Until further notice, long term coaching for new grads and students will be unavailable.
There have been several complications whenever I take on young or new grad clients but this change is due to a few primary reasons.
I have never felt good taking money from new grads in general. For professionals just starting out in the world with 5 figures of debt, every dollar means something. I would reject 90% of clients simply on this alone and would only accept new grads who are in a position to pay without hurting their financial situation. I see the results my clients get as if it were my own and I am willing to forego pay if we don’t get an offer. However, if we do get an offer, my fee is very steep relative to what a person in that position needs. The fee is only there to make things fair and for me to have skin in the game and is below market rate for the type of service I offer and the risk I take on. I have expressed this sentiment many times on stream.
In general, the younger the client, the less work ethic they tend to have. They are also more likely to have the wrong priorities. Many clients promise me that they want to work as hard as I ask them to. But when push comes to shove and I ask for 20-30 hours a week, almost all of my clients who have dropped out on me cite a need for “work life balance”. Clients also randomly go on vacation instead of prioritizing working for the result. Some have a tendency to not actually do what I ask and not pour over the details of the conversations or notes that I’ve written them. Having the work ethic and attention to detail is extremely important for progress.
I also find a lot of issues regarding honesty as well. Many clients try to sneak issues by me in order to try and make their progress sound better than it actually is. I like to think this is more subconscious on their part rather than malicious. After all, we want to try and make ourselves look good in front of the people we respect. As an example, they tend to not know when to ask for help and try to hide the issues instead of presenting them to me. But the problem is that the feedback loop is lengthened and clients make progress slower. It is only 2 weeks later that I realize that we missed a fundamental issue that was not understood or brought to my attention that we have to go back and fix things.
Scheduling interviews becomes extremely difficult as well. It is easier for a professional with experience to get an interview than it is for a new grad. I am as invested in my client’s success as they are and waiting weeks on end waiting for an interview is very nerve wracking and stressful for me. Every client goes through peaks and troughs in their performance cycle and it is massively important that interviews come when the client is at their peak. I have a way of increasing and decreasing the workload and what we focus on to adjust this. The fact that we cannot have access to as many interviews as I expect completely destroys this, reducing the probability of success.
The payoff has not been worth the risk and headache. For the amount of worry, concern, and stress that I go through to adjust for all these factors, the benefit is almost none. I have no doubt that I can and can continue to get my clients' offers. My only goal in this business is to increase my success percentage above 70% and to score offers for my clients that are in the top 25% (as according to levels.fyi). This means that it is paramount to not just ace these interviews at peak performance but to have multiple competing offers as well and that a majority of the factors that I’ve presented are not at risk. But the amount of stress to maintain it is far too much.
If you are a new grad, I would suggest you book a 1 off session, watch past clients, or wait until I give out free coaching sessions which I do on occasion.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
Edbert