Why I Became a Careers Consultant in Belfast, and What That Really Means for You
- 16 hours ago
- 7 min read
There is a moment most professionals know, where something moves beneath the surface and the path that once felt clear becomes complicated.
A role no longer fits the person holding it. Redundancy arrives without the courtesy of warning. Retirement moves from a distant idea to an immediate question. Or life simply starts pulling in a different direction, and the decisions that once felt straightforward begin to carry a great deal more weight.
That moment is not a crisis but a cross
roads, and what people need there is not noise but clarity.
That belief has shaped everything I do as a careers consultant in Belfast. And about seven months ago, it reshaped my business entirely.
Something Was Changing
I started noticing it gradually, the way you notice a change in weather before it fully arrives. Sessions that had begun as coaching conversations were becoming something else. Clients were not simply looking to reflect on their situation. They wanted information, context, and a proper discussion about how to approach their options. They were asking harder questions and needed someone willing to go deeper with them rather than holding the line at reflection.
In reality, I was already doing that work. The name on the door just no longer described it.
That gap between what I was actually doing and how I was presenting it bothered me more than I expected. Around the same time, I came across Aoife Tynan, founder of Bareface Leaders, who was doing something that caught my attention immediately. She was giving women direct permission to become the leaders they wanted to be, without apology or qualification. I had a few conversations with her, felt something click, and then made a decision that surprised even me. I took a leap of faith and invested in her as a mentor.
It turned out to be one of the better decisions I have made in business.
Through that mentoring process, I rebranded completely. I narrowed my focus to mid-career and senior-level professionals, because that is where people connect with me most naturally and where the work feels most purposeful. My new website went live in April, and the response genuinely surprised me. The traffic, the enquiries, and the conversations that followed were more than I had anticipated. My whole outlook changed. Every opportunity I now look at gets filtered through a single question: does this help people grow?
Donnan Coaching Services became Paula Donnan Advisory. That is not simply a name change. It is a more honest description of what actually happens in the room.
The Move From Coaching to Consultation
Coaching is a powerful and well-established discipline. It guides people toward their own answers through structured reflection and careful questioning, and for the right person at the right moment, it is exactly what is needed.
But consultation goes further, and that distinction matters to me. Consultation means researching, gathering information, looking at the full picture alongside someone, and then helping them make sense of it in a way they can act on. It means offering a considered perspective rather than simply facilitating a process. It is more direct, more substantive, and for the mid-career and senior professionals seeking career support in Belfast and across Northern Ireland, it is often what the situation genuinely calls for.
By mid-career, most professionals are not short of self-awareness. What they are short of is clarity, specifically the kind of clarity that comes from having someone look at the whole picture with them and help bring order to what can feel like an overwhelming amount of noise. That is my job, and it is one I take seriously.
Who Sits Across From Me
I work primarily with two groups: Gen X professionals and Millennials. They arrive with different styles and different ways of building trust, but they carry the same underlying need.
Millennials, in my experience, come in focused and purposeful. They tend to know what they want, or they have a strong instinct pointing them in a direction, and that clarity is genuinely refreshing to work with.
Gen X professionals often want something different from the early part of a conversation. They value the relationship itself, like to take time getting to know you, and open up gradually. Sure, you know yourself how much easier everything becomes once that trust is there. There is a warmth to those conversations that I find deeply meaningful, and I never rush them. Underneath those differences, however, both groups are navigating the same core challenge: a career dilemma they want properly resolved and a growing recognition that staying stuck is no longer something they are willing to accept.
What I find myself saying to clients, repeatedly and across both groups, is something straightforward but significant. Clarity is absolutely possible, but nothing changes until you decide to act on it. The professionals who move forward are the ones who take action, whether by working with me, another service, or their own momentum. Watching that happen, seeing someone go from stuck to clear and then forward, is the most rewarding part of this work by some distance.
The Strengthscope Foundation
Underpinning everything I do is a strengths-led approach built around the Strengthscope framework. I am an accredited Strengthscope practitioner, and Strengthscope is the only strengths assessment in the world to hold Registered Test Status with the British Psychological Society.
