Ask the Coach: Interview with Career Consultant Andrea Abernethy

Andrea Abernethy is a Careerminds Senior Career Consultant who assists outplacement program participants through their career transition, providing support, advice, and encouragement when needed to help them find a new, fulfilling job they will love.

Andrea has twenty years of experience in the education industry, including ten years with her own business that she built from the ground up, and then transitioning to work as a career coach.

Since joining Careerminds as a career consultant, Andrea has coached hundreds of Careerminds participants through the outplacement process, helping them find new jobs across many different industries.

The following is an interview with Andrea where we learn more about her coaching experiences, advice, and insights on her role, Careerminds’ services, and the outplacement industry at large.

As a career consultant/coach with Careerminds, I support individuals in job transition due to layoffs. The former employer pays for the service for these individuals as part of their severance package. The Careerminds programs include one-on-one coaching with me or other career coaches, along with the technology on the Careerminds platform. As a coach, I provide encouragement, support, and tools for the individuals to be successful in their career transitions.

When I start coaching a participant, I generally start with learning about their mindset—if they have accepted the layoff, or are feeling anger or resentment about it. If they are not in a good mindset, I have conversations with them and suggest resources to get them ready to begin their job search.

When participants are ready to start their search, I generally start talking with them about their career goals to determine what their transition will look like. After we’ve established their goals, we start working on their personal and professional brand, usually by updating their resume with a branded/career marketing resume, and their LinkedIn profile to be consistent with their updated resume.

Then I support them wherever needed, such as strategic interviewing and mock interviews, networking support, salary negotiation, job search tips, leveraging LinkedIn, and more. And, as I mentioned previously, Careerminds has great webinars, lessons, videos, podcasts, and other resources in their online platform to support participants alongside the one-on-one career coaching. I often suggest different resources in the Careerminds site to reinforce my advice and suggestions from my coaching sessions.

Most of my background before coming to Careerminds was in Educational Leadership. Having a teaching, training, and leadership background is very helpful in coaching participants through career transitions.

I have always enjoyed helping individuals to grow and learn, whether in gaining education and skills or in growing and developing in their careers. I enjoy building relationships with people and learning about their career experience and career goals.

Careerminds is a wonderful team of experienced coaches and professionals. Individuals working with a Careerminds coach can expect to have an experienced and knowledgeable coach who truly cares about supporting them and providing the tools necessary for them to land a job that they love in a shorter amount of time than if they had been doing their search on their own.

As career coaches, we coach a lot of people in transition, so we know what works and doesn’t work in the job search. Careerminds also provides training and stays on top of hiring trends in the marketplace as well.

If you’re interested in learning more about what it looks like to switch to our industry-leading outplacement at Careerminds and how we stack up against other outplacement providers—including our comprehensive list of program services, competitive participant-to-coach ratio, lowest fees, superior responsiveness, professionalism, and results—click below to download our free outplacement comparison sheet.

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I enjoy helping clients ask themselves the right questions to determine what would make them happy in their next career and find a job that they love. I’ve been fortunate to have jobs that I love, like working at Careerminds, and it is my goal to help individuals find jobs that they thrive in and are happy in as well. When individuals find jobs that they love, they often excel in their careers. We all spend too much time working to not love what we are doing at work.

I also help clients to ask important questions in interviews about company culture and team collaboration, so that they can find an organization that they will enjoy working in. A good company culture and a collaborative and supportive team are so important for career satisfaction too.

5. What Memorable Moments Have Stayed with You During Your Coaching Career with Careerminds? What Client Success Stories Continue to Inspire You in Your Work?

I have been working with Careerminds for over ten years and was with the company in the early years. It has been very exciting to see Careerminds grow and to be part of the team while the company has acquired additional companies. It was exciting when the company expanded into global markets as well.

I have been fortunate to coach hundreds of clients with Careerminds. I generally enjoy working with all of my clients. The clients who stand out the most to me and are the most rewarding to work with are those who started out skeptical about the value of working with a career coach and a career transition program and, in the end, are so thankful for the help and support, telling me how they have appreciated this Careerminds program and the support I’ve given them, and that they don’t think they’d have been as successful in the job search without it.

