COMING SOON: Career Coaching Through Changing Conditions

Published: 07 December 2026

Edition: 1st

Length: 176 pages

Dimensions: 24 x 17 cm

"William E. Donald turns a simple weather metaphor into a genuinely useful framework for understanding careers as they are lived - full of good spells, storms, and everything in between. The international case studies bring real texture to each stage, from growth and clarity through to burnout and recovery. A book that gives career development professionals a shared language their clients should recognise immediately."

Associate Professor Deirdre Hughes OBE

"Career Coaching Through Changing Conditions gave me a language I didn’t know I’d been missing. I recognised myself in the text, from Nadia showing how the same job can shift beneath you, to the apple tree that quietly taught me why a quieter year is still part of growth. Will brings complex career theory to life in a way that stays with you long after you close the book. What I’ll carry forward most is his invitation to pause: to check the ground beneath you before deciding whether to stay or run. The book encourages us to look beyond the individual and consider the relationships, resources and wider conditions shaping a person’s career. Most powerfully, it invites us to read and reflect on our own career weather too. Every career development practitioner should read this."

Ladi Mohammed, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Global Educational Travel and Tours

“I think it's fascinating … The Weather as a Career Metaphor is a nice metaphor and it is original … No other book has offered this way of thinking about careers … and the case studies are excellent.”

Oliver Jenkin, RCDP, CDI, Editor of Career Matters

"Weather turns out to be the metaphor career development has been missing. William Donald moves practitioners past the ladders and pathways that have long dominated career thinking, and toward a framework for reading conditions, drawing on resources, and knowing what a moment calls for. Grounded in rigorous theory yet immediately usable in practice, this book will change how practitioners listen to those they serve, and also how they understand their own working lives. Essential reading for practitioners and the people who train them."

Dr Candy Ho, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Past Chair of CERIC, Canada

"Since acquiring a disability and developing a chronic condition, reading Career Coaching Through Changing Conditions brought to life my own career journey travelling through fog, tornadoes, and snow blizzards. Within these compelling pages, I see not only my clients but myself, and, most importantly, the ability to bring healing, clarity, and peace.

Using an engaging framework, this book offers practical, empowering metaphors for career practitioners to use that reduce self-blame and help clients recognise the wider, often overlooked circumstances beyond their control.

What may initially seem complex is made simple through vivid case studies, inspiring practitioner insights, and thought-provoking questions that encourage deeper reflection in each chapter.

This is a must-read for every career practitioner seeking to help clients see the sun, the rain, and the magic of rainbows. A truly uplifting message of hope, resilience, and sense-making for every career journey."

Ruth McAteer, Career Consultant and Trainer, All-Ways Careers, Malaysia

"While, as Will says, a career forecast is incapable of predicting exactly what will unfold, as a metaphor it can bring clarity and meaning to a facet of life which is often hard to visualise with any certainty. Weather is easy to understand. We know that it changes constantly in both small and large ways, that there will be sunny days and cloudy skies, and that one weather system will surely be replaced with another. We can acknowledge large-scale climate disruption that shifts global weather patterns over decades, while also noticing that it’s about to rain so we best bring in the washing. This duality and complexity works well as a metaphor in helping people interpret similar periods of light and dark within their own careers.

Going further, Will proposes that we can take steps to prepare for changes in our career, just as we prepare for different environmental conditions; we bring an umbrella if we expect rain, or plant different crops that can handle the heat; we don’t just sit around and get wet, and neither should we expect career opportunities to fall into our laps. This proactive approach helps individuals and the practitioners who work with them to proactively understand and adjust to the environment in which we work, acknowledging that we live and work within complex and dynamic career ecosystems. This book offers a sustainable approach we can all use to manage our careers in a way that suits our lives."

Lucy Sattler, Study Work Grow, Australia

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Foreword

Part I. Introduction

Chapter 1. Careers, Change and Conditions

Part II. Growth, Clarity and Meaning

Chapter 2. Rain: Growing Capability

Chapter 3. Sun: Career Clarity

Chapter 4. Rainbow: Meaning and Significance

Part III. Uncertainty, Redirection and Temporary Setbacks

Chapter 5. Fog: Navigating Uncertainty

Chapter 6. Wind: Changing Direction

Chapter 7. Thunderstorm: Temporary Setbacks

Part IV. Shock, Overwhelm and Depletion

Chapter 8: Tornado: Career Shocks

Chapter 9. Snow Blizzard: Overwhelm and Reorientation

Chapter 10. Drought: Career Depletion and Renewal

Part V. Integrative Cases Across Career Contexts and Stages

Chapter 11: Integrative Cases: Educational and Early Career Development

Chapter 12: Integrative Cases: Work and Career Stages

Part VI. Embracing Career and Life Transitions

Chapter 13. Seasonal Change

Chapter 14. Climate and the Career Ecosystem

Chapter 15. Weathering Changing Conditions: Sustaining Careers across Time

Glossary

Practitioner Toolkit