The Broken Reality of Job Search Support — And What Needs to Change

Why Job Search Coaching Leaves Job Seekers Behind — or Empty-Handed

Key Takeaways

• Most job search support is unregulated, overpriced, and outcome-agnostic — focused more on selling than solving.

  
  

• Too many job seekers are left behind or out — some after spending thousands, others not being able to afford quality help to begin with.

  
  

• What job seekers need is a new model — one that’s fair, expert-led, and accountable for real outcomes, not just selling hope at a price.

  
  

• Goalster is reframing what job search support looks like: structured, affordable, expert-backed, and outcome-focused — with many services offered free.

What's the Problem

Job search is already one of the most emotionally and financially stressful periods in a person’s life. You're coming to grips with the reality of your layoff, trying to minimize expenses, move quickly, and stay focused — all while navigating rejection, uncertainty, and pressure to land the next opportunity.

Instead of clear, trusted support, job seekers often land in a chaotic marketplace — especially on LinkedIn, filled with noise, inflated promises, and inconsistent outcomes.

There’s no shortage of self-proclaimed “experts” offering recycled advice or overpriced career services packages, many of whom lack the credibility, experience, or capacity to truly help. Scammers, amateur coaches, and recycled templates are everywhere.

Even the legitimate options aren’t always better — they’re often unaffordable, inconsistent, or simply not good enough.

There’s always someone claiming they can “improve your resume” or “help you stand out” — but most job seekers don’t need another opinion, they need direction.

What they need is clarity, confidence, a strong execution plan, and actionable support that moves them forward faster.

Right now, that kind of help is not consistently accessible and available to the people who need it most.

We think that’s unacceptable — and having watched some of my former colleagues from Verizon struggle after leaving the company (despite corporate outplacement support), I wanted to do something about it.

The Job Search Playbook Isn’t a Big Secret or "IP"

Despite what many on LinkedIn would have you believe, the fundamentals of a strong job search are not mysterious, nor revolutionary, even in this day and age.

The fundamentals of success are going to be:

• A clear, well-targeted and formatted resume

• A strong LinkedIn profile

• A clear value proposition and story

• Effective marketing of yourself on LinkedIn

• A disciplined outreach and networking plan

• Tailored, thoughtful interview prep and practice

• The ability to track progress and refine your efforts as you go

That’s it.

These are not complex, proprietary strategies. But too often, this process gets buried under layers of noise, opinion, and expensive “insider tips” that don’t actually move the needle.

Job Search Support These Days Is 'The Wild West'

The moment you make your first #OpenToWork post, or light up your green banner, it begins:

A flood of messages, offers, and unsolicited advice from career coaches, resume writers, and “visibility experts.” Some are helpful. Many are not. Nearly all are far more expensive than they ought to be.

The barrier to entry for career coaching or resume writing is low — and job seekers are left to sort out the credible from the questionable on their own.

There are no clear standards. There are no universally accepted certifications. No reliable benchmarks for what good support looks like. You could end up with a brilliant strategist — or someone reading a recycled checklist from an old blog post or ChatGPT tips.

Job seekers are left to guess who’s credible and who’s simply capitalizing on their desperation.

Wildly Varying Degrees of Skill and Experience

There are literally tens of thousands of people offering job search advice — from resume rewrites to interview coaching to career pivots. Having met with hundreds of them over the past three years, I can tell you that while some are genuinely helpful, many others mean well but lack the context, experience, or depth to offer truly effective guidance — especially when it comes to specialized industries or senior-level roles.

Many coaches I’ve met have strong intent — but often haven’t actually held the roles they now coach others to pursue, which can limit their insight and relevance, especially for senior or specialized roles.

Instead, they often fell into coaching after a layoff as a way to start a lower cost independent business. No doubt some have helped clients land jobs, but that doesn’t always translate into a repeatable system, a personalized strategy, or the ability and capacity to provide affordable sustained support.

This is precisely why we have a vetting process for our Pros and Advisors that's not 'pay to play'. Many simply aren't good enough.

We often hear the same refrain from job seekers:

“Once they rewrote my resume, I never heard from them again.”

A common criticism we hear about from job seekers in the open market

In their defense, that’s not necessarily a reflection of bad intent — it’s a reflection of a fragmented industry. One where quality varies wildly, follow-through is inconsistent or limited, and there’s often no underlying framework guiding the next step.

A successful job search isn’t just the formatting of your resume. It’s what happens after it’s written.

That’s where the right ongoing support — grounded in deep industry knowledge, real-world experience, and proven execution plans — actually makes the difference.

A Business Model That Incentivizes the Wrong Things

I want to be clear: not all coaching or resume writing is bad — and not every high price tag is unjustified. But the reason many career coaches and resume writers charge so much isn’t because the work is complex or time-consuming.

It’s because the business model demands it.

For many of these professionals, resume writing or 1:1 coaching is their only revenue stream. There’s no recurring income, no stable client base, and no long-term engagement model. So when someone shows up willing to pay, they have to make the economics work — for themselves.

In fact, the best description I've heard from one coach was that their business was "incredibly fragile" and here's why.

If you’re a resume writer or coach and you don’t know where your next client is coming from, it makes financial sense to charge $700 for a single resume or $4,500 for a bundled package — even if the total work delivered takes just 3–5 hours.

It’s not always about value. For many it’s about survival and getting to that next client.

Let’s break down why:

You’re often paying $200–$300 per hour just to talk to someone, with the ICF (International Coaching Federation) putting the average at about $250 per hour.

That’s equivalent to a $400,000–$600,000/year salary — for advice that isn’t always aligned with outcomes. It raises a fair question: is the value really there?

There are zero guarantees that the advice you get will actually help you land a job faster — or at all.

The resume or profile produced from such services isn't likely to be that much different from what another, far less expensive provider would deliver in the same timeframe.

And to be quite honest, most job seekers don’t need hours of talking.

They need maybe 2–3 hours of targeted action and a toolbox that includes a well written resume, a refined LinkedIn profile, focused outreach messaging, and ways to track and get feedback on how to execute.

The traditional model sells time, but often fails to deliver real progress — and at prices that wildly outpace the complexity of the task.

Endless Conversations vs. Clear Outcomes

You've just paid someone $150–$300 for a single coaching session.

No doubt you'll get thoughtful advice, encouragement, even some insight that helps you reflect or reset.

But when it all comes down to it:

• Did anything actually get done?

• Is your resume now ready to send?

• Do you have a clear plan to improve this week?

• Are you better prepared to walk into your next interview?

• Can you track and see that you're making progress?

Most job seekers will leave a coaching session feeling better — but not necessarily being better.

And that’s the key difference:

Feeling supported is important. But support without execution doesn't create progress.

An example I hear often is “imposter syndrome.", which seems to have become a catch-all label — something people self-diagnose the moment they feel doubt or insecurity.

The reality is that no conversation, affirmation, or well-meaning coach can talk it away.

You don’t solve imposter syndrome with a few words of encouragement.

You outwork it.

You out-execute it.

You replace doubt with evidence — through preparation, repetition, and real progress.

Confidence comes from doing. It comes from small wins that stack up. From walking into a room knowing you’ve already done the work to get there.

So absolutely talk about it and work through it. But that shouldn't require hundreds of dollars, because it won’t go away until you take the action that proves to yourself you aren't an imposter.

So What’s the Alternative?

The real solution isn’t just another 1:1 coaching session or a new resume template.

It’s an ecosystem — one that surrounds job seekers with the right tools, expert guidance, and drives weekly momentum to make their candidacy stronger over time.

Imagine an ecosystem where:

• You’re focused on the right actions, not wasting time guessing what to do next

• Every week, your resume, your message, your outreach — gets sharper

• Coaching is accessible when you need it, without breaking the bank

• You’re not isolated, but supported by experts, structure, and community

• Your progress is visible — and your confidence grows as you execute

That’s what we’re building at Goalster.

It’s not about working more, it’s about working smarter, inside a system designed to make you better and drive you forward faster. One that gives you leverage and agency, not just encouragement.

How We're Blowing That Model Up at Goalster

We’ve spent years listening to job seekers and seeing what actually works — and what doesn’t.

The traditional coaching model is built around the wrong incentives.

It rewards longer engagements, recurring sessions, and high-ticket packages — not faster results or better outcomes.

Job seekers, on the other hand, are under pressure.

You're trying to save money, find clarity, and get hired quickly. But instead, you're pushed into a fragmented, noisy ecosystem full of inconsistent advice, inflated pricing, and vague deliverables.

We built Goalster to blow that model up.