Let’s Talk About Careerminds and the Outplacement Industry

Careerminds provides individuals with support and tools—such as an updated branded resume, LinkedIn profile branding, and more—that are necessary to be successful in the job search. The participants get individualized one-on-one coaching, along with resources, webinars, and customized learning plans on the Careerminds platform.

So many of my clients and participants tell me that the job search has changed so much since they’d last looked for a job, and there is so much conflicting information out there on the internet, that it is very stressful and confusing to know what is legitimate information and what is not. They find it helpful to have an experienced coach to work with who knows from experience what is working and what isn’t working in the job search.

7. What Makes Careerminds Unique Compared to Other Outplacement Providers?

I believe that Careerminds is very selective in the coaches they bring on board. They hire dedicated, experienced coaches who are passionate about coaching and supporting the clients to be successful in their job search.

Careerminds has a very collaborative, knowledgeable team and a wonderful, welcoming, and empowering culture starting with our fantastic President, Raymond Lee. Raymond, the coaches, technical team, operations, and marketing all work together to provide the best possible experiences for our participants in job transition. As I’ve said before, our coaches truly care about helping our clients land jobs that they enjoy.

8. What Trends Are You Noticing in the Outplacement Industry, and How Companies Approach Career Transition Support for Their Employees?

I have seen the outplacement industry increasingly use new technology features and online coaching options to support participants, including utilizing AI along with one-on-one coaching sessions to provide the best possible tools for participants to be successful in their career transitions.

From a coaching standpoint, I regularly have clients who are in transition from many different companies, some of which I’ve worked with previously and some new companies as well. So I believe companies are seeing how important it is to provide an outplacement program to displaced employees.

I would assume many of our return companies are hearing from their displaced employees that the Careerminds program was very helpful for them and made a positive difference in their job search results.

Let’s Talk About Your Parting Advice

When I talk to a client/participant who is upset or anxious about their career transition, I start by building a relationship with them. I listen and get to know them to learn how they are feeling about the transition and determine what their mindset is. Then I decide if they need some more time to process feelings and emotions before diving into the job search, or if they are ready to start their career transition right away.

I often share that I’ve been in career transition myself and coach clients in career transitions every day and that, most of the time, my clients find a job that’s even better than the job they’d been displaced from—whether it’s a better work-life balance, closer commute, work from home, higher salary, more of a challenge, more growth potential, etc.

I try to build their confidence and help them start thinking about their own accomplishments, unique value proposition, likes, and dislikes to hopefully help them get excited about their next career move. Everyone gets to this point at different times based on their personalities, life circumstances, etc.

I advise them that if they work hard in the job search and use the support and tools I provide, along with the resources in the Careerminds site, then I am confident that they will find a great job soon. I also share that my other current clients are landing fantastic jobs every day.

Many clients are worried that there aren’t jobs available out there, but there are always job openings because employees are retiring from positions, moving to new positions, creating new positions, etc. I also explain that sometimes a career transition is just the push a person needs to try a new career or a more challenging role, which happens often!

10. What Advice Would You Give to Companies That Are Uncertain About Partnering with an Outplacement Firm?

I would suggest that companies strongly consider providing an outplacement program for their displaced employees—preferably Careerminds since, in my mind, they provide quality support and programs for employees and truly care about their job placement outcomes.

Displaced employees feel a range of emotions after a layoff and really need the support and guidance from a experienced, qualified coach to help them navigate the difficult job market, build their brand (branded/career marketing resume, LinkedIn presence, etc.), and speak to their unique value proposition to set themselves apart from others in the job market, ultimately landing their dream job and being successful in their career development.

Here at Careerminds, our industry-leading outplacement services offer incredible results for your displaced employees with an 80 percent engagement rate, 95 percent placement rate, and whopping 99 percent satisfaction rate. If you are interested in learning more about our outplacement programs, click below to speak with our experts and see if Careerminds is the right outplacement partner for your organization. 

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Rebecca Ahn

Rebecca is a writer, editor, and business consultant with over 10 years of experience launching, managing, and coaching small to midsize companies on their business, marketing, and HR operations. She is a passionate people advocate who believes in building strong people, teams, and companies with empowering culture, content, and communication that facilitates meaningful results at every level and touchpoint. In her spare time, Rebecca is an avid traveler and nomad who also enjoys writing about travel safety and savvy. Learn more on her LinkedIn page.