All our career coaching reviews are open to inspection, although client anonymity is always maintained. As you read them, note that at CCS we do not offer a traditional career advice approach. Sometimes, you need to look beyond ‘career’ to find a way forward. The thoroughness of the CCS approach, and the tools and time we give you to reflect, can lead to a renewed enthusiasm for your current work. And, of course, some people do find the confidence and focus to move to a new career. Read on!

Thank you so much for the session last week. I have today been verbally offered and I’ve accepted my next role!  ....... the right role was there all along, I just had to accept who I am and what I want and wait until it came along.

I can’t articulate enough how helpful this was for me as it had meant I identified my criteria and knew before offer what I wanted so I had the confidence to know I didn’t need to choose, I just needed to be offered the role and I would accept.  I feel so much lighter now and know my next journey will be an exciting one.

I had four fantastic sessions with Rob, who is excellent and clearly very experienced. I would highly recommend this programme to anyone unsure of what the next step in their career should be, as well as anyone lacking the confidence to apply for the jobs that excite them!

The course helped me to identify that I want to study personal development and psychology.  I have an IT background so this is a step change for me, but I have already been in discussion with my management who can see opportunities to expand my current role along these lines.  Since the course I have greater self-confidence and a clear view of how I want my future to be. 

CCS was for me a “career mentor” at a critical time, so I greatly valued the support. The meetings provided me with some space at a traumatic time. This was a real help.

I found the timeline exercise was very helpful. It gave me an insight into the ups and downs of my career over the years and helped put what I was going through into context. I saw that yes, it was tough, but not as bad as what have dealt with in past – I am stronger than I think.

Career counselling has given me a clearer idea of my strengths, values and future goals. I have been able to re-present my skills in a different way, to enable a change of focus in my career ambition going forward. 

Both the sessions and the assignments given were very clear and inspiring, it led me to think in very different ways about my working self and how I view the interactions and processes of working life. Kate was very enthusiastic and encouraging and took the time to listen to my thoughts, and make very helpful suggestions along the way.

I would recommend CCS , without hesitation. I’ve very glad to have done this, I think it has been a very worthwhile experience. With many thanks to Kate, who has been excellent throughout.

I began career counselling with Rob six months after I returned to work from my second maternity leave.  From a work perspective I was feeling lost, dejected and lacking in confidence.  I was struggling with the way in which I thought about my career post maternity leave.  And with how I could achieve happiness at home combined with fulfilment at work.  Rob guided me through a journey which helped me to understand the emotions I was feeling and to explore what I needed to create a solid platform upon which to drive my future career.  Rob is calm, insightful, empathetic and genuine.  The exercises he suggested were incredibly useful and his interventions in our coaching sessions extremely valuable.  I would highly recommend Rob as a career counsellor and coach.

I very much appreciated the structured approach to career counselling, yet adapted to my needs, as well as making use of the highly useful tools.  I appreciated doing preparatory work in preparation of each session to really focus the discussions on the outcome of this work. Not only that, to take the preparatory work one step further by Gilly asking probing questions on areas I have overlooked/not previously considered.  Some of the results were true eye openers for me, such as a number of strengths I was not aware of, realizing what is most important to me related to my career and options for future roles.

I booked the CCS Career Coaching Programme for Doctors because I was unhappy in my last job and wanted to explore other options both within and outside the NHS. I cannot recommend Gilly Freedman enough. She was a great listener and very methodical in her approach in exploring my career and life priorities. Her personal experience of helping others acquire roles outside the NHS was also invaluable, given many NHS doctors have limited knowledge of what else is out there. I also valued her constructive advice on managing stress and avoiding burn out. I am now much happier in another NHS trust and Gilly played a huge part in helping me achieve this. Thank you! 

.... helped me to get clearer about a lot of the values/motivations which I have instinctively been guided by but never been able to consciously verbalise. Getting clear about these issues enabled me to understand what my real drives are and to be able to start making plans based on these instead of groping around in the dark, so to speak. I also felt very supported by Rob, who allowed me to express myself and feel comfortable exploring decisions and topics, which in the past, I have sometimes found frustrating.

The career counselling surpassed my original expectations. It has helped me learn to make decisions based on my own consciously articulated internal criteria, which has been a fantastic thing for me to learn.  Thank you very much Rob!

I highly recommend Rob Nathan’s approach to Career Counselling. Having had less effective mentoring experiences in the past, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Rob is supportive, flexible and focussed, and helped me on my journey to what I really want to do with the rest of my life. I’m very grateful for all his input and expertise.

I found the strengths questionnaire especially helpful as a starting point to develop my skills and as affirmation of the skills I already use. Career counselling was also very beneficial to my confidence as it helped to show me that I have useful and valuable skills and experiences, that there are always avenues to pursue, to think outside the box and brainstorm.

Counselling has given me the initiative and confidence to network effectively across my contact group. Kate demonstrated the – now obvious – role networking has in securing fulfilling roles and helped me understand the approach to talking to contacts. Unlike other counselling services I reviewed, Kate’s approach was tailor made to my needs and Kate is still finding time to give me feedback after our sessions have finished(!) which demonstrates her passion and commitment to getting her people into the right roles.

It felt almost like a 'practice' session for the kind of interviews I might have with recruiters over the coming weeks so very useful from a practical point of view as well as very useful discussion of CV approaches and key things I need to get across in my CV. I'm getting exactly what I need from the process. I can't stress enough how empowering it has been too - this has meant that I've been much more prepared for/confident going into conversations about leaving my current role on terms of my own choosing.

I have left feeling really positive about the steps I am planning to take regarding my short-term and long-term career plans. It has helped to value, recognise and take into account my unique experiences and helped me improve my confidence. I am happy with the support I have been receiving after my last meeting, which I found very helpful and important.

I would certainly recommend career counselling to others. I found it incredibly helpful.

To find out more about our career coaching call 0203 488 0734 today.