Here’s how:

Traditional Coaching Model	Goalster Performance System
Pay-per-hour, open-ended sessions	Free or fixed-cost sessions tied to clear deliverables
Coaches incentivized to keep you talking	Experts incentivized to get you results quickly
Support gated behind paywalls	Free live training, templates, and tools — for everyone
Value = time spent	Value = progress made
Hard to know who’s qualified or credible	Vetted experts with real hiring experience
Outcomes left vague or undefined	Every interaction has a clear outcome
Success = recurring meetings	Success = you landing a job, faster

And most importantly — we don’t measure our impact by how many hours we’ve billed, how many resumes we’ve touched, or how many times someone comes back.

We measure success by how many people we help succeed — and how fast we help them do it.

Because when you're supported the right way, you shouldn't need us for long — and that’s exactly how it should be. Our job is to help you land the role. By doing so, we earn the right to support your next goal: crushing your first 90 days and accelerating your career from there.

Value By The Numbers

Too many job seekers don’t realize just how exploitative the current market is — or how much they’re actually saving by joining Goalster.

Here’s a straight-up comparison between what industry-standard pricing looks like and what you’ll pay (or not pay) with Goalster.

Job Seeker Services	Industry Avg. Price	Goalster Price	Savings
Live Training (5-20 hrs/wk)	Not widely offered	$0-$99/mth | $400 (Unl)	N/A
Job Search Strategy (1:1)	$150-300	Free 1:1	$150-300
1:1 Coaching Sessions	$150-300	$99 (5 for $396)	$50-750+
Resume Review & Rewrite	$300-750	Free Training | $199 (1:1)	$100 – 550
Full LinkedIn Optimization	$300 – 500	Free Training | $99 (1:1)	$200 – 400
RankCheck (Search Rank)	Not widely offered	$99	N/A
Interview Coaching (1:1)	$250 – 500	$99	$150 – 400
Job Offer Evaluation	$200 – 300	$49 – 99	$150-200
Resume Template + Tracker	Not widely included	Free	N/A
Personalized 30-60-90 Plan	Not widely offered	$99	N/A
Goalster Pro Vetting	N/A	Built-in	Trust Included

When you add it all up, the difference isn’t just clear — it’s massive.

The average job seeker would spend $2,000–$4,000 to piece together this level of coaching, tools, and support through the traditional market — often without any guarantee of results, consistency, or follow-through.

Worse still, the lack of accessible or affordable support leaves job seekers trudging along slowly in their search, cobbling together best practices here and there, and going it alone.

With Goalster, you get the full ecosystem — up to 20+ hours of live training each week, expert-led sessions, proven templates, and targeted 1:1 support — for as little as $0 to $400/year, depending on what you need and when you need it.

Additional Career Paths and Opportunities

At Goalster, we’re not just helping people land their next role — we’re expanding what’s possible for them.

For those looking to parlay proven expertise and experience to create new income streams or transition into more flexible, impactful work, we also offer clear, guided pathways to become a Goalster Pro, serve as a specialist Advisor, or even build and grow your own coaching or consulting business within our ecosystem.

Whether you're ready to share your expertise, support others, or turn your experience into opportunity, we help you make it happen — with the same structure, support, and execution.

Goalster not only supports job seekers, but professionals looking to accelerate their careers, along with teams and companies who leverage our services to improve leadership development, sales performance, and organizational execution.

For top tier professionals, there's a place for you at Goalster to scale your impact without having to invest tens of thousands to create your own products, services, or brands.

Final Thoughts

The job search support ecosystem is broken — not because people don’t care, but because it's been built without structure, standards, or accountability. Too much noise. Too many empty promises. Not enough progress.

At Goalster, we’re committed to flipping that model — with a system that’s outcome-driven, accessible, and built entirely around your success.

✅ Start free

📍 Get structure

💬 Add support only when you need it

💡 Walk away with real outcomes — not just conversations

Let’s stop confusing encouragement with execution — and stop normalizing coaching models that leave too many behind.

Now more than ever, job seekers need the tools, guidance, and support. Not just survive, but to succeed.

Try Goalster out.

See what real progress looks like and let us help you get hired — faster, smarter, and stronger than going it alone.

Darren Webster is the Founder and CEO of Goalster, a technology and services company helping people and organizations achieve their most important goals through better execution, performance enablement, and ongoing development.

A former world championship-level athlete for Australia in sprint canoeing, Darren spent 15 years leading large teams at Verizon, where he developed a deep understanding of organizational performance and the coaching industry.

Driven by a passion for helping people and teams reach their full potential, Darren built Goalster as a performance enablement platform designed to drive better results through execution, coaching, training, and accountability.