Meet the coach: an interview with Andrea Abernethy, a Career Consultant at Careerminds

As a Senior Career Consultant at Careerminds, Andrea Abernethy helps those going through outplacement programmes for their career transition by giving advice, providing support, and actively encouraging them towards securing a fulfilling new job. With 20 years of experience in the education industry, including 10 running her own business that she built from scratch, Andrea finally transitioned to working as a career coach.

Since joining Careerminds, she has coached hundreds of Careerminds participants through the outplacement process, helping them find meaningful positions across many different sectors and industries.

In the below interview with Andrea, we will find out more about her coaching experience and get insight into her particular role, the services that Careerminds offers, and the outplacement industry as a whole.

As a Career Consultant and Career Coach with Careerminds, I steer individuals through the job transition process, which has usually come about due to being laid off. It works with the former employer paying for the service for these individuals as part of a severance package. These outplacement programmes at Careerminds include 1-2-1 coaching with myself or another career coach, which dovetails with the technology on the Careerminds platform. As a dedicated coach, I listen to their concerns then provide encouragement, support, and the relevant tools needed for individuals to succeed in their career transitions.

At the start of coaching a participant, I dig into their mindset, finding out whether they’ve come to terms with being laid off or are feeling angry or resentful about it. If they’re not in a good mindset I’m patient, suggesting specific resources that will help them to get ready for their job search once they’ve accepted their current situation.

Once participants are ready to start their search, I approach the subject of their objectives and what they want out of this next step in terms of where they want to take their career. After these goals have been established, we work on their professional brand. This includes:

• Updating their CV
• Mirroring their LinkedIn profile to match and enhance their CV
• Undertaking strategic interviewing and mock interviews to build their confidence
• Identifying where to go for networking support
• Providing them with job search tips, salary negotiation advice, and recommendations on how to leverage LinkedIn

What is so useful is that Careerminds has informative webinars, lessons, videos, podcasts, and loads of other resources on their online platform that participants can access for support, along with these personalised coaching services. I then suggest complementary resources, found on the Careerminds site, that reinforce my advice and suggestions from the coaching sessions.

I was in educational leadership. Having a teaching, training, and leadership background is very useful and helpful when coaching people through a career transition.

What gets me up in the morning is helping individuals to learn and grow in this space, whether it’s gaining and developing skills, or growing and developing in their careers. It’s all about building relationships with people, and learning about their experiences and career goals, so I can help them move forward.

Here at Careerminds, we are fortunate to have an amazing team of professionals and experienced coaches. While it’s not an ideal position to be in, being made redundant and having to participate in the outplacement process, I like to think we make the best out of a difficult situation. We understand what participants are going through; all our experienced and knowledgeable Careerminds coaches truly care about supporting participants, while providing them with the tools necessary to land a job they love in the shortest amount of time possible – and certainly more quickly than if they were undertaking the job search on their own.

We coach a lot of people in transition, so we know what works and what doesn’t. As an outplacement company, Careerminds provides training, while staying on top of hiring trends in the marketplace.

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of outplacement, including our comprehensive list of services, competitive participant-to-coach ratio, low fees, superior responsiveness, professionalism, and results, get in touch with us today.

I enjoy helping clients ask themselves the right questions to determine what would make them feel fulfilled in their next move and find a job they love. I’ve been fortunate to have jobs that I love, one of which is working at Careerminds, as it’s my goal to help individuals find jobs where they can thrive and be happy. When individuals find positions they love, they often excel in their careers. We all spend so much of our lives working that it helps to love what we’re doing while at work.

I also help clients to ask important questions about company culture and team collaboration during an interview, so they can find an organisation that they’ll enjoy working for. A good company culture and a collaborative and supportive team are so important for career satisfaction.

I have been working at Careerminds for over 10 years now, starting with the company in its early years. It has been so exciting to see Careerminds grow and to be part of the team while Careerminds acquired other companies. I was excited when the company expanded globally as it meant we were able to help even more people.

