Millennial-focused career site The Muse, which counts model and entrepreneur Tyra Banks among its investors, launched a career coaching service on Thursday.
Called Coach Connect, the new offering will provide users with access to professional career coaches, who offer services like resume review and editing, career Q+As via phone or Skype, and personalized job search or networking plans. The Muse, which will take a cut of the fee paid for each session, has created a tiered pricing model where coaching is priced from $75 per hour up to $500 per hour, depending on the experience of the coach and the service provided.
“The current market [for personalized career help] is fragmented,” says CEO and co-founder Kathryn Minshew, noting that people often just ask friends and family for advice, despite knowing that their personal circle may not have the right expertise. Even those who decide to hire a pro may just go to Google to find him or her. Minshew is hoping The Muse will become a “more trusted and efficient” source of professional help.
So far, the site is working with 40 coaches, who are currently offering a total of 500 sessions. Minshew says the company has considered as many as 3,000 pros and vets coaches by looking at samples of their work (such as before-and-after examples of resumes they’ve edited) and reviewing references from past clients. Before booking, The Muse members can check out coaches profiles and see reviews left by other users.
Minshew says users of The Muse, which currently racks up 4.5 million monthly visitors, have been asking for services of this type since the site launched in 2011. She notes that there’s compelling evidence that job seekers are looking for more than just basic online services: The company is doing a New York City career coaching event on Nov. 10 and Minshew says the 120 or so $13 tickets sold out in 12 minutes.
The CEO hopes these coaching services in the future, possibly by adding on-demand coaching (currently, users have to work with their coach to settle on a time to connect) and more specialized professionals, such employment lawyers.
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