The evidence behind this approach is compelling. According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report, employees who use their strengths every day are up to six times more likely to be engaged at work, a finding with real implications for career satisfaction, performance, and long-term retention.
When someone understands not just what they are capable of but what genuinely energises them, the effect on how they show up is immediate and visible. Confidence grows. Direction becomes clearer. For many of the professionals I work with, particularly those reconnecting with themselves after redundancy, a career break, or a prolonged period in a role that no longer fit, identifying and owning their strengths is the true starting point. Most people already have far more than they realise. They simply cannot see it clearly from where they are standing, and that is precisely where the work begins.
What a Careers Consultant in Belfast Actually Does
Clients come to me at all kinds of crossroads. Some are weighing up a significant career change and need help seeing the full picture before they commit. Some are approaching retirement and trying to work out what that actually looks like in practice, not just in theory. Some have been made redundant and need to find solid ground again before they can think clearly about what comes next. Others are sitting with a quiet but persistent sense that what they are doing no longer fits who they have become.
None of those situations are small. All of them deserve proper, considered, informed support from someone who understands the territory.
What I offer is not a formula or a fixed programme. It is a genuine consultation, grounded in fifteen years of careers and employability work. A significant part of that grounding came from seven years working with GEMS NI, supporting people living in Belfast to get back into the workplace through a range of employability skills. That work taught me a great deal about what people actually need when they are trying to rebuild, and I carry it with me into every conversation I have today. I still have a strong bond with GEMS and a deep respect for the valuable work they continue to do in the community.
I also provide outplacement support to organisations navigating periods of change, helping employees facing redundancy find their footing again with both dignity and a clear sense of what comes next.
A Base in Belfast
In August 2025, I made the decision to move from working entirely from home to taking a base at Regus, located just below St George's Market in Belfast city centre. The reasoning was straightforward: a more central space for clients, a professional setting, and the kind of environment that creates a good impression from the moment someone walks through the door.
The Regus team have been brilliant from day one, supportive and genuinely easy to work with. The space is lively without being distracting, and for clients coming in for a one-to-one, it offers exactly the kind of calm, professional setting that a serious conversation deserves. It is a wee bit of Belfast that feels like it was made for this kind of work.
Having lived and worked in Belfast throughout my career, having a proper base here feels right. If you are in the city and want to come in, you are more than welcome to book a time and we can talk in person. Remote and telephone consultations remain fully available for those across Northern Ireland who prefer to work that way, and the flexibility to offer both is something I value and intend to keep.
Championing Neurodiversity
Alongside my advisory work, I am a passionate advocate for people with special educational needs and those who are neurodiverse. This is not a peripheral interest for me. It is an area I consider one of the most important and underserved in professional life, and one I am actively looking to grow within my practice.
I freelance with Neurodiversity Spark, supporting their initiatives and contributing to work that takes seriously what good, informed support can mean for someone who has not always had access to it. I know what the right support, at the right time, from the right person, can do for someone. That knowledge shapes how I work across everything I do.
Your Belfast Careers Consultant: A Bit About Me
My name is Paula Donnan, and I have been working in employability and careers for over fifteen years, the last three of which I spent running my own business as a careers consultant in Belfast. I live in the city with my husband Alan and our son Kris, who loves the sea, swimming, and getting outside, and who inspires me more than he probably realises.
I have a genuine love of animals, a deep passion for learning, and I write regularly on careers and leadership, which you will have noticed if you have spent any time on the website.
A Final Thought
Seven months ago, I felt a clear sense that the work had grown beyond the shape it was in. I found the right mentor, took the leap, and built something that reflects far more honestly what I do and who I do it for.
If you are a mid-career or senior professional in Belfast or Northern Ireland and you are standing at a crossroads right now, whether that is a career decision, a redundancy, a question about what comes next, or simply a feeling that something needs to change, I would be glad to have that conversation. You already have more than you think. Sometimes you just need someone to help you see it.
Photography of me by my husband, Alun Webb.
By Paula Donnan
Strength-Led Career Consultant
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Strength at Work | Better judgement. Stronger leadership. Higher performance.
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