I have been fortunate enough to coach hundreds of clients with Careerminds over this past decade and have enjoyed working with each and every one of them. The clients who stand out the most to me, and are the most rewarding to work with, are those who started out being sceptical about the value of working with a career coach and a career transition programme and, in the end, are so thankful for the help and support. Many of them told me how they really appreciated the Careerminds programme and the support I’d given them, and that they don’t think they would have been as successful in the job search without that.

Careerminds provides individuals with support and tools – such as an updated, personally branded CV, a complementary LinkedIn profile, and so much more – all necessary to be successful in the job search. The participants get individualised 1-2-1 coaching, along with resources, webinars, and customised learning schedules, all conveniently situated on the Careerminds platform.

Many of my clients realise how much the job search has changed since they’d last looked for a job and, with so much conflicting information on the internet, it can be very stressful and confusing to know what is legitimate information and what is not. They find it helpful to have an experienced coach to work with who knows from experience what works and what doesn’t work during the job search.

I believe that Careerminds is very selective in the coaches that they bring on board. They hire dedicated, experienced coaches who are passionate about coaching and supporting each client to be successful in their job search.

Careerminds also has a very collaborative and knowledgeable team, with a wonderful, welcoming, and empowering culture that emanates from our President, Raymond Lee. Along with Raymond are the coaches, the technical team, operations, and marketing, who all pull together to provide the best possible experience for our participants during the job transition. As I already mentioned, our coaches really care about helping our clients to land jobs that they enjoy.

I’ve seen the outplacement industry increasingly using new technology features and adapting to a virtual world in order to support participants. That includes using AI with 1-2-1 coaching sessions to provide the best possible tools for participants to be successful in their career transitions.

From a coaching point of view, I regularly have clients in transition from numerous different companies, some of which I’ve worked with before, plus some new companies as well. That makes me think that companies are finally realising how important it is to provide an outplacement programme for displaced employees. I would assume that many of our returning companies are receiving feedback from their displaced employees that the Careerminds programme was very helpful for them and made a positive difference to their job search.

When I first contact a client who is upset or anxious about their career transition, I start by building a relationship with them. I’m able to do this by listening and getting to know them, in order to learn how they feel about the transition, while determining what their mindset is. Then I decide if they need more time to process feelings and emotions before diving into the job search, or if they’re ready to start their career transition straightaway.

It helps to share that I’ve been in a similar situation myself and that I coach clients during the career transition every day. I also tell those who are worried that, a lot of the time, my clients find a job that’s even better than the job they had before – whether that’s due to a better work-life balance, a higher salary, a quicker commute, working from home, or having more of a challenge or growth potential.

Building their confidence is key, and helping them start to think about their own accomplishments, unique value proposition, likes, and dislikes to hopefully get them excited about their next career move. Everyone gets to this point at different times based on their personalities and personal circumstances.

I advise them that if they work hard in the job search, using the support and tools that I provide, along with resources on the Careerminds site, then I am confident they will find a great job soon. I also tell them that other current clients are landing fantastic jobs on a regular basis.

Many clients worry that there aren’t available jobs out there, but there are always job openings. That’s because employees retire, move to new positions, or create new positions. I also explain that sometimes a career transition is just the push a person needs to try a new career or a more challenging role, which happens more often than you’d think!

I suggest that companies strongly consider providing an outplacement programme for departing employees – preferably Careerminds, because they provide quality support and programmes for employees and care about job placement outcomes.

Displaced employees go through an array of emotions after a layoff and really need the support and guidance from a experienced, qualified coach who will help them to navigate the ever-changing job market, build their brand with a targeted CV and LinkedIn presence, and set them apart from others in the job market, ultimately landing a fabulous role and succeeding in their career development.

At Careerminds, our industry-leading outplacement services offer incredible results for displaced employees with an 80% engagement rate, a 95% placement rate, and a fantastic 99% satisfaction rate.

If you’re interested in learning more about our engagement rates, or just want a chat for further information,  click below to speak with one of our experts and see if Careerminds is the right outplacement partner for your organisation.

Elizabeth Openshaw

Elizabeth Openshaw has over 12 years of experience in the job search sector, including extensive expertise in outplacement and CV reviews. Previously a Journalist on national publications, she is Director of her own company, OpenDoor CV Expertise Ltd. You can connect with her at Elizabeth Openshaw | LinkedIn.