One-on-One Career Coaching The Five O'Clock Club Way (why, when, and how) 
By: David Madison, PhD, Guild Director

Y ou may think of the Five O’Clock Club as a source of help for getting a new job—and you’re right about that—but you should also think of the Club as a “research lab.” Our methodology works so well because it’s based on more than a decade of research on the job-search process. Nothing goes into our books that’s not based on research—and the group process we’ve worked out for clients to follow also rests on research. Job hunters sometimes have complex or delicate situations that cannot be covered adequately in the small groups. In this case, they will speed up their search if they occasionally meet with a coach privately in addition to attending their small group.

Why is this the case? Why is this combination so powerful and so effective?

Your small group cannot help you figure out what to do with your life, but your private coach can.

Just You and the Expert

A career coach has helped hundreds or thousands of people through the entire job search process, and knows the common mistakes that people make. Why not tap into this wisdom and save yourself missteps and grief? A coach can also help you “figure out what to do with your life.” Assessment is the step most commonly skipped by job hunters, yet is the true foundation for a solid search in alignment with long-term goals. Why go after jobs that don’t point you in the right direction? Five O’Clock Club coaches are trained to make assessment pay off. That is, our assessment exercises are designed to help you figure out what to do—not just merely tell you what you already know (i.e., you’re good with people, you like to initiate projects, etc.). Huddling privately with a career coach is like conferring with your accountant or attorney—you’re looking for expert advice in a key area of your life.

When you join a Five O’Clock Club group, you’re surrounded by peers who bring considerable life experience to the process.

The Company of Expert Peers

But six people usually have more energy than one—which is one of the reasons that brainstorming works: six people can come up with more ideas. If it’s ‘just you and the expert,’ a lot of good advice may be overlooked. When you join a Five O’Clock Club group, you’re surrounded by peers who bring considerable life experience to the process—and they’ve been reading the Five O’Clock Club books to deepen their understanding of our system. Six or seven brains have a chance to tackle your issues and strategize your job search. You may take issue with a piece of advice from your coach one-on-one, but it’s harder to ignore suggestions coming from several peers. There’s a dynamic to the group that helps drive you forward—it’s hard not to do the assignment when your peers have suggested it and are expecting your report on results next week. The focus of the groups is: ‘this is what you must do this very next week to move your job-search forward.’ Joining a group, by the way, doesn’t mean that you give up seeing a coach for private sessions—you can continue with those as you see fit.

How to Get Assigned to a Coach for One-on-One Sessions

It is very common for new members of the Five O’Clock Club to sign up for a group at the outset, either at one of our in-person branches (in New York, Rockville, MD & Chicago), or in our popular Insider program by teleconference (anyone in any time zone can participate). These clients have a pretty good idea of their tentative targets and are ready to hit the ground running. But they may also feel the need to see a coach privately for a session or two (e.g., for help with the résumé or intensive interview coaching). In this case, they simply ask their group leader for a private appointment, and they pay the coach directly at his or her hourly rate (the Five O’Clock Club takes no percentage of this fee, by the way).

But its also very common for clients to call the Five O’Clock Club not knowing what they want to do next. They are not ready to ‘hit the ground running.’ They may be very unhappy at work and in search of a ‘way out.’ They may be contemplating a specific career change, or they may be well along in the job search process and need private coaching to help with interviewing or salary negotiation.

In this case we refer clients to coaches before putting them into groups. As soon as Club membership for one year has been paid ($49/year), we do our best to match the client with two of our coaches. That is, based on…

· the reason the person wants to see a coach,

· the client’s income level (current or recent)

· the client’s industry or specialty (or target industry or specialty)

 . . . we suggest two appropriate coaches for the client to call. We maintain a large database of information on our coaches—who is an expert in what and who has worked most with clients in specific industries. For example, some of our coaches are experts with Wall Street types, others have specialized in working with lawyers, government workers, not-for-profit professionals, IT specialists, health care workers, bio-chemists, bankers, artists, career changers, returning housewives, etc. We have the capability of putting our clients into the best hands possible.

We don’t expect the client to use both coaches that we recommend—we suggest two so that the client can have a choice. And our experience has been that clients appreciate having the option. Once the process has been initiated we ask clients to try to reach both coaches within two business days. We send an email to the client suggesting the best ways to ‘interview’ the coaches, and a few basic ‘do’s and don’ts’ to be observed. These include:

· Try to keep the initial ‘shopping call’ to ten minutes (in other words, don’t try to get a free session lasting 20 or 30 minutes)

· Keep focused on interviewing the coach about his/her skills in the areas of coaching that you need help with (“How are you qualified to help me prepare for interviewing?”).

· Don’t ask coaches to negotiate fees (their fees are at fair market rates and are based on their years of experience and areas of specialization).

· Please be prepared to pay the coach at the time of the coaching session (if it’s by phone, mail a check within 24 hours).

After a client has decided which coach to use, we suggest the courtesy of sending an email to the coach who wasn’t selected. This can be a one sentence message and does not need to be an explanation of the choice. We also ask the client to notify the Five O’Clock Club home office as to which coach was selected. This should be done by email—and should include a brief explanation as to why one coach was chosen over another (this helps us improve our client-coach referral process).

Speaking of Fees

Our coaches who provide one-on-one sessions for Five O’Clock Club clients are asked to follow strict guidelines on fees, in line with the Five O’Clock Club doctrine of always doing what is in the best interest of job hunters.

· They may not ask you to commit to a minimum number of sessions (with a huge upfront fee).

· They may charge you on a per hour basis only.

· They cannot ask you for prepayment (unless, after an initial session, several short sessions seem likely, in which case the coach can ask for ‘an hour’s fee’ up-front, and the short sessions will be deducted from that prepayment).

Many of our competitors in the career-coaching field charge thousands of dollars, asking clients to put $2,000, $7,000 or even $10,000 on their credit cards, or helping them take out loans. Our rules are designed to protect you, the consumer, from such practices.

We cannot ask our coaches to work for free, even to the extent of offering a ‘sample session’ of a half hour or an hour, but with our ‘charge on a per hour basis’ rule, you are protected again significant loss. If you walk away from an hour session with one of our coaches and feel that you really weren’t helped all that much, you still owe the coach, but you’re only out for one hour of coaching—not several thousands or even hundreds of dollars. Going back for the second hour is entirely up to you. And it’s very rare, by the way, that clients do walk away disappointed from that first hour.

While group sessions must be purchased in blocks of 5 or 10, the cost per session works out to be about $36 to $54—by far the best bargain in the industry.

The Real Reason for One-on-One Coaching

At the time we refer people to our coaches, we make it clear that the purpose of meeting with a coach is getting ready for weekly strategizing with a group of peers. As was stated at the outset: our studies show that clients who combine private and group sessions get better jobs faster and at higher rates of pay. If you call (or email) the Five O’Clock Club home office asking to be assigned to a private coach, you should think of the coach as your tutor— getting you ready for group.

We should point out that cost is one of the factors that make group participation a wise move. Private coaching sessions can run from about $100 to $200 per hour—even more with some of our most seasoned coaches. While group sessions must be purchased in blocks of 5 or 10, the cost per session works out to be about $35 to $54—by far the best bargain in the industry!

To get assigned to a private coach, call 212-286-9332 or visit the Coaches and Speakers section of our website, www.FiveOClockClub.com