Best Career Coaching Services of 2024

I had multiple misses with different coaches by the time I came to JobTest.org. It was about the 4th service provider that I had gone through (and I hadn't found a good career coach for me). I decided to give JobTest.org a try because my friend Jessica was obsessed with its career test and didn't stop talking about it.

Jessica was a college friend of mine, and when she graduated, she got a job in tech. She hated it there because she felt like a cog in a big machine, and nothing she did seemed to make a difference in the organization. She initially took a career test by JobTest.org because she didn't know what she wanted to do next, and she was paired up with a career coach to go over the test results together. She liked her coaching session so much that she started working with her coach, and that's when she recommended her coach to me.
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Unfortunately, her coach was not available, and she had 8 clients on her waitlist in front of me. Instead of waiting for the spot to open up, I took their client-coach match questionnaire and was paired up with a different coach, with whom I ended up working together for 3 months until I landed my dream role.

Initially, I was going to wait to work with Jessica's coach vs. looking for a new coach because I had such bad experiences with other coaches I found on different platforms (LinkedIn, BetterUp, etc.). However, I recognized a colleague of mine in their testimonials who worked with a different coach, so I decided to give it a try. Their 100% money-back guarantee also gave me a bit of ease because I knew I could get my money back if I didn't like my session.

Their onboarding flow was very thorough, and they asked many questions that made me think a lot about what I actually wanted. Unlike some of the other sites' onboarding flow which only asked me questions about how much money I am willing to spend and how frequently I want to meet with a coach, which felt very salesy (Seriously, I will pay more if you get me a good coach, but not before), JobTest.org's felt like it actually wanted to get to know me so that they can recommend me the perfect coach that is actually a good fit for me.‍
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I absolutely LOVED the flexibility it offered in terms of my desired frequencies. Of all the coaching service platforms I used, JobTest.org was one of the only platforms that offered both a 100% money-back guarantee and a no-subscription option for the first session. Because I had such a bad experience with some coaches and inability to get a refund without fighting the platform, this was a gamechanger for me and made it easy for me to book a time.
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I ended up booking a meeting with Linda, and during our introductory 60-minute scoping session, we covered:

My session with Linda was extremely valuable, and I felt it was one of the most productive coaching sessions I had throughout my journey.

We didn't waste any minutes during our session. We went straight into the most value-adding discussion. Because the career report had already captured my profile holistically, and because Michelle had already reviewed the report, she was able to ask many specific and relevant questions instead of surface-level questions that otherwise would've made our session feel less productive.

They offered three different pricing options (one-time, biweekly meetings, weekly meetings) ranging from $149.90 to $279.90, and when I calculated an effective rate/hour, it was one of the most affordable options I could find online, especially for the quality I received.

For example, I opted in for a biweekly meeting ($149.90) with an expedited resume & LinkedIn support (an additional $299.90), and I believe the coach and I spent at least 6-7 hours for the first month. This was effectively about $60/hour (or $1/minute), which was a bargain because the quality of these coaching sessions was analogous to some of the most expensive executive coaching that I received via a company sponsorship at my current job. (about $2-3K/mo).

Despite being a career test company first, JobTest.org actually offered one of the best coaching experiences I had while testing different services. They not only paired me with a highly qualified coach who had years of experience but also curated my coaching experience to be with someone who matched my preferred coaching style, who had the relevant background, and who could help me achieve my goals. The whole experience felt like a White Glove Treatment that was highly personalized for me and me only. I also stumbled upon their testimonial page later and could see why so many people had a great thing to say about it.

On Trustpilot, I also read great compliments of Michelle by another client of hers - it was great to see that other people were also having similar experiences as I did.

In my experiences with other coaching services, I quickly found that many of them like to lock you into a monthly payment plan that leaves almost no room for flexibility or customization.

Fortunately, JobTest.org avoided this practice altogether by letting me pay for each session individually. Even when I knew I'd need to cancel or reschedule, JobTest.org's customer service team worked with me as long as I provided enough notice.

Compared to some of the larger, more recognized career coaches on this list (like LinkedIn), JobTest.org seemed to genuinely care about my business and keeping me happy. Rather than offering canned responses when I asked questions about payment or scheduling, they took the time to find a real, satisfying solution. I also found out that they are built and run by people who changed their careers - and I deeply resonated with their mission.

As one of the most widely-recognized social media platforms for professionals, LinkedIn is a trusted company for jobseekers, networking, and career coaching.

When you choose to search for a career coach through LinkedIn, they ask a few basic questions about your goals and career information, and then send you proposals from five coaches. Customers can either choose from these five proposals or ask for a new set, but will have to wait each time while new options are confirmed.

LinkedIn's career coaching pricing is completely controlled by the individual coaches, so prices can vary wildly depending on who you get. One of my proposed matches, for instance, wanted to charge me almost $100.00 for a 15-minute review of my resume.

While I obviously chose not to go with that proposal, the average price-per-session for coaching on LinkedIn was much higher than I experienced with other companies.

Because of its reputation as a social hub for professionals, LinkedIn has attracted thousands of career coaches and industry experts—far more than pretty much all of its competitors. That said, this isn’t always a good thing.

When you get a good match in your set of five proposals, you may have an excellent experience. When you don’t, you either have to accept a less-compatible career coach or go through the proposal process again.

When I went through this process, the overwhelming majority of proposals I received were cookie-cutter, automated responses that didn’t seem to consider my information whatsoever.

So long as you’re willing to dig through five career coaching proposals at a time to find the right fit, LinkedIn technically offers some of the most flexibility out of any service I tried. That said, I really wish they did a bit more to make this process less time-consuming and frustrating when you don’t find the right match.

As a large platform, LinkedIn offers extensive self-service resources and 24/7 chat, email, and phone support. When trying to get help with career coaching, however, I struggled to get real, valuable answers. Instead, I just ended up combing through one automated email after another from different career coaches until I found one that fit.

LinkedIn offers free networking opportunities, social media feeds for professionals, messaging, and job boards.

Founded in 2013, BetterUp is a leading platform for personalized coaching and development. Like JobTest.org, BetterUp uses an AI-based system to match customers with certified coaches for 1-on-1 sessions via phone, video, and messaging. The goal is to help you actualize your potential through research-backed methodologies.

Pricing information was extremely difficult to find when researching BetterUp, and I ended up only being able to get a clear breakdown of costs after going through their entire process and finding a coach.

BetterUp charges a scaling rate based on how many sessions you want a month: $109.00 for one session, $149.00 for two sessions, or $279.00 for 4 sessions. Important to note, however, is that you lose any sessions you have to miss during the month and sessions don’t roll over to the following month.

When you start the process of finding a career coach with BetterUp, the site runs you through a very basic quiz about your identity and professional goals. Then, BetterUp uses your answers to suggest a set of coaches from which you pick and schedule sessions.

Overall, I found this matching system to be one of BetterUp’s strongest features, as it allowed me to find a coach who really understood my needs and matched my personality.

BetterUp offers a mixed experience in terms of flexibility. While their customer service was willing to work with me to reschedule in some cases, you get charged for the full number of sessions each month even if you can’t attend all of them.

And, because you can’t rollover unused sessions to the next month, that means you’re out the money for a session you didn’t actually get to attend.

BetterUp offers 24/7 support through a mixture of chatbots and customer service reps, and I found that both were relatively good at addressing my questions and concerns.

BetterUp offers a range of coaching-related services, such as resume reviews and confidence building workshops.

Bark is an online platform connecting individuals with personal coaches for career growth and guidance. In many ways, Bark is similar to LinkedIn’s career coaching service in the way it connects customers with coaches. While you’re initially matched to various coaches who roughly fit your needs, you have to individually request proposals from those coaches before actually picking one and scheduling sessions.

Bark allows each of its coaches to set their own prices, though it cites an average price of around $135.00 per session. That said, I wasn’t able to see a coach’s rates until I’d requested a proposal, meaning I had to essentially pick my matches without knowing one of the most important pieces of information.

The coach I eventually chose from Bark’s platform was competent and professional, but I felt they lacked some of the dedication I’d experienced with other coaching services. I did, however, enjoy the biography pages included for every career coach on the site.

Once I’d received the right proposal from a career coach that matched my goals and preferences, the scheduling itself was very easy and flexible. Bark allows you to pay for each session individually, which meant I didn’t need to worry about meeting a set number of sessions each month.

Bark provides the same standard customer support you’d expect with most online services, though I didn’t like how much I was texted after being required to give my phone number.

Bark offers surprisingly little outside of its career coaching sessions, but does allow you to find professionals for an enormous range of other tasks, from gardening to resume screening.

The Muse offers several different services and programs, from Q&A sessions with industry experts to resume consultations and career coaching sessions. While it’s common for coaching services to work with employers, it seems like this feature made up a larger portion of Muse's business model, so it may be less ideal for individuals.

Pricing varies wildly depending on what you want to accomplish, but the Muse seems to be overall more expensive than most of its competitors. A simple 30-minute career Q&A, for example, costs $109.00, with packages and prices only rising from there.

Coaching quality is perhaps the strongest feature of this service, with professionals and industry veterans providing insider information and realistic, actionable advice. Even with this excellent quality, however, the Muse charges significantly more for coaching and other services than some competitors with similar quality, like JobTest.org.

Because of the sheer number of services it provides, the Muse offers impressive flexibility that allows you to get exactly what you need to accomplish your goals. Whether you want a professional to review your LinkedIn page, need a quick conversation with an industry insider, or are looking for a long-term mentor, the Muse can help.

The Muse offers 24/7 virtual customer support, which I unfortunately found necessary due to its complicated and poorly-designed website layout.

The Muse boasts an impressive number of services and tools, but almost all of these are paid rather than free in nature. Still, if money isn’t an issue for you, the Muse may have the most resources of any service on this list.

After eighteen months of working with different career coaches, I learned a lot about what was most important to me—and probably other people—when it came to these kinds of services. Specifically, I needed a career coach that fit not only my professional goals, but also my personality and preferred coaching style. For me, that meant that I got much more value from coaching platforms that provided tailored matches rather than requiring me to dig through endless lists and proposals.

Even more important to me was how realistic and actionable the advice I received was. While it’s great to build confidence and self-esteem, I found that many coaches only worked on these areas while neglecting more objective types of growth that I really wanted.

For me, no service combined these two features better than JobTest.org. With advanced technologies and AI-based matching, a practical approach to coaching, and exceptional flexibility and pricing, they offered the most value of any coaching platform I experienced. (1)(2)

And, for those unsure if regular coaching sessions are right for them, JobTest.org’s affordable career testing packages can give you many of the tools you need to start making changes on your own. Either way, they’re my top pick for where to start if you want to improve your career.