Career Coaching for Physicians
Working with a career coach offers many benefits, like helping you find your first job, discover your ideal role, get back on track after a personal or professional setback, and improve your well-being. Learn about choosing a coach below, search a database of career coaches to find a potential match, or dig into the topic in an article from FPM.
What does a career coach do?
- Can focus on any area of your life and career
- Help you address a challenge or decision in front of you
- Holistically consider who you are
- Provide you an opportunity to reflect on life
- Can help you with a variety of career issues, including burnout, negotiation, job changes, and physician leadership development
- Provide objectivity
- Employ coaching philosophies and structures to help you explore and uncover pathways and solutions
- Ask questions that help you reach clarity about what you want
- Keep you focused on the future and encourage you to take necessary steps forward
- Provide you with the skills needed to approach challenges or achieve goals
When do you need a career coach?
You can benefit from hiring a career coach when you:
- Are reprioritizing elements of your life
- Feel like the path you’re on isn’t working
- Want to be sure you are considering all the opportunities available to you in family medicine
- Go through major life transitions that affect your career, like starting or graduating residency, leaving your first job, or downshifting from full to part time
- Need deeper feedback and greater clarity than a mentor may be able to provide
From FPM Journal
The Power of Coaching: Supercharge Your Personal and Professional Well-Being
How much should you pay for a career coach?
Coaches may have an hourly fee or offer a fee-based program for a set length of time. Hourly rates are likely to start at $150 or more; a coaching program could cost several thousand dollars.
Costs will climb higher depending on the coach or your professional role. A coach for a physician at an executive level, for example, should have additional expertise and experience to understand the context of the physician’s needs.
A coach should be able to help you estimate how long your project might take and what you might expect to pay when you interview them.
If you’re employed, check to see if there is professional development or CME budget from your employer that could help you defray the costs of coaching.
How do you know if a career coach is right for you?
There are many coaches, and they might not all be suitable for you. When you find a coach you might want to work with, interview them and ask if they will provide a short introductory coaching session to give you an idea of how they’ll work with you. Make sure that you feel comfortable with them and their style.
Ask for references and contact those references to ask about their experience working with the coach.
Another tip is to find a coach with previous career experience in areas that you are also interested in or share.
Find a career coach
The AAFP offers resources and opportunities for members to find a career coach.
AAFP CareerLink Coaching Database
Through AAFP partner CareerLink, you can access a free database with profiles on dozens of coaches who have worked with their clients, including some who are AAFP members. Filter by industry to find coaches with health care experience.
Leading Physician Well-being (LPW) Certificate Program
LPW is a leadership training program that will help you network with a number of well-being mentors, including faculty with formal career coaching training. Learn more about this program and the application period.
AAFP Conferences
There are several conferences that offer formal career support, including opportunities to schedule time with coaches. Learn more about these conferences: