Testimonials
Success Stories
From Indecision to Promotion Success Story
“Should I leave my job?”
Prolonged indecision has hidden costs—stagnation, missed opportunities, and lingering anxiety.
“bored” and living in “fear, anxiety, and staleness”
A client’s promotion had been hanging in the balance for longer than their liking. The enormous task of a job search in this market was too daunting to undertake.
Unable to find a path to Director, their “career satisfaction” and “sense of fulfillment” were at stake.
In our first session, we explored the big question: stay or leave? Should they pause skill-building to search for a new job? Forgo a potential promotion? Reset relationships? They chose to stay and re-engage.
Through coaching, they learned self-advocacy and psychological safety which enabled them to confidently share their ideas and have them be heard. They got promoted!
Further coaching on relationship-building helped them connect with Directors, giving them visibility into higher roles and setting them up for long-term success.
“more mental space, now that I’m not looking for a job”
“behaving better, more patient with people”
“speaking and thinking more maturely”
The focus they gained from coaching led to an incredible promotion: they’re now leading a key function within one of the company’s major pillars after a reorg! With a clear path to the next career level, the future is shining.
Indecision comes with heavy costs: we lose precious time by not making progress, miss out on money from potential promotions or new job opportunities, and sacrifice our health due to worry and unhappiness.
What is holding you back from making a key decision in your life? What progress would the decision unlock?
Coaching helps you make better decisions faster. Get Started Now to explore new possibilities!
Transforming Career and Home Life Story
The greatest compliment I’ve received as a coach? A client referred their spouse to work with me halfway through our engagement.
A tech professional reached out to me last year, feeling stuck in their career. They hadn’t been promoted in 2.5 years, and their job search wasn’t yielding results. I shared how I’d work with them, but they chose to go it alone, relying on the support of their spouse and other mentors.
Six months later, after I officially launched my coaching practice, they reconnected and became one of my first clients. They were ready for a more structured approach and realized leveraging my expertise would accelerate their journey.
Midway through our sessions, their spouse set up a discovery call with me. I was blown away when they shared how they’d noticed positive changes not just in their partner’s career but in their home life as well.
This kind of impact is priceless. While my goal has always been to help clients thrive professionally, seeing that growth extend into their personal lives is incredibly fulfilling.
If you’re ready to elevate your career, it might be time to consider dedicated support. Having the support of family and mentors is great, but sometimes we need a coach to help us get to the next level.
Interested? Get Started Now with your journey!
Team Self-Reliance Success Story
Are you a senior engineer whose team relies too heavily on you for day-to-day tasks? Is this keeping you from focusing on strategic initiatives and stalling your growth?
My new client was eager to make their team self-reliant to free up their time for new challenges that would contribute to larger organizational goals.
We started by identifying why the team wasn’t self-sufficient. It was made up of junior to mid-level engineers eager to make an impact quickly, relying on my tenured client for readily available answers. The remote nature of the team reinforced this dependence.
An empathetic company culture also made it hard for the manager to hold the team to higher standards. Combined with poor capacity planning, this led to constant context switching, on-call incidents, and multitasking, keeping my client bogged down.
Six weeks into our work, the team responded to a critical production incident with a proactive mindset: “We need to improve this!”
Six more weeks later, engineers on the team were consistently making monitoring improvements to stabilize the system without direction from my client.
Coaching on relationship building and leadership skills was key to this transformation:
We worked on helping the remote team members understand my client’s bandwidth and boundaries, not just seeing them as a resource for quick answers. My client also learned mentoring techniques that empowered the team to find their own solutions by asking the right questions.
Building a stronger relationship with the manager was critical. My client guided the manager to challenge the team to a higher performance bar, with support in place. Through delegation and leadership coaching, my client was able to step back and let the team grow.
Cultural challenges are hard for engineers to diagnose and fix on their own. A skilled coach can help you navigate these issues without needing to change your team or company.
Feeling stuck? Get Started Now to explore new possibilities!
Job Search Success Story
“I do feel unprepared regarding behavioral interviews”
A client had been unexpectedly laid off, so we pivoted to interview preparation immediately!
“I had [a] very strong behavioral round performance” that resulted in a job offer!
I shared my behavioral interview question bank and advised them to map their best work stories to those questions offline.
We focused on their answers in one session and conducted a mock interview to gauge preparedness. Further probing revealed they were unclear in choosing the best answers to key questions.
“stressful and exhausting job search”
The client was unsure about the signals hiring managers look for. Luckily, highly personalized coaching enabled us to revise our strategy.
“significantly less stressful”
I added signals and characteristics of ‘good’ answers to some key questions they picked. This closed the gap for my client and they wrote back with excellent answers to those questions!
Combined with their preparation for other rounds, they secured a new job in this competitive market within 3 weeks of being laid off!
They gained “confidence” from knowing their answers had been “vetted, validated, and refined.” Overall, they gained “peace of mind.”
Want to accelerate your job search with clarity of what to focus on? Want to stay confident and have peace of mind while interviewing? Get Started Now!
Update in Aug ‘24: This client went from Senior in their previous role to Staff in their new role!
Career Advancement Success Story
From “fear, anxiety, and staleness” to “a lot of things have broadened”
This is the transformation my client shared with me after two months of coaching. Just four sessions in, they were seeing transformative change.
“Throwing darts by myself”
Despite being told they’d be up for a promotion, my client felt anxious and unsure about their career trajectory. The enormous task of a job search in this market was daunting. They were unclear about reaching a Director role in the medium term.
Their “career satisfaction” and “sense of fulfillment” were at stake.
“Trusted partner in the journey”
In our first session, we discussed staying vs. leaving their job. Should they postpone skill-building for another job search? Forgo a potential promotion? Reset relationships? They chose to stay and re-engage.
“Somebody… to listen to me, and give me direction”
Through coaching, they learned self-advocacy and psychological safety which enabled them to more confidently share their ideas and have them be heard.
Within weeks, they were involved in H2 planning. They learned from their manager that their skip-level manager “was impressed with their work and communication.” Their promotion is now on track!
Further coaching on relationship-building helped them connect with Directors, giving them visibility into higher roles and setting them up for long-term success.
Are you ready to work towards a promotion? Get Started Now!
Update in Sept ‘24: This client was promoted within our 6-month coaching engagement!
FAANGMULA Offer and 60% Comp Increase Success Story
One of my clients, a tenured Senior engineer, recently landed her dream role at a FAANGMULA company—and increased her total compensation by 60%!
When she first reached out, she described being in “dire need of direction, strategy, and an action plan.” Here’s how we turned things around:
We spent the first few sessions identifying the technical domains aligned with her strengths and the right kinds of environments where she’d thrive.
She decided to look for a new job. But despite her strong Leetcode and system design skills, months of being over-worked and under-leveled had eroded her confidence.
More coaching helped understand her unique contributions as a Senior engineer. We crafted a compelling narrative about her technical and leadership experience, acing behavioral and hiring manager rounds.
Landing multiple offers from top companies gave her leverage to negotiate. With my salary negotiation coaching, she overcame the hesitation many female engineers feel in asking for their fair share, leading to a whopping 60% pay increase!
Stories like hers highlight an industry-wide challenge: countless female engineers burn out before 35, often due to lack of recognition and advancement opportunities. But with the right support, they can thrive.
It’s my mission to help talented engineers realize their potential. In her words: “Shine has been extremely instrumental in my recent career successes.”
And I will let you calculate the ROI for investing in herself through coaching!
Feeling stuck in your career Get Started Now!
Valuing One’s Unique Contributions Story
Do you question your self-worth because you don’t work at a FAANG company or make a certain amount of money?
A Staff engineer client with more than a decade of experience was “desperate” to get into a FAANGMULA company to gain “credibility” and feel they “provide value as a person.” This quest for validation led them to devalue both their impactful contributions to their current company and their worth as a human being.
This mindset strained other areas of their life too—like relationships with successful friends and their successful spouse. Before diving into job search coaching, we had to address their mindset first.
I gently asked: How can you show your value to a recruiter when you struggle to see it yourself? And how can you fully embrace your spouse’s love if you don’t love yourself?
They got emotional.
Through deeper conversations, we worked on separating their inherent value as a person from external validations like job titles or paychecks.
By reframing their current role, we uncovered the unique contributions and opportunities it provided, helping them appreciate their growth and impact.
This was just our first session, and we’d already tackled some deep challenges. I was anxious to know how they felt in our second session. Their response?
“Broke out of negative thought patterns.”
“[I] was devaluing myself due to current job… distortion was corrected.”
“Looking forward to more sessions and coaching.”
Over the next few sessions, we built a compelling narrative for their accomplishments and the confidence to pursue new opportunities. I’m excited for what’s ahead for them in the New Year!
As humans, our identity often becomes tied to external achievements, making it easy to lose sight of universal truths like our inherent value. An external perspective can help us correct these distortions and move forward with clarity and confidence.
Ready to shift your mindset and see your true value? Get Started Now!