TL;DR: I genuinely enjoy every coaching session I run, and I believe my mentees find them incredibly valuable. However, I’m still curious about one thing: what is the downside of coaching that I may not be seeing yet?
As an experienced software engineer (still working full-time), I started mentoring to share my own experiences—the good, the bad, and the challenges people may face in a professional environment. More importantly, I help people improve their presence within their organizations so that their work and contributions become more visible.
I genuinely love every coaching session, and I’m grateful to all of my mentees for openly sharing their stories and challenges.
One day, after finishing a session, I asked myself:
If what I’m doing is genuinely valuable for both my mentees and myself, what are the downsides of coaching that I might not be able to foresee at this stage?
At the moment, coaching feels like a second hobby that also happens to generate some extra income on top of my full-time job. I imagine things would be very different if I decided to become a full-time coach.
A few facts for context:
* I’ve conducted 32 coaching sessions over the past 7 months. * My retention rate has remained consistently between 82% and 83% since my first session. * I mainly coach in three areas: * CV review * Story bank development * Behavioral interviews * I usually charge $12–20 Euro per session, although I often adjust the price depending on each mentee’s circumstances.
I’m genuinely interested in hearing from people who coach professionally or have made coaching their full-time career.