Career coaching service available for COVID-19s jobless

By Tianna Haas | Australia

Career coaches Daniel and Jeanie Ough.

SIM associates Daniel and Jeanie Ough are offering free career coaching to anyone without jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By offering their service widely, they also hope to connect with those who aren’t following Jesus and share Christ with them. Daniel said: “We pray that God would allow this to become an outreach tool for sharing the gospel and the reasons for our faith, since our services are not limited to the Christian community.

“It quickly became clear that, while the medical challenges [of COVID-19] were enormous, the economic challenges of the shutdowns and people being out of a job would also be huge. People would be in need of knowledge, help and hope.

“We are both passionate about helping people who have lost their job, or who are facing uncertainty in their career. We love working with people who need help coping with job loss, and who need to understand how to write an effective resumé or CV, how to interview well, and how to put together a network – since networking is by far the best way to find a job.”

The Oughs set up a website – jobsearchhelp4u.com – to help connect with people and explain their service.

Jeanie said: “A website is such a great tool for getting the word out and for giving people an understanding about what we do, so we established a new domain name and created our website, focusing on ‘knowledge, help and hope.’”

The Oughs, sent by members of Jannali Anglican Church in New South Wales, immigrated to Australia from Dubai in 2011 where they connected with SIM Australia to extend their coaching expertise on a volunteer basis to Christian organisations. In Dubai, they had been career and executive coaches and had owned their own business for seven years.

Daniel said: “When we moved to Australia, we wanted to continue using our God-given coaching skills in a ministry of encouragement … SIM Australia invited us to provide coaching workshops for the SIM Australia staff in 2013.

“They then asked us to travel to South America to work with SIM teams and we have been travelling around the world with SIM ever since, providing coaching workshops to help missionary teams work together more effectively.

“We’ve worked in 23 countries with SIM and with other Christian organisations, churches, Bible colleges, mission hospital teams, secondary and primary school teachers and more.”

As lockdowns began in March, the Oughs’ engagements in the US were cancelled and any future work-related travel came to a halt. Back in Australia, they considered how they could be present and encouraging from a distance.

Jeanie said: “Our thought was that if we could share the knowledge that we gained in our experience of coaching people in Dubai, provide help for those trying to cope with job loss or uncertainty and give hope by walking alongside them as they prepare to look for a new job, it would be worth a try.

“So, we prayed and talked with close friends, colleagues at SIM and other people who know about our ministry. We were encouraged that the advice from everyone was to ‘go for it.’” 

Their church leaders were also extremely supportive and shared about their free service with members.

The Oughs have already been able to coach missionaries in Australia who are now without jobs. Daniel said: “We firmly believe that the passion we have for helping people who need to find a job and the skills we use in our coaching and in training jobseekers are God-given.

"We firmly believe that the passion we have for helping people who need to find a job and the skills we use in our coaching and in training jobseekers are God-given."

“It has always been our belief and commitment that we will continue to travel and carry out this ministry of encouragement as long as God directs us to do so, but when it’s time to do something different or stop, we will listen to God’s direction because we’re working for him and his glory.  Time and again we’ve seen that his plans are far better and greater than ours.”

Their services are free, although the Oughs request that, once people are able, to donate to a registered charity of their choice.

Do you know of anyone who has lost their job? Contact Daniel and Jeanie through their website today.

Pray for:

• Those who are unemployed to find jobs where they can glorify God and enrich the world.

• Many to use Daniel and Jeanie’s service and benefit from their mentorship and wisdom.