When I first started shadowing my co-workers to learn how to job coach I remember one question that always came to my mind, “How do you know what technique to use when coaching or what exactly to do?” Later, I learned for myself that job coaching is not something that comes with a manual but something that each individual coach will just instinctively pick up after building a relationship with each individual.
Throughout the years as a job coach I have learned that each person I met and coached has worked very hard to be where he or she is now. I’ve come to appreciate my time helping each one of them learn and grow in their positions. My fondest memory as a job coach was working with a young woman who worked as a cleaner at Babies R’ Us. She was very shy and quiet. And now, just a few years later she is working in her dream job at a veterinarian clinic and she doesn’t need any coaching at all. Just recently she contacted me to become a reference for her so that she can attend college in the fall.
As a job coach these are the memories that I hold on to and cherish the most as they are what make this job the most worth it.