Meet Rachel

Rachel Schofield has made a career out of being nosey. She nearly became a spy. Yes, seriously. MI6 came knocking towards the end of her Modern Languages degree ... but that's a story for another time. (Buy her a gin and tonic and she'll probably tell you.)

Instead she spent 20 years as a journalist, reporting and presenting for the BBC, predominantly as a presenter at their flagship 24-hour News Channel. Here she covered both domestic and international news, handling fast-moving stories, extraordinary breaking news, vigorous debate and tales of both human triumph and tragedy.

In 2019 Rachel had a startling realisation.

She was a journalist who didn't really like politics (she blames years of covering Brexit and interviewing slippery politicians). What she did like was talking to real people about their lives and work.

She retrained as a professional development and presentation coach, which allows her to continue to be nosey, ask a lot of questions and bring clarity to chaos, just with less awkward people. She loves to put people at the centre of their own career stories, and enable them to become powerful communicators of the vision they have for their work.

She holds qualifications from the Coaching Academy, Firework Career Coaching and the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is fascinated by what makes people happy and effective in their work.

Alongside her own career and communication training work, Rachel is a Senior Facilitator on women's leadership programmes for DEI consultancy, Shape Talent and supports Careershifters with their workshops and masterclasses.

Her book "The Career Change Guide - Five Steps to Finding Your Dream Job" is published by Penguin Michael Joseph.