Adventures in Hiring a Career Coach
By: Christopher Martin
Tags: Resume, College, University, Careers, Career Change

(A coaching session on the move. I have not been compensated by Volvo for the placement of their mug here.)

“To pay (for a coach) or not to pay (for a coach)?”, that is the question.

I first faced this question many months ago as I had reached eight months of sending out resumes & cover letters and receiving interviews. While interviewing, I would show up with just enough smile for hiring managers to like me and just enough doubt for them to read through it all when they asked: “Why are you a fit here?” I never said it outright, but I know what they heard from me: “I’ve always been passionate — no thrilled — about not starving to death!”

Something wasn’t working.

A brief backstory about myself. I have spent my career largely in academic spaces. I studied Drama as an undergraduate student, received an M.F.A. in playwriting, and just this past year completed a Ph.D. in Theatre Studies. I believe stories and the intentional construction of narrative have the power to transform our world and ignite excitement into the work we do. Of all applications on paper, it was my hope that my experiences in instruction, writing, and storytelling would look incredibly attractive to most managers hiring for marketing, writing, and communications positions.

In August 2020, I finally decided to hire a career coach. One of the most challenging and enlightening moments of that 2-month process was discovering I never mentioned the impact my work had on any person, thing, organization, or community in past resumes and cover letters. I had only been listing things I’ve done in the style of a curriculum vitae. And then it all hit me. Quickly. How could this glaring omission take place?

So much of my creative work had definitely made an impact and I’ve measured my work’s impact over the years.

For instance, while at the University of Arkansas, I saw a new play of mine staged at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville. Because of the inherently subjective nature of theatre, we asked patrons to complete a survey that asked a variety of questions. This was an attempt to probe into the experience they had each night. “How did the unmaking of the minister as a hypocrite make you feel? Did you sympathize with the Senator when he was made to feel like a fool? Do you feel the intermission was necessary?” Questions like that.

This was an attempt to measure impact on our audience.

Additionally, while at the University of Kansas, my dissertation process examined how the stories told on commercial Broadway and television sound stages reproduce narratives that protect the dominant, homogenous, wealthy, hierarchical, and exploitative ruling class in the U.S. and Germany. Heavy stuff. However, even with this, my role as an ethnographic scholar was to measure how these stories impacted and continue to impact our world.

I’ve been tracking impact all along, I just didn’t know it.

Colleges and universities also ask educators to measure impact in the classroom. Crafting curriculum that aligns course objectives with outcomes is a surefire way to engage students and demonstrate an instructor is competent in a subject on which students (or their parents) are spending thousands of dollars. However, in my experience, I cannot remember a time when I was asked or trained to measure impact of myself. August 2020 is a memorable month for me because it was the first time I was asked to measure my own impact in the classroom.

For those who remain in academic spaces as educators and students, measuring your impact will help you expand your career search to corporate and startup positions. Begin making a list now of what you’ve done and what measurable impact that thing had on a person, group, organization, or community. Measuring impact will also aid your search within academic spaces. Did you increase attendance? Did students’ grades improve? Did you save your department money by serving on a committee? Did you increase efficiency? There are many ways to think about impact and these are definitely translatable skills.

Although I am still applying to educational and corporate positions, I have been happily and successfully discovering myself. It is because of hiring a career coach that I have been able to put my career’s impact into words.

If you’re on a job market, and find yourself asking the question I did, do consider paying for a career coach and starting your own adventure!