Amy, a Work It Out Ambassador shares with us what she learned from her coaching journey. She tells us how she gained confidence after hearing her coaches own story and how she is encouraging others to start their own coaching journey.
The Work it Out service helped me to feel more on track in 2021 after a derailing year in 2020. After building a career from an apprenticeship to junior level over 5 years, I devastatingly lost 2 jobs in 12 months through no fault of my own.
My first job loss was a result of a company collapse and the second was due to national lockdowns affecting trade in the retail industry. My company was keen to take me on and my manager was supportive of my growth and development. After being told I passed by probation, 1 week later they came back to say they could not continue my contract as they no longer had the budget for my position.
After years of suffering with severe anxiety due to work related stresses, it was heartbreaking to lose the job at a company I had always wanted to work in. It took me a couple of months to find a remote-working role to get myself back on track. However, it was nothing like what I had done before.
Talking with my coach
Talking with my coach, Carole, made me feel more at ease with the decisions that I had made. At 23, I did not expect to have to make a career transition and held a lot of guilt about what I had chosen to do. It is difficult to process after spending a long time building something like a career to have to start over. Carole shared her own story about her career journey, this let me see that transitions can strengthen you and starting over builds resilience.
Our meetings over WhatsApp gave me the reassurance that I needed. Our slots were flexible and I could work them around my work and volunteering schedules. Over the course of our sessions, I learned that I was on the right path for me and that I was doing ‘enough’. I did also learn the difference between doing ‘enough’ and ‘too much’. It is too easy nowadays to compare ourselves to others, whether its people we know or come to know through social media. Having my coach’s perspective led me to seek more balance in my life.
Inspired to pursue coaching
Since seeing the benefit of receiving my own coaching, I recommended it to a close friend. After signing up, she used the coaching service to practise interview skills and help her make her own career transition. It makes me feel warm inside that I have been able to not only help myself feel better this year, but I have been able to do that for someone else too.
Currently, I am working full time and studying counselling. I am also volunteering with Girlguiding UK as a Leader-in-Training, and Young Enterprise as a Business Mentor for a sixth form group. Once I have completed my counselling training, I have been inspired to pursue coaching so I can support young women in the way the Work It Out service has supported me. In the meantime, I will be encouraging other young women in my network who need support to contact the Young Women’s Trust.
If you are looking to build confidence, skills and strong mental health, then coaching could be a great option for you. Our coaches can help you with anything from interview preparation to identifying your skills and planning your next steps in life.
