Dropped $300 on a career coach and all she did was tell me to update my LinkedIn

I paid that woman $300 for one session and she spent 45 minutes telling me I needed a better headline and a professional photo, which I could have figured out from a YouTube video for free, so has anyone actually gotten real value from these so-called experts or am I just picking the wrong ones?

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan_jenkins902d agoTop Commenter

Man I had almost the exact same thing happen to me, paid $200 for this guy who spent half the time just asking me what I thought I was good at. Guess I'm the sucker for thinking someone could wave a magic wand and fix my whole career in an hour. The whole thing felt like she was reading off a checklist from a blog post someone wrote in 2015, not anything customized at all. My buddy paid for one of those expensive packages and all they did was help him rephrase his bullet points, which you can get from any random template online. Honestly I think the real secret is just having a friend who's brutally honest with you, or maybe just throwing your resume at a few different people for free on Reddit. At least you're only out $300 and not like a grand or something, silver linings I guess.

green.mason2d ago

@josephs26 just made me spit out my drink lmao, the Venmo $20 bit was too real. But yeah, the whole "tell me what you think you're good at" thing is a huge red flag. A good coach should already have a process that digs into your actual experience, not just ask you to summarize yourself in 10 minutes. Next time you're tempted, try hitting up your college's alumni network instead. I found a guy who does free 20 minute resume reviews for recent grads, best advice I ever got and it cost me nothing but a polite follow up email. A random reddit critique helped more than any paid session I've done too, just gotta filter out the trolls.

josephs262d ago

$300 for a LinkedIn pep talk, what a steal. Next time just Venmo me $20 and I'll tell you to smile in your profile pic and use words like "synergy." I half expect these coaches to start charging extra for telling you to breathe or blink. Maybe the real pro tip is to just write "I didn't pay a career coach" on your resume and see if that lands you any interviews. Save your money and buy a pizza, at least that fuels the job hunt directly.