Couples Counselling

I had a first call with Mike to see if we would be a good fit. I was looking for someone to help coach me through the job hunting process, as I've not done it for years in the UK and have a fairly eclectic background. I was surprised that he contacted me, as his area of speciality seems to be mortgages and property, and not life coaching or career coaching.

Positives: Mike was quick to respond, and seems like a kind and caring person.

Negatives: he came across as unprepared, had very few tools or techniques to help me, and seemed like he was 'winging it'. The sound was very muffled on the call, which didn't help as it was hard to hear him clearly, despite having my volume on full. It also kept cutting out.
His strategy was to try recommending job titles to me based on the little he knew from having met me 5 minutes previously. We weren't successful in finding one that I want to do (I had considered those 3-4 options before), and he then told me that he wouldn't be able to help me unless I had a clear job title that I was looking for. I deliberately searched out coaching to help me answer this question, so felt disappointed. I wasn't expecting him to pulll the answer out of thin air, more give me the tools so that I could find the answer myself.
As the call went on, it was clear that we weren't getting anywhere helpful to either of us, so I stopped it as I felt we were both getting frustrated.

In conclusion, I get the feeling that Mike is probably a great coach when he's in his area of expertise, but may need a bit more training to gain some tools and techniques when it comes to life coaching or career coaching.
I gave him a second star is because the call gave me a boost in helping me to realise that I can do the work myself perfectly well with the help of a good book like "What colour is your parachute?" and creating my own reward system to keep me accountable. So you could say that I came off the call a more confident version of myself, which can't be bad :-) More...