Career Coaching

Whether you are moving from post-secondary education into the full-time workforce, or are struggling with frustration or confusion in career management, you may benefit from career coaching. Through career coaching, you will work with a coach to unravel challenges and move forward with your career management. Your career coach can help you to develop agency at any stage in your career journey by taking action and making progress in your career management.

Career coaching is open to current students, alum, postdoctoral scholars, U of A employees, and members of the public.


Career coaching is not advising. Coaching focuses on identifying and understanding challenges and obstacles, recognizing their impact, and developing personalized strategies to address them. Advising will help you initially explore your career options, provide feedback on your resume/CV, LinkedIn, or interview preparation.

Exploring Your Career Options

The process of exploring your career starts with uncovering your unique traits and attributes. With the support of a coach, you will reflect on your past and current experiences, identify your skills and values, define what success means to you, learn ways to research career options, and/or consider approaches to making suitable career decisions. 

If you are asking yourself these questions, career coaching can help:

  • What am I good at?
  • What is important to me in a career?
  • What careers are suitable for me?
  • How do I learn more about career ideas?
  • How do I choose a career path(s)?

Searching for Opportunities

Work search could include looking for a summer job, searching for post-graduation employment, transitioning from one job to another, creating work search tools to apply to openings, and developing strategies for landing a job. With the support of a coach, you will build and test strategies for finding work, which includes developing your networking skills.

If you are asking yourself these questions, coaching can help:

  • What are strategies for finding work?
  • How do I build connections in and outside of my field(s) of interest?
  • What techniques help build a targeted resume and cover letter?
  • How do I perform well in a job interview and evaluate a job offer?

Advancing Your Career

Developing career-related skills and advancing in your career can occur while being a student or working as a professional. For some, career advancement involves determining new and relevant skills. For others, it involves planning an upward or lateral role change in an organization. Defining what career success means to you is an important part of this process. With the support of a coach, you will learn how to brainstorm and prioritize skills development opportunities, explore strategies for taking action towards goals, and map out your next steps.

If you are asking yourself these questions, coaching can help:

  • How do I determine the skills needed to advance in my career?
  • What types of opportunities can help me develop specific skills?
  • What are my career goals and actions?
  • How do I move closer to my career goals?
  • How do I balance my work and life?

Graduate Students - Support with Your IDP

Graduate students at the University of Alberta are required to complete an Individual Development Plan (IDP) to assist with professional development and career management. Through the IDP, you can identify and evaluate your disciplinary knowledge, skills, competencies and experiences that employers are looking for. With the support of a coach, you will work through the IDP and think critically about your experiences, preferences, and goals. This allows you to complete the requirements with clarity and purpose.

Questions that will be explored in the IDP with a coach include:

  • What or who do I hope to inspire?
  • What new things do I want to try?
  • What are my main values and preferences?
  • What are my strengths and areas for growth?
  • What are three career options of interest and why?

Levels of Service

Career Coaching 

Get started with an initial package of three coaching appointments. After completing your initial three appointments, you can purchase additional appointments. 


Fees

U of A students, alumni, and staff:

  • $150/package of 3 coaching appointments (must be purchased initially)
  • $50/additional appointment (only available after completing the initial package of 3 appointments)

Others:

  • $300/package of 3 coaching appointments (must be purchased initially)
  • $100/additional appointment (only available after completing the initial package of 3 appointments)

How to register for Career Coaching

  1. Go to the campusBRIDGE portal to sign up for an account. Check out this quick video on setting up an account in campusBridge.
  2. Select your status as student, staff, alumni, or guest depending on your relationship to the university. (If you are a student, you can log in using your CCID and password. Other types of users may need to first register for a new user account.)
  3. Once registered go to the Online Store then select either:
    • Initial Coaching Package (Student, Alumni, Staff)
    • Initial Coaching Package (Non U of A Clients)
  4. Follow the prompts on CampusBRIDGE and then proceed to checkout
  5. After purchasing, you will be contacted by a career coach with next steps, but feel free to book your first appointment

Book an Appointment

  1. Go to campusBRIDGE portal and log in to your account.
  2. Once logged in, go to Career Centre Appointments. You can find all open appointments by clicking on View Calendar, or you can use Book by Appointment Type or Book by Appointment Provider.
  3. Select: Career Coaching Appointment - Current Participants

For any questions related to how to use campusBRIDGE, email campusBRIDGE@ualberta.ca or check out this quick tutorial.


University of Alberta Cohorts

To support your cohort, group, or department with career management,  reach out to us to learn more about how we offer group coaching..