What is the downside of coaching that I may not be seeing yet? | Hacker News Reader

What is the downside of coaching that I may not be seeing yet?

6 pointsikut3hva3 comments

Hi everyone!

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.

It has the same downside than all activities, opportunity cost.

I teach math at the first year of university in Argentina. My kids (a bunch of 18 y.o., but I call them "my kids") start the semester and barely can solve a 2x2 equation system. At the end most of them can use the Gauss Method and the Simplex Method. I enjoy seeing the improvement, and also the challenge that they are very different. Some have a bad math background and we have to teach the rule of of the signs for integer addition. Some have a better preparation and ability and we can give some hints about deeper topics like the dimension that are covered very shallowly in the course.

Also, a few years ago I worked with teenagers training for the national Mathematical Olympiad. I had smaller groups so it was more personalized, and I have the same students for years. I still meet some of them from time to time. It's nice to see how they improve during the years.

In my opinion, if you get enough money+happiness to compensate the time investment, it's a nice activity.

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> I usually charge $12–20 Euro per session

I think it's a little on the cheap side. Last year I asked about the 1 to 1 private class that some of my coworkers do (with students of other universities, obviously not with their own students). The unofficial rule for the price was "1Kg of ice cream from Freddo" (one of the most expensive ice cream stores here) that today is like €17. That's the price for a good standard math class in not the most expensive country on Earth.

So, if you have more request than what you can handle, consider raising your price. Anyway, money is not the only metric, some in some case you can lower the price in exchange of happiness or interesting cases.

Take a look at the old posts by patio11 https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ (HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24588379 (420 points | Sept 2020 | 263 comments)) and also https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/21/ramit-sethi-and-patrick... (HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4554669 (234 points | Sept 2012 | 87 comments))

One huge downside is there's no moat, so anyone can be a coach and sell courses. Even ex-clients who are already comfortable talking in sessions like this can turn into direct competition after seeing how you do it.

On the customer side of things, there's no way to "prove" how effective coaches really are since there is no hurdle to entry and they aren't accredited.

It's not like framing a house or software engineering or legal counsel, in that way.

Another downside might just be the vicarity of it. Instead of spending time and energy improving yourself, you're focused on improving others. Some of your biggest success cases may leave you feeling oddly empty. Maybe there's a case where helping a client becomes directly at odds with helping yourself - which do you choose?

The personality upkeep. Coaches, instructors, and mentors aren't really allowed to have off days - you are the beacon that moves others forward. You have to act and be motivating, positive, and encouraging no matter how you're actually feeling that day, or when you have a rude or uncharismatic client.

Low pay overall ($384 in 7 months). My strong opinion is that nobody should do any in-person client work of any kind (photography, massage, therapy, coaching) for less than $50 USD per hour, given communications overhead and transportation costs. If the work in question is valued at less from your research, there's not enough opportunity to justify doing it IMO (at least not for the money) - unless you see some trajectory where it scales or amplifies. If you can offer the service completely virtually and bring on other mentors, that's an example of a trajectory where it scales.

Sometimes you have a great idea and passion that just needs a slight change in how it's brought to market.

As long as you have a full-time job, you can afford to work only with people you enjoy working with, set your rates flexibly, and hold sessions just for the joy of it. As soon as your income depends on it, a lot changes: marketing, client acquisition, administrative work, financial pressure and emotional strain.

It can become difficult to set clear boundareis and truly unplug after work.

Another point: As your experience grows, so does your responsibility. People come to rely more and more on your advice. Especially when issues go beyond career matters and touch on personal or mental health aspects, it’s important to know your own limits. And, if necessary, refer clients to other professionals.

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