Case Studies
Case Study 1: Casual meat-packer to full time job with promotion as a Trainer
Cathy, Melbourne, Australia
Job scenario: Casual work as a meat packer. Was earning AUD $20/per hour for 20 hours a week. Single mom. Annual income was under AUD 20K before tax.
Career goal: Wanted extra hours to meet household expenses.
Challenges:
Coaching initiatives:
Outcomes achieved:
P.S.: She was so confident that she took the initiative to fax her now updated resume and cover letter to her previous employer and asked him for a personal interview. She then negotiated for a full-time job with better pay and package. The best part was, she was not coached for this.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Job scenario: Casual work as a meat packer. Was earning AUD $20/per hour for 20 hours a week. Single mom. Annual income was under AUD 20K before tax.
Career goal: Wanted extra hours to meet household expenses.
Challenges:
- Had only worked as a casual worker at a few factories for over 15 years
- Had completed school
- No other qualifications/training or industry experience
Coaching initiatives:
- Using fact-finding questions evaluated her daily/weekly responsibilities/tasks, skills, network, contributions over a period of time
- Helped her see that over the years she had evolved beyond just ‘packing meat’
- Prepared a power resume and cover letter reflecting her current strengths which turned out to be: liaison with different departments, logistics, checking quality, induction/training/mentoring new casuals
- Her cover letter had a powerful opening line
- Coached her into integrating her new career profile that she had now become aware of. Coaching also included an image makeover and interview skills
- Helped her qualify with Certificate IV – Training and Assessment with government assistance
Outcomes achieved:
- Soon after she finished her certification, she found a permanent job with an annual pay of AUD 45,000/-
- Her confidence had soared, and her family noticed it
P.S.: She was so confident that she took the initiative to fax her now updated resume and cover letter to her previous employer and asked him for a personal interview. She then negotiated for a full-time job with better pay and package. The best part was, she was not coached for this.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Cathy, Melbourne, Australia
Job scenario: Casual work as a meat packer. Was earning AUD $20/per hour for 20 hours a week. Single mom. Annual income was under AUD 20K before tax.
Career goal: Wanted extra hours to meet household expenses.
Challenges:
Coaching initiatives:
Outcomes achieved:
P.S.: She was so confident that she took the initiative to fax her now updated resume and cover letter to her previous employer and asked him for a personal interview. She then negotiated for a full-time job with better pay and package. The best part was, she was not coached for this.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Job scenario: Casual work as a meat packer. Was earning AUD $20/per hour for 20 hours a week. Single mom. Annual income was under AUD 20K before tax.
Career goal: Wanted extra hours to meet household expenses.
Challenges:
- Had only worked as a casual worker at a few factories for over 15 years
- Had completed school
- No other qualifications/training or industry experience
Coaching initiatives:
- Using fact-finding questions evaluated her daily/weekly responsibilities/tasks, skills, network, contributions over a period of time
- Helped her see that over the years she had evolved beyond just ‘packing meat’
- Prepared a power resume and cover letter reflecting her current strengths which turned out to be: liaison with different departments, logistics, checking quality, induction/training/mentoring new casuals
- Her cover letter had a powerful opening line
- Coached her into integrating her new career profile that she had now become aware of. Coaching also included an image makeover and interview skills
- Helped her qualify with Certificate IV – Training and Assessment with government assistance
Outcomes achieved:
- Soon after she finished her certification, she found a permanent job with an annual pay of AUD 45,000/-
- Her confidence had soared, and her family noticed it
P.S.: She was so confident that she took the initiative to fax her now updated resume and cover letter to her previous employer and asked him for a personal interview. She then negotiated for a full-time job with better pay and package. The best part was, she was not coached for this.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Case Study 2: Mindset coaching resulted in draughtsperson attracting an offer for better pay, more clients and top of the range software
Helen, Melbourne, Victoria
Job scenario: Helen is a free-lancer and worked from home. She had an ongoing base of customers and jobs, but she felt limited in not being able to increase her income to keep up with her mortgage repayments, although she worked long hours. She wanted to turn out more jobs in less hours but did not have money to invest in an expensive software to take on more jobs.
Career goal:
Challenges:
Coaching initiatives:
Outcomes achieved:
Job scenario: Helen is a free-lancer and worked from home. She had an ongoing base of customers and jobs, but she felt limited in not being able to increase her income to keep up with her mortgage repayments, although she worked long hours. She wanted to turn out more jobs in less hours but did not have money to invest in an expensive software to take on more jobs.
Career goal:
- Access to software
- Get more jobs/clients
- To improve her income significantly
Challenges:
- Limitation to finances
- Need to software
- Access to professional network, especially women
- Lack of more customers
Coaching initiatives:
- Mindset coaching to reframe and finetune her expression of needs to improving her finances through access to software and attract more highly paid customers.
Outcomes achieved:
- One of her customers offered to loan her money and she declined for the reasons that she deserved a better outcome.
- Within weeks, one of her UK based former classmates offered her a partnership which involved taking on more clients for him which means that more jobs have to be churned out quickly for which he was willing to share his software with her.
Case Study 3: Teenager finds his first job in a hobby shop
Paul, Melbourne, Victoria
Job scenario: Paul wanted to save up some money for university and local travel and was looking for his first job.
Career goal:
Challenges:
Coaching initiatives:
Outcomes achieved:
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Job scenario: Paul wanted to save up some money for university and local travel and was looking for his first job.
Career goal:
- Find his first job
- Earn some pocket money
Challenges:
- No past work experience or skills.
Coaching initiatives:
- Through discovery questions, found out his passion for music and skill for organizing.
- Delivered mindset coaching and interview coaching.
- Helped him establish a USP and elevator pitch.
- Created a one-page pitch with top reasons why the music stores need him.
- Helped him create a data base of music shops.
Outcomes achieved:
- He found a job in a retail music shop over summer.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Case Study 4: A successful career transition from Chef to Financial Planner
Richard
Job scenario: Richard was a new immigrant to Australia and was a qualified chef and vocational trainer. He was unable to find a suitable job as the market had an overflow of chefs and vocational trainers. He was seeking a career change and a stable income.
Career goal:
Challenges:
Coaching initiatives:
Outcomes achieved:
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Job scenario: Richard was a new immigrant to Australia and was a qualified chef and vocational trainer. He was unable to find a suitable job as the market had an overflow of chefs and vocational trainers. He was seeking a career change and a stable income.
Career goal:
- Make a career transition to financial planning.
- Earn a stable income.
- Navigate through cultural contexts in the corporate world.
Challenges:
- No background to financial planning or corporate work experience.
- Only a few years of Australian work experience.
Coaching initiatives:
- Provided mindset coaching for finding finance jobs.
- Find transferable skills between cooking and training that would be useful in finance.
- Find a common thread between cooking, training and finance and use that as an opening line for the cover letter.
- Provided coaching on setting up a pathway to achieve goals, job search strategies and job interview skills.
- Assisted with business to launch his own financial planning consulting business.
Outcomes achieved:
- Completed an intensive training with a leading financial planning company.
- Was able to establish his own financial planning consultancy.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Case Study 5: Facing an imminent job loss to discovering her unique market value
Sara
Job scenario: Sara currently works as an ESL Teacher
Career goal: Job retention in ESL and an ongoing income
Challenges:
Coaching initiatives:
Outcomes achieved:
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Job scenario: Sara currently works as an ESL Teacher
Career goal: Job retention in ESL and an ongoing income
Challenges:
- Employers are looking for ESL Teachers with at least a B.A. in English and/or CELTA. Sara’s professional background had started off with nursing (qualifications and experience). She has CELTA and several years of English Teaching for reputed universities.
Coaching initiatives:
- Help her find her niche by leveraging her unique intradisciplinary skills i.e. medical + English, in the ESL job market. Help her see that she has limited competition in this field.
- Rebrand herself on Linked in account reflecting her intradisciplinary skills with SEO keywords for her niche.
Outcomes achieved:
- In 20 hours of updating her LinkedIn profile she got a message from a head-hunter.
- The next day, another recruiter contacted her.
- Confidence restored, she began to anticipate a brighter future as she had discovered her market value.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Case Study 6: Cleaner job to AdministratioN
Grace (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
Job scenario: Grace worked at a factory which had 8 hour shifts schedule 24 x 7
throughout the week. She worked as a part-time cleaner there whilst she was in-between jobs.
Career goal: To get a full-time administrative position.
Challenges:
Coaching initiatives:
Outcomes achieved:
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Job scenario: Grace worked at a factory which had 8 hour shifts schedule 24 x 7
throughout the week. She worked as a part-time cleaner there whilst she was in-between jobs.
Career goal: To get a full-time administrative position.
Challenges:
- Her current position was not in line with the position she was going for.
- She had had call-centre experience.
- She had school qualifications and no certification for administration jobs.
Coaching initiatives:
- Through the discovery call, we discovered that she had taken on extra initiatives i.e. streamlined the disorganized storage for the cleaning supplies into shelves, developed a checklist for inventory and completed an inventory. As a result, the factory manager could reduce the number of trips to the shop from 3 a week to once or twice in 10 days. Cleaning workflow interruptions and waiting times were minimised significantly. Supplies audit system was set up so that it was simple and easy to follow by all shifts.
- It was found that she had also served in the army briefly.
Outcomes achieved:
- Grace was able to find a stable administration job within a few months that gave her stability of time and income.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Case Study 7: A mature professional made redundant is offered a senior position within a few days
Ahmad, Jordan
Job scenario: A senior technical installer was made redundant and was looking for a job.
Career goal: To be employed ASAP.
Challenges:
Coaching initiatives:
Outcomes achieved:
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
Job scenario: A senior technical installer was made redundant and was looking for a job.
Career goal: To be employed ASAP.
Challenges:
- A resume that was not in order, lacked achievements, did not showcase key projects, expertise, no management of ‘white space’ or resume’s premium ‘real estate’ and did not clearly reflect current professional standing to improve marketability.
Coaching initiatives:
- Prepared a ‘Career Upgrade Tool-kit’ that included a business card, power resume and a cover letter.
- Resume was repackaged to clearly highlight key projects, expertise, experience, soft skills and value he can offer to employers.
- Resume was LinkedIn friendly to establish a profile with SEO keywords.
Outcomes achieved:
- The LinkedIn account immediately connected him with a host of employers that were filling his inbox with enquiries.
- Within a day of submitting a resume he had a job offer with a contract sent for him to sign.
- At the face to face interview, a day later, he was confident enough to nail the interview and the contract was changed to offer him a senior position in the company.
*Names have been changed at the request of the candidate.
