Your Client Lost Their Job. Now What? How to Coach Career Transitions When the Market Is Brutal

Coaching clients through career transitions is always complex work — but right now, when the job market is genuinely difficult and economic uncertainty is running high, it requires a particular set of skills that most coach training doesn't fully address. When a client has done everything right and the market still isn't responding, standard coaching moves can land as tone-deaf. And when a client's identity is wrapped up in work they've lost or are losing, the coaching goes deeper than strategy fast.

In this episode, we're breaking down what it actually looks like to coach career transition clients in a hard market — staying firmly in the coaching lane without crossing into career counseling, holding space for grief and identity disruption without getting pulled into rescue, and asking the questions that actually help when "just keep applying" isn't landing.

We're covering the difference between a career strategy problem and an identity crisis wearing career clothes, why the most important coaching in a job transition often has nothing to do with the resume, and the specific moves that help clients stay connected to their own agency when the external environment feels completely indifferent to what they have to offer.