires "coach-specific education," which can include a wide range of courses and training programs offered by a wide range of providers. Smaller organizations often certify coaches in their own proprietary methodology or program. Coach certification and training varies widely; some coaches have training in career development, while others have little or none.

Coaching and career development can sometimes contradict each other. For example, a fundamental principle of coaching is that the client holds the key to their own solutions. The client is seen as the expert, and the coach views it as their job to help the client unlock their own solutions. While this sometimes makes sense in career development, there are also times when the client is genuinely missing key information or perspective, and needs the provider's expertise to make an informed decision. I use some coaching tools in my work, but I am not a coach.

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What is career counselling?

Career counsellors help people explore their career interests, values, and strengths to design careers and lives that work for them. People who call themselves career counsellors tend to have training in psychology. Some may even be licensed mental health counsellors, though that credential alone doesn't necessarily indicate career development specific expertise -- most mental health counselling programs only include one course related to career development.

Counselling is generally more exploratory than coaching: how can you figure out what you want? Instead of assuming you already have a clear goal, the focus is on exploring career options and making career decisions -- processes that apply to any and every field of work.

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I call myself a career counsellor because I have completed several graduate-level counselling psychology courses, and use many counselling frameworks and tools to help clients unpack the psychological and emotional dimensions of their careers. I am not a licensed mental health care provider, though I maintain an active referral network to connect my clients to qualified providers as needed.

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I chose to pursue certification as a Certified Career Development Practitioner to demonstrate my specific focus on careers and to align with Canada's national standards and guidelines for career development professionals. Earning this certification requires a combination of education and experience around careers, including the demonstration of 16 key competencies such as evidence-based practice in career exploration, job search, and labour market information. It also means that we engage in regular professional development on these topics. 

Like me, many CCDPs call themselves career counsellors, career coaches, or another title that is widely recognized by the public.

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It isn't black and white.

The line between career coaching and career counselling isn't always perfectly clean -- they often overlap in practice. One specific career coach and one specific career counsellor may have pretty similar backgrounds even though they call themselves different things, while another specific career coach and another specific career counsellor may have vastly different training, approaches, and experiences. Many people, including me, use practices from both fields in different client contexts. The title matters less than the person's actual training and approach.
 

What about career strategists, consultants, and others?

In your search for the right career support, you may also come across people who call themselves career strategists, career consultants, professional branding experts, resume writers, resume coaches, or LinkedIn profile optimization specialists. Some of these people will hold a related certification, but these titles don't tend to map neatly to specific training or credentials -- they're better understood as descriptive labels that give you a sense of the kind of work somebody does.

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Someone calling themselves a career strategist may have a counselling background, a coaching background, or neither, but they probably help people develop a strategy for succeeding in their career. Their title suggests they take a highly structured, systematized approach. Someone calling themselves a resume writer may have deep expertise in recruitment and hiring, or they may not.

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So, which one do you need?​

• If you know what you want but need accountability and momentum, you'll likely be best-served by a career coach. 

• If you feel uncertain about your direction or need to process a significant transition, you'll likely be best-served by a career counsellor.

• If you want a really narrow service, like LinkedIn profile optimization, you'll likely be best-served by someone who specializes in that.
   

The most important thing is finding the right support for you, no matter what label that person uses to describe themselves and their services. Figuring out who this is will require you to dig deeper than their title, and look at the person's actual training, experience, and approach. 
If you think working with me could be the right fit, book a free consultation. If you want to learn more about my process, read my FAQ page.