For parents · Launch League blog
Career coach red flags: when not to hire
By Nick Gonzalez, founder, U.S. Air Force veteranPublished
The short answer
Don't hire a career coach who guarantees a job, an admission or a salary, won't put the total price and refund terms in writing, sells mostly tests and reports, can't say what your teen will have done after two sessions, or wants private contact with a minor. Expensive coaching wastes money when it produces talk instead of real-world steps.
The control test
Judge every promise by whether the coach controls it. A coach controls their time, their preparation, a written plan and the introductions they make. They do not control an employer, an admissions office or a salary. Promises about the first list are fair; promises about the second are a red flag.
Career coach red flags: when not to hire
Any one of these is a reason to slow down. Two or more is a reason to walk away.
- A guarantee of a job, a program admission, a scholarship or a salary.
- No written total price, or extras that appear after you've signed.
- No refund terms, or terms you only hear about when you ask to leave.
- The main product is a test and a report.
- They can't say what your teenager will have done after two sessions.
- No contact with anyone outside the sessions is ever planned.
- They want to message your teenager privately, or discourage you from being involved.
- Pressure to decide today, or a ‘special price’ that expires tonight.
- Reviews that are all five stars and all sound the same.
- They offer to diagnose, treat or ‘fix’ anxiety, ADHD or depression.
Guarantees about things the coach doesn't control
This is the control test, and it catches most bad offers. In my years running operations I hired and promoted a lot of people. Nobody outside the company had any say in who got the job, and an outside coach claiming they did would have been laughed out of the building. Employers decide who they hire. Colleges and universities decide who they admit.
A coach can fairly promise what is in their hands: a number of sessions, a written plan, a reply within a set time, a specific number of introductions they will arrange. That is also what a guarantee should be about. Launch League's guarantee, for example, is about the plan and the two conversations, both of which I can make happen if the teenager does the work.
Why your expensive career coach might be wasting your money
A high price doesn't make coaching good, and it is worth knowing why expensive coaching so often disappoints. The usual reasons have nothing to do with how qualified the coach is.
- Every session is talk, and nothing happens between them.
- The coach does the work for your teenager: writes the résumé, picks the program, makes the call. Your teen ends up with a document and no new skill.
- Most of the fee went on assessments that confirmed what you already knew.
- The coach mostly works with executives, and the approach doesn't fit a 16-year-old.
- The engagement keeps renewing without an end point or a written result.
- Your teenager never wanted it and has been quietly waiting it out.
Success stories that prove nothing
Testimonials are easy to collect and easy to choose from. One delighted family tells you that one family was delighted. It doesn't tell you what most families got. Look for detail you could check: what the teenager did, over what time, and what happened next. Vague praise is advertising.
What the consumer protection rules say
The Federal Trade Commission's guidance on job scams says that if someone asks you to pay to get a job, that's a scam, and that honest placement firms don't typically charge job candidates. That applies to any coach or service selling a guaranteed job.
On reviews, the FTC's 2024 rule bans fake reviews and testimonials, including ones from people who never used the service and ones that misrepresent the reviewer's experience. A coach whose testimonials you can't trace to real people is a coach to question.
Red flags in how a coach treats a teenager
Some warning signs are not about money at all. Be concerned if a coach asks your teenager to keep things from you beyond the confidentiality you agreed to, criticizes you to your teenager, sells directly to your teenager rather than to you, or pushes one career hard from the first session.
A coach should also know their limits. The International Coaching Federation's Code of Ethics asks coaches to stay within their competence and to consider a different professional or resource when the client would be better served. A coach who never says ‘this needs someone other than me’ is a coach who hasn't been paying attention.
What to do if you've already hired the wrong coach
Ask, in writing, what the remaining sessions will produce. Sometimes that question alone fixes things. If it doesn't, read your agreement, use the refund or cancellation terms, and stop any recurring payment. Keep copies of what you were promised.
Then go back to basics with your teenager: one conversation with someone doing a job they are curious about, arranged by you. It costs nothing and it is often the step the coaching was missing.
Questions
Quick answers
- Is it a red flag if a coach has no coaching credential?
- Not on its own. Plenty of capable people coach teenagers on the strength of real work experience. It becomes a red flag when it comes with vague outputs, no written terms or no answer on background checks.
- Is a long contract a red flag?
- A long contract without checkpoints is. Teenagers need a short engagement with a clear end and a written result. If a coach wants months up front, ask what you will have after the first few weeks and whether you can stop there.
- What are the green flags?
- Clear outputs named before you pay, a total price and refund terms in writing, tasks in the real world from week one, introductions to people in the field, parent visibility, and a coach who tells you when coaching isn't the right help.
- What if a coach says my teenager seems depressed?
- That's the coach doing their job, as long as they refer rather than treat. Talk to your family doctor. If your teenager is in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7.
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Sources: International Coaching Federation, Code of Ethics · Federal Trade Commission, job scams · Federal Trade Commission, final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (2024) · 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Coaching is not therapy, medical, legal or financial